There are cheap people and there are really cheap people. I personally have nothing against looking for a bargain and not throwing one's money away but I do hate the extremely cheap and penny pinching types.
Lately when I drive around I noticed something that I find extremely cheap.
Driving by JFK Airport and by LaGuardia Airport I noticed long lines of cars standing on the shoulders along the parkways and waiting. I never noticed them before until somebody pointed out to me and explained the situation.
These cars are waiting for somebody to arrive at these airports and when they land I guess they call the waiting party who then drive to the proper terminal and pick them up. Both airports have ample parking, ok they are pay parking lots, but these people chose to skip the pay part and wait on the shoulders, sitting in their cars, idling their engines and waste gasoline. These are not old cheapo cars. They are mostly the latest models so the people in them are not hard pressed for money.
Police periodically chase them away because this is illegal but just like the swallows of Capistrano they do return.
To me this almost the epitome of cheapness.
There is a man living in my apartment building who used to come home from work around the same time as I did. I noticed that he never took the shortest route from the subway station to our building and I was wandering why not.
One day I noticed that he went around the neighborhood to where the public telephones were. Back then we still had public phones on the streets. He stuck his fingers into the change return box of every phone to see if maybe there were some forgotten quarters. He is a nice Jewish man who had a decent job at the time so why he needed tis money?
Maybe he needed the exercise.
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