“You are going to pay us back with a … check???” My daughter Laury (famed creator of the Forever Plan) was absolutely incredulous.

Laury was calling to say thank you. We had returned from our surprisingly sunny seven days in Orlando where we had rented a 6 bedroom house for Laury and Alex, Mike and Becca and all the grandkids. We spent our week splashing in the pool, swishing down ginormous water slides, barbecuing, board gaming, Heads Upping, and having a blast.

Oh yes, we hit every one of the four Disneyworld theme-parks meeting Mickey and Minnie and Elsa and Anna, smearing ice cream on our faces and waiting in those scientifically engineered queues. A two and a half hour wait to spend 4 minutes on the “Avatar-Flight of Passage”3-D simulator ride? That’s nothing. Fastpass? We don’t need no stinkin’ Fastpass.

Some other things we discovered on the trip:

• If your neighbors are getting way too loud in their backyard, send your three-year-old granddaughter out in your own backyard with a handheld microphone that blasts “Let It Go” and let her belt out the few lyrics she knows. Your neighbors won’t last outside for more than 2 minutes.
• “Baby Shark” is viral for a reason. Just singing it quietly during a runway holdup is enough to calm our 6-month-old grandson. It must be something subliminal.
• A friendly Alamo Rent-A-Car agent at a conveniently placed office can save the day when a nine-inch nail punctures one of your front tires.

Anyhow, during the course of the week, Laury and Alex ran up some ancillary expenses that I wanted to reimburse them for. I got the dollar amount from Laury and told her she should expect a check from the bank in a few days. And that is when a note of panic rose in her voice. “A check? Really? I don’t think we have seen a check in years. I don’t even know where to deposit one. Don’t you have Paypal, or Venmo, or Google Pay?”

My generation gap is showing. I still use checks. Lots of them. Some I handwrite, some are printed on my home printer (recently declared by Laury to be the loudest and slowest printer in the world,) and some are sent directly from my bank. It makes money seem tangible and lets me track where it is all going.

And I am not the only one. I receive checks from other “old” people too, though I am technologically advanced enough to deposit the checks electronically.  I even balance each one of my checking accounts (yes, I have a few) every month, something I have been told is absolutely unnecessary when your phone tells you your bank balance with a click and a glance. I just love to hear that ding when my desktop computer software (no laptops for me) tells me my checking account, and perhaps all the world, is in balance.

So Laury–expect a check.  It is a piece of paper in a digital world.
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