My Old Stamping Grounds

Once upon a weekday eve, a homeless man dropped by a friend’s business while I was there sitting at his Compaq Presario computer. It was a travel agency and we didn’t know the guy. Never saw him before. Swinging open the front door, he asked if we could spare a few dollars to eat. Poor and disheveled, he said he was hungry.

Sadly, no one wanted to give him any, so, after a seemingly long pause and being the softhearted guy that I was, I said, “Hold on a second.” Pulling out my wallet and opening it up, I got out a card. “Here you go, you can have this. It’s good for any large sub and the restaurant is right next door. Directly next door.”

Back in those days, Subway gave away stamps every time you purchased a sandwich. You collected so many and you’d get a free sub of your choice. I think it was ten then. Five for a six inch and ten for a large one, otherwise known as the Footlong. Eventually, they did away with the stamp program because of too much counterfeiting.

I generally carried a card with me because, well, you never knew when you were going to eat there and get a stamp or two and, darned if this one wasn’t already filled out. You can’t beat free!

Anyway, I got up to give it to him, but before I could take three steps, he responded. “F*CK YOU!” and stormed out the door. That wasn’t very neighborly of him, was it? Oh well, he wasn’t anyone’s neighbor anyway. Most likely, he was simply passing by on his way to ABC Liquors down the street and thought it was worth a shot to ask. ABCs are everywhere, just like Subway, except they don’t accept stamps of any kind and, most certainly, not my free food stamps, although he might have been able to trade them for a bottle of Boone’s Farm, don’t you think?