I’m a Quarters Person
Dedicated to those of us who have relied on quarters for survival.
I tend to think of people as belonging to one of two camps: Those who have never had to rely on quarters for survival, and those of us who have. In other words, you’re either a “Quarters Person,” or you’re not.
My adolescence was characterized by chaos and scarce resources. My father raised me alone, and he endured a long stretch of unemployment. Under these circumstances, quarters were gold.
Each new day brought with it the challenge of scrounging together enough money to take care of life’s basic necessities. We treated spare change as precious, collecting, sorting, and rolling coins left over from cash purchases. I recall the satisfaction of having rolled a perfectly tight cylinder of quarters with an equal amount of paper at each end, and sealing it with minute, flawless folds. Feeling the weight of the roll in my hand was comforting; it made money seem real.
We lived in an apartment complex that offered one on-site laundry room with coin-operated machines for all tenants to share. If I had enough quarters ($1.50 to wash; $0.75 to dry), I could have fresh clothes to wear to school. Seven quarters were enough for two Taco Bell bean and cheese burritos. In the late 90s, a roll of quarters could even buy a half-tank of gas.
In college, I lived in an apartment building off campus along with several of my closest friends. The laundry situation was the same as the complex where I grew up. Needing quarters to do laundry was nothing new to me. I saved quarters in a jar so I was always prepared. But paying for laundry in this way was startling for my friends, who had grown up with washers and dryers in their homes. I doubt they had ever given a second thought to the fact that it costs money to have clean clothes before they had to start paying for it themselves.
Since then, I’ve had a shameful habit of categorizing people based on my perception of their socioeconomic background— whether they’re a “Quarters Person” or not. I feel a sense of kinship with others who have had similar struggles as my own, and sometimes resent those who can’t imagine giving a simple roll of coins a second thought.
A close friend recently made an off-hand comment about how she used to pay for gas using rolls of quarters when she was in high school. I was thrilled. I explained my taxonomy system and her eyes lit up. We started running down a list of celebrities and politicians, speculating as to whether or not they were “Quarters People” like us. Jennifer Lopez? Probably. Ted Cruz? Definitely not.
Today, I no longer depend on quarters to pay for life’s necessities. In fact, I can’t even remember the last time I paid for something in cash. But I still keep $2.50 in quarters in my wallet, just in case.
