Did you know that you can sing Amazing Grace to the same tune as Yankee Doodle? Humming idly to myself today, I discovered that you can, and it is a beautiful thing. I suppose the reverse would also be true, but I don't think it would be nearly as amusing.
In other news, I understand there are people up in arms against Wal-Mart getting rid of the layaway programme. The interviews I read quote people who won't be able to buy as many Christmas gifts this year because Wal-Mart won't let them do layaway. Er, what?
Let me get this straight. Layaway is a payment plan by which you pay a little bit of money at a time in the hopes of buying something. You don't get the item in question until you have paid it off. There's no interest, so it doesn't work like a credit card- once it's paid, it's paid. Am I right about this?
Isn't this something people can do at home in glass jars? Write "Christmas Fund" on it, put it in the top of the closet out of reach and knowledge of kids, and fill it with the money that would've gone to pay the layaway bill. Once you get all your money saved up, take your jar to the bank, turn it into the largest possible denominations, go to the store, and buy your product. Look, you've created your very own home layaway service! You're just as smart as a ten year old who saves up to buy a video game!
I can understand if you're using layaway to stake your claim to a one-of-a-kind antique or something, but er, kids, this is Wal-Mart, meaning if they don't have what you're looking for, another store will, and if no stores have what you're looking for, you waited until the last minute to buy gifts and wouldn't have considered the layaway programme in the first place.
I can understand layaway in an era before credit cards became the expected way to pay for things (well, that's not true, store credit was a big problem in the 20's right before the stock market crash, and that practice was really a precursor to the credit card) because you had a situation where you were putting your claim on a given product. You were announcing that that was yours, and you were going to buy it and the store better not send it back before you get your chance.
The only thing that I can think of that would make sense for layaway now would be maybe property. The idea that you could work your way up to pay for one of those new development lots and build a house on it a piece at a time and once it was finished, then you could move in and take possession. I know it doesn't work that way, but to me, that would be a process that would make sense. Laying away to buy Christmas presents doesn't.