Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, November 18, 1994                   TAG: 9411180074
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A-23   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: J. WILLIAM McNEIL
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

CHANGE

For the last several years I have been working my way through college as a retail store cashier, and I've come to notice that most shoppers seem to have a real hatred of coin money. On a busy day, I may ring up purchases for 500 or more people, and, without fail, around 95 percent of them will positively bend over backwards to unload their accumulated pocket change and avoid getting more.

Every cashier I have ever spoken to about the subject has related tales of hearing the same phrases over and over: "I want to get rid of some of this change," "I can't stand carrying all this change around," "I hate pennies" and so on. Customers will dig in their purses and pockets for minutes at a stretch, even holding up long and ever-lengthening lines, just to fish out a few coins rather than break a dollar, because they've "got more change than [they] know what to do with."

Last December, however, I made a startling discovery while on a lunch break amidst the hustle and bustle of holiday shoppers. I had never noticed before, but a ringing bell and a little black pot can immediately change the average shopper's feelings about his pocket change; what was no more than a nuisance is now more valuable than King Solomon's treasure!

As I sat outside the store and sipped a hot cocoa, I realized that many of the same shoppers who had so recently (and so colorfully!) told me how much they hated their pocket change, and how eager they were to rid themselves of it, were now brushing by the Salvation Army fellow and his little black pot, insisting that they had no coins to spare.

I began to wonder how many of my other customers that day had told this poor, shivering volunteer that they had no change only minutes before holding up my line and their fellow holiday shoppers while lamenting their abundance of coins.

I agree, pocket change is a nuisance and seems to accumulate quicker than anything else except perhaps wire coat-hangers in the far corner of the bedroom closet. So why not take advantage of the very convenient, noble and helpful opportunity to get rid of it that the holiday charity-collection pots provide?

Please, especially at Christmastime, pitch in when you hear the bell and see the little black pot. What will it cost? A few cents each time?

If you make a habit of cleaning the loose change out of your pockets at the end of every shopping trip and pitching it into the collection pot, by the end of the holiday season, you'll be surprised at how much you've given and how much you've helped. And most likely you will never have missed it along the way.

Your purse will be easier to lug around, your pants will hang better without your pockets weighing you down and, most important, people who might not otherwise have a hot meal or a warm bed will have both at Christmas. Imagine, for a moment, a child cold and hungry at Christmastime. Then imagine that same child with a full belly, warm feet and a new toy on Christmas morning.

You can help to change the first picture into the second with nothing more than that annoying pocket change that you're always saying you're eager to get rid of anyway.

J. William McNeil is an English major at Radford University.