Sometimes, like last Monday night, I wonder how I look to people.
 
I have photos of my grandmothers at my same age and I think they look much, much older than this age that I’m not telling you here.  My medical friend Nancy says that has to do with medicine and nutrition being so much better now than it was then. My grandmothers also didn’t dye their hair, which may have to do with it, too!  I didn’t used to dye my hair, until about the year 2003 when my friend got married and I was the baby wrangler, as she had a new baby at the time, and I took care of the baby at the event so she could have a good time.  My hair was happily gray, but the bride’s mama, who was much older than we were, had dyed her hair a golden blond, was wearing a mini skirt and was out on the floor dancing the night away.  While I loved taking care of the baby, EVERYONE came to me to ask, “Are you her grandmother?”  And the very next day I went and got my hair did RIGHT!  And it’s been one color or another, ever since.
 
Monday evening I got interviewed for a radio podcast!  A real one!  When I know more about it (if it’ll even air and I don’t want to jinx it by saying anything at all about it!) I’ll tell you about it, but that’s only the set-up for this story, now.  The radio producer is a young woman of about . . . late twenties, I’d say.  (See?  How do people look to me?)  But I’ve spent most of my adult life in the world of Production (festival production, show production, movie production – Production!) and I know very well what I’m doing.  Production people are a special lot and we are efficient and good at what we do.   But I was being interviewed, so there not as a Production Person, but as a person who used to own Elmer’s and that’s a whole different world!  And she, the interviewer was the very capable Producer!  And I, Older Production Person, wondered how she, Younger Production Person saw me as:  As an old person?  As a retired person?  As a “Bless her heart, she’s got stories of the grand days” person?  Or as I see myself, a Grown Person of no age who is doing a whole lot of stuff!
 
Often times, like when the XM Sirius people call me to try to get me to subscribe to all the channels they have, I cheerfully say, “I’m old!  I’ve lived ALL these years without that and so I don’t care about it!  You got to call the young ‘uns!  They care!”  
 
My favorite old person ever was Miss Rose, back in the neighborhood who used to say,  “I’m seventy-two years old!  These chirruns now, when they beef, they all be shootin’ each other with guns!  Back in my day, we had to use our fists!”  Now, that’s OLD!
 
It’s not an important question, if I seem old to the young’uns – it’s just one of those things that makes me laugh the next day. 
 
 
By the way!  Speaking of back in the day and the nutrition that we always think was wholesome, natural and from-the-earth in the good old days before processed food and the FDA, do you know about The Poison Squad??  Read this!  It’s FASCINATING!  No wonder my grandmas looked old!
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/16/books/review/poison-squad-deborah-blum.html

This Saturday they have a gorgeous art opening at Elmer’s  --- that I can't show you a picture of because these stupid-ass Mail Chimps decide what "My files" are instead of letting ME decide what they are!  They have chosen 200 photos that I can upload - none of them are what I want to upload, stupid-ass, fucking "technology" that makes all the rules for you because they think they are SO fucking clever.  See?  Y'all Millennials?  You keep saying you got no problem with technology running your lives? WATCH!  You will have no control whatsoever. It'll all be Elon Musk, Google and Apple and what they think you should be doing.  You think I'm kidding?  You're sliding right into it and you don't even care.

How about that?  Do I sound old now?  
Here's the info (stupid-ass technology-hoarding monkey-ass monkeys! - Not you, them!)
At Elmer's this Saturday from 2 to 4 pm they have a joint art opening with works by Jim Murphy and Macalister Sloan Anderson.  Mac is only 17 but BOY is he good!  And Jim is older - and one of Mac's art instructors and MAN is he even better!  But it's a gorgeous show and I wish you could see the picture I wanted to upload, but I can't.  So now you just have to go to the show.

If you'd like these essays to jump into your inbox, you can! 
​
Sign up here!

​I love the conversation!  Of course I mostly get to be the one who reads it, but sometimes I ask you guys if it’s okay for me to print some of your answers.  And usually you say, okay!  (But it’s always okay if you don’t want me to!  I won’t!)
 
The prevailing winds in this group (at least the ones who write back) blow towards liking banks that have doors you can knock on.  Several people wrote to say that they use only people-staffed banks in order to keep those staffers in jobs!  (Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and those other AI providers would scoff at that – ‘course they get to keep their jobs when Robots rule the earth.)  I stand with the Keep-the-People-at-Work crowd, though I’m interested in what my brother who works at Microsoft thinks about that.  I’m hoping he’ll read this and write back.
 
(Man!  There’s something dead in my house today, this Halloween!  I don’t think it’s a person though.  DON’T BE LOOKING AT ME WITH THAT SMUG, DISGUSTED LOOK!  All y’all New Englanders know this is the time of year animals come inside to hang out and die if it comes to that!  All y’all got dead stuff in your house!  You just don’t smell it yet!)
 
But I got this reply and I thought it was very interesting – and great!  He asked me to use only his first name, though:
 
Hi Nan,
 
Here is my two cents about savings accounts (although I have a few more cents than that in my accounts). 
 
First caution, I'm only 22, so I'm not that experienced in life. I just really enjoy reading and researching personal finance related things. 
 
My first actual thought. Savings accounts aren't as great as they're cracked up to be. This kind of blew my world last week or the week before when I learned it: you're going to be losing money in a savings account pretty much no matter what. Why? Inflation! You can see here: https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-inflation-rate-history-by-year-and-forecast-3306093 that inflation for the past few years has been about 2% or over. You're going to be very hard pressed to find a bank with a savings rate that good. The savings rate is a matter of losing less money. Even though my online bank has a 1.9 % interest rate, I'm still losing money because the money is worth less, because of inflation. 
 
So, what's my strategy? I have an emergency fund in a normal brick and mortar bank that barely earns any interest (and thus the value of it goes down about 2% per year because of inflation). But I have the emergency fund in there because I can access that money immediately, in case of a real emergency, like a car breakdown or needing to withdraw cash to eat at Elmer's (I've only been once, and I can't remember if it's cash-only. Regardless, I like to pay cash to local stores so they don't have credit card fees). 
 
Online banks have great rates, but it can take a while to access the funds. When I transfer funds, it typically takes 4 business days for that to happen. If I had a real honest to goodness emergency, that would be 3.9999 business days too long! I would want my money immediately. With the brick and mortar bank, I can transfer the money from my savings account instantly. As far as I can tell, that's the major advantage of the brick and mortar bank
 
In addition to the emergency fund, I invest small amounts of money (hopefully more once I get a higher paying job). Investing is the only way that your money can really make money, but again, you can also lose money that way if we have another recession. I also have an online-only bank account through Synchrony Bank, with a 1.9% interest rate. This is where I put my actual savings. This is for things like potential graduate school (if I go crazy and decide to go to school again!) and Christmas presents for my family. I know because of the higher interest rate, the money will barely be losing any value. 
 
Anyways, the moral of the story is that I see advantages in both. I don't put my eggs in one basket. But then again, I'm only 22.
 
-Eli
 
Ladies and gentlemen – there it is, the answer and the Future! from a guy who is only 22.  I’m curious now as to what he invests in.  Eli!  What do you invest in?  Write back and tell us!
 
Aight! I’m getting ready to go over to Elmer’s to paint faces for Halloween!  Come on in!  If not for face-painting, then dinner and the bar (and candy out front!)