As such, I always dovetail a trip into the City with some other errand, usually a shopping stop somewhere. My latest trip in was last week when I had a physician's appointment that I dovetailed with a stop off at the Staples on 34th Street, just west of Madison Avenue.
Turns out, the Friday visit was going to be the last at that Staples location. The store was closing, and the nearest one was at 39th and 5th Avenue. Good to know for the next trip in if I need any office items, which I can no longer get from the grey storage cabinet at work. I have to buy by own Magic Tape these days. And file folders. Plan ahead for retirement to account for office expenses you never used to have. And health insurance.
As such, the shelves looked like a convenience store in Key West hours before the hurricane was going to hit. They were pretty empty. No problem, I found what I wanted. Or, I found way more than what I wanted. I needed calculator tape, 2¼".
Found it. Aisle 14. But there were only jumbo packages of the tape. Twelve rolls was the smallest number of rolls I could buy. With my 70th birthday fast approaching, my thought was that 12 rolls of calculator tape was going to be something I was going to have to put in my will. Who is going to get what's left? In all actuarial projections, I'm not going to outlive 12 rolls of calculator tape.
But, what's this? The 12 rolls were 50¢! That's right, a little more than 4¢ a roll Who can resist? The 12 rolls would have regularly have been a little more than $16. Bulk buying works.
Since Staples was my first stop, before the doctor on 37th Street, I had to carry the 12 rolls with me. After the physician on 37th Street and 1st Avenue I was planning to do some shopping at Brooks Brothers on 44th Street, and then take a subway back to Penn Station. These trips into the city are planned out like a bank robbery. Paper in bulk can be heavy, and the 12 rolls weighed me down a bit, but really, 4¢ a roll was worth it.
Perhaps I can off-load some of this extra paper to others who might need it? Turned out, my physician didn't need it, the two people who waited on me at Brooks Brothers didn't need it.
I'm now still toting my briefcase along with my Brooks Brothers purchase and 12 rolls of calculator tape (and some Magic Tape), I'm on 44th Street, and my arms are getting tired.
There's one more stop I can make. My optician is on 44th Street, just west of 5th Avenue. Maybe they can use a few rolls.
The folks at Dell & Dell have gotten used to me over the years, but I don't think they could anticipate my offer of free rolls of calculator tape. Bingo! Pulling a sample from their calculator in the back proved to be a match: 2¼". I punctured the wrapping and quickly gave them three rolls, and immediately felt my burden get lighter. I was still in all great statistical likelihood not going to outlive even 9 rolls of calculator tape, but there were still the kids to make offers to.
My new son-in-law laughed that anyone could still need calculator tape. I said I thought your accountant Joel might take some. My daughter explained that Excel was probably the calculator of choice these days.
I really can't see that, but perhaps live long enough and you will straddle all types of technology. I remember using a ratchet, gear driven adding machine that you had to pull a handle down on the right after making your entry. It was almost a slot machine. But, you worked with a paper tape, and you could check your entries.
The ratchet gave way to chip calculators when Texas Instruments started the sea change of using calculators that didn't rely on gears. And now, calculators are passe? Who knew?
In the spirit of something always reminding me of something, the 9 rolls of calculator tape, when placed on their side, reminded me of the Daniels and Kennedy trucks I used to see slowly going up 3rd Avenue in the 60s when I looked out from the family flower shop. The shop was on 18th Street, and the Daily News was on 42nd Street near 2nd Avenue. The D&K flat-bed trucks were loaded with MASSIVE rolls of newsprint, headed for the presses on 41st Street. Since in that era the Daily News printed over a million copies a day, they used a lot of newsprint. The trucks rolled up 3rd Avenue several times a week.
I have no idea where the paper came shipped from. I didn't know of any paper mills in NYC, but obviously the newsprint was produced somewhere and shipped to the isle of Manhattan, like so many other things.
It is amazing what the imagination can do with a 50¢ purchase.
http://www.onofframp.blogspot.com
No comments:
Post a Comment