Let me apologize in advance for the following post to everyone who is under snow and ice this weekend. Let me remind you of this when it is so hot here we want to peel our skin off and you are enjoying beautiful Spring like weather.
Mike and I headed out for lunch today and it seemed like every intersection was littered with people in bathing suits and flips flops holding big card board signs declaring “Car Wash” for every kind of group, sorority, and organization you can imagine. I remember well doing these car washes in high school – I think I volunteered for every single one. Mike on the other hand loathed them.
As we passed I noticed that one was going on in the parking lot of an Oil Change place. Since I just returned from Texas I knew I was in need of an Oil Change, so we whipped into the bay for a quick service. I asked Mike if he had cash to do the Car Wash, and he said he did.
He had four dollars.
Now, thankfully I asked before pulling into the “Car Wash Lane” and avoided a scene, but I just do not think $4 to wash a very dirty (I mentioned I was in Texas a week right?! I love y’all but MAN it is dusty out there!) car is not enough. Even the drive-thru one up the street charges $6 and that’s to have a machine do it. But Mike insists that $4 is more than enough money for a group of children to wash a car.
As I mentioned, I remember doing Car Washes, and I remember scrubbing down the nastiest of cars for one or two dollars. I remember also washing pristine cars that we were almost afraid to touch and the owners would give us a $20 in support of our group. Washing a car is hard work – especially at 5-foot-2 when I have to REALLY STRETCH to even reach the center of the hood – much less the roof.
Somehow I felt it was almost an insult to give these kids only $4 for washing my car – especially when it is covered in dust, pollen, and bugs. I wanted to go to an ATM and give the kids at least $10 – one because it is dirty, two because that is still HALF the cost of the Simoniz car wash, and three because as a former fundraiser-car-washer I wanted to support them in their efforts.
So I need a little back up here –
How much is too much? Is Mike right that $4 is appropriate? Am I nuts to want to spend $10 at a kids Car Wash (knowing of course that they will not do as good of a job as Simoniz, but still)
We ended up just coming home after the Oil Change, and I have the car parked now where I can wash it… or at least what I can reach.
Comments