From the first job I ever had, working in a Christian bookshop on Mechanic Street in Court House for 50 cents an hour, three hours a day, paid with a silver dollar and a 50-cent piece, to the present, payday has changed in practice and meaning.
What began as a “hard currency” job has followed the trend and transitioned into a cashless transaction that is a mixture of numbers online.
Early jobs were with small weekly newspapers in Cape May and Court House. Payday was every Friday. The boss, the owner, personally walked around to each person on payday and handed over the pay envelope. It reinforced the paternal nature of the business, giving the boss something of a “father” figure to be acknowledged when one received his or her pay.
At that time, I wasn’t aware, nor did I even care about the extra workload such cash paydays visited upon the bookkeeper. In addition to handwriting everyone’s pay on a small brown envelope, there had to be cash, to the penny, in that envelope. What a hassle it must have been.
Payday was also that happy-sad time when upon looking at the pay envelope my eyes stared in awe at the “Total wages earned” and then almost cried when they dropped to “Net Amount Due.” That’s why my father always urged putting off work until it was an absolute necessity. Enjoy your youth; you’ll be working a long time, he advised.
Then came the Navy. At first, we could receive a certain amount in cash and have the rest sent home every two weeks. Finally, it morphed into paychecks. When a body’s at sea, there isn’t much use for money, but when the ship pulled into a liberty port, well, what good was money if not to be spent foolishly?
Never one to play poker, I now wish I had $1 for every “payday poker game” to which I was invited to play, I’d be well fixed.
I can recall when, to my knowledge, there were different paydays. Folks who were retired and drew a pension were paid around the first of the month via Social Security or other pensions.
Mostly everyone else who worked was paid on Friday, or so it seemed. Many people would get their checks cashed at the local food store before shopping for the week.
The First National Bank in Court House started a new fad when it opened a walk-up window that was open after the bank closed its doors at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon. People lined up to get their checks cashed. It was an idea whose time had arrived.
Friday, payday, used to mean a bit of a treat for the family when I would bring home something from the nearby fast-food restaurants. For other folks, payday means a day to splurge on lunch, or possibly hoist a few brews at a local watering hole.
Many things have changed since people don’t get paid weekly, as they once did. I recall insurance agents also paying weekly visits to collect for policies, which certainly is gone with the morning fog.
With the advent of direct deposit into bank accounts, many workers are nearly disconnected from their paydays. Payday is every two weeks; the workload has lessened somewhat for bookkeepers, at least they don’t have to make a bank run for cash.
To be honest, some of the exhilaration is lost on payday. Blame technology. That’s because all I usually see now is what was deposited into my account, the “Net Amount Due.”
Seldom do I check that “Total Wages Earned” line any longer, knowing well that it’s been taken from me before I saw or held it.
So, payday is something like a child taken from its mother at birth; the two never see each other.
Regardless of what payday isn’t, or how it has altered over time, it is good to have a payday. There are many who lack work who cannot look forward weekly, bi-weekly or otherwise, to that sum of money with their name attached.
Paydays give us a sense of worth, of having achieved something, even if it is as elusive as a dream. To know we have spent our time and to be rewarded for it is very important to one’s self-worth. Money earned is far different than money that simply appears. To have a small portion saved from those paydays for sometime in the future gives importance to those paydays that come and go.
