For most of our working life (before we got this cushy job as a public squawk), we cashed our paycheck at the local Blarney Stone. If the bartender didn’t have enough in the till, one of the customers, many of whom belonged to the Piano Movers’ Union, would pull out a wad and cash it for us. Unfortunately Blarney got displaced by a yuppie bar and we had to go next door to Amalgamated Savings and open a bank account. That was before there were ATM’s and banks closed at 3:00 and dinosaurs roamed the Earth.
Amalgamated was all right so long as you didn’t ask them to do anything complicated, such as wire money to a European country, in which case the whole staff would have a nervous breakdown and charge a fee big enough to cover a lifetime of psychiatric care.
So we were astounded when, on what turned out to be the last night of the Occupation, we stopped by our branch on Broadway opposite Zuccotti Park and saw this sign in the window. “Amalgamated Bank Supports Occupy Wall Street.” Without so much as an exhortation to open a free checking account.
The two cops were politely trying to stay out of the picture.
Geez, I miss the steam table at Blarney Stone. There would be a nice fresh pastrami on view and then, when you ordered a sandwich, they would spear a hidden hunk of meat that had been hanging around since Prrohibition and try to start slicing it. You would protest, the guy behind the counter, who looked like he was working to pay off his bar tab would mumble, “can’t slice the new one till this one is fiinished”, you’d look meaningfully at the little tip cup, he’d get the message and a fine lunch was the end result. Thanks for jogging that memory up for me.
By the way, Amalgamated Bank had a very strong link to the union movement, most unions kept their accounts there, and that may be why the sign was in the window. Ah, maybe when the Blarney Stone went out of business, the counter guy singed on for their PR department.