At The Pawnshop

This summery Tuesday morning, a well-coiffed old lady welcomed me to Mission Jewelry & Loan, a pawn shop in the heart of the Mission District. The shop was set up in 1948 and it looked like the original founders were still running it. The woman was wearing thick-rimmed glasses and seemed to be extremely near-sighted, in an endearing way. She gave me a beautiful smile.

“Good morning, sweetie.”
“Hi! I would like to cash a check.”
“All the way in the back of the store.”

Some people are human rays of sunshine. I had lost my wallet and somehow she made me feel great about it. I was convinced the wallet was somewhere at the office and I knew I would find it eventually. But now I was in San Francisco, 50 miles from San Jose, working from home without any money and an urgent need to be in Berkeley for a presentation that I was to co-deliver. I needed some money to pay for gas to get to Berkeley. I was in a stubborn mood: I didn’t want to call my friends in the neighborhood and I didn’t want to visit our bank’s branch in Chinatown. I wanted to resolve this myself in my own way.

I had started looking for Bart cards that still had some credit on them and for my secret stash of emergency cash in our earthquake readiness kit when I discovered huge holes in my business (uh, household) continuity plan. The secret stash was gone and I remembered that I had borrowed it from the kit because I was too lazy to walk over to an ATM. All I found in the earthquake pantry was 5 gallons of water, a supply of matches that will last a lifetime, tons of crackers and super salty nuts. It’s a good thing we have so much water because the nuts make you really thirsty. But that was not going to help me now. And then I had the great idea to walk over to the pawnshop on gritty Mission Street and to take out a loan or cash a check.

I felt like Alice in Wonderland when I entered Mission Jewelry & Loan. I fell down a hole and discovered power tools, drums, guitars, fenders, tons of wedding bands, gorgeous golden watches and beautiful bikes. In Wonderland, I cashed the check that my bank had issued a couple of months ago.

“Oh, did you get a refund from your bank? I am glad, because I wouldn’t want you to starve,” said the other founder of Mission Jewelry in the back of the store. And with a wink, he whispered “I know it’s not easy to be poor.” I smiled faintly.

On my way home, I called Annelien and she exclaimed “Ha ha! That is funny! What were you wearing when he said that?” Uh, my 100-year old sweater and jacket. And yes, you are right, it may be time for me to buy some new clothes.