Easy as 1..2..7...?

I never really liked math. Thankfully, I was always pretty good at it. But I never really liked it. So I'm not one to scoff at those who suck at it. But today was the classic example of why our society is generally dumb.

I go to the market today to pick up some fish for dinner. I enjoy buying fresh fish the day of.  So I have my fish, my red onion, a few other incidentals. The woman in front of me is talking to her daughter and is not speaking English. The cashier rings up her total. It comes to $19.28. She hands the cashier a 20. He punches it in and once the drawer is already opened, he is ready to hand her the 72 cents it tells him she is owed. She gestures to her purse and takes out some change.  The cashier gets a dollar bill ready, assuming it is going to be EXACT change.

Uh oh. She throws him for a loop and hands him 35 cents. Cashier boy, whose name of course is Kolby and is no more than 17, gets a look of complete horror on his face. He stops and stares as the 35 cents for what seems like an eternity, eyes widening and face getting redder by the second. I see the gears turning in his head. Is this really that hard? I mean come on. Even if you just count on your fingers, it's not that hard to do 35 minus 28!! 

I'd say a good  30 seconds went by. Sweet little Kolby is just staring at the screen. Perhaps he was hoping he could pull up a calculator function. Perhaps he was contemplating taking out his cell phone and using the function on there.  But then I realize something.  Oh my goodness. He doesn't even know how to make change!! He doesn't even know that all you have to do is take 35 minus 28...plus the dollar. I could see if the math was getting crazy. Like four or five dollars worth with confusing amounts of coins kinda change. But this is easy. He stares back at the woman who is still talking to her daughter, almost oblivious. He then asks her if she has exact change!

Only one problem. She doesn't speak English. She just says something in Spanish and points back at the money she has already given him. The perfectly valid 35 cents that should for no reason be returned to its previous owner. I look at Kolby and consider telling him that he owes her $1.07. But I think Kolby's pride was hurt enough, and I was sort of enjoying the spectacle if I'm honest.

Kolby turns back to his drawer. His hand hovers over the nickels, then back to the dimes, finally landing on the pennies. I think perhaps he's got it figured out. He picks up two pennies. . I try using some Jedi mind action to guide his hand over to the nickels. His hand is still hovering. It wavers. It shakes. It.....

...hands the two pennies to the woman. Still engaged in conversation, she is none the wiser and walks away, 5 cents short.  Oh Kolby, you were so close. You knew that from $19.28 you had to round up to SOMEthing...but it wasn't the right thing. And thus begins yet another generation of dumbed down technology dependence. (Man, when did I get so old??)