Spare change, sir?

I am at home in Seattle for a couple of days before heading back to "he Eug" (my pet name for the city of Eugene meant to express only mild distaste for the fact that I live there...) for the start of spring quarter. Home in Seattle usually means work and a lot of that entails driving my parents around.

Today, in the midst of our flurry of errands, we stopped by Safeway to buy some fruit, because that's what Koreans do, we purchase and eat a lot of fruit. But this is all beside the point.

Coming out of the store, we walked by a dude who wasn't quite actively peddling for hand-outs because he didn't approach me for my spare change, but it seems that when he saw my dad, he piped up and asked, "Got any spare change?"

I kept walking, as I usually do, but, my dad seemed startled by the man, audibly gasped and stepped back at the request. I looked back to make sure he kept walking, only to see my dad frantically patting his empty pockets and searching for spare change as if he were being held at gunpoint. I just chuckled to myself and kept walking while my dad kept looking for something to give the man. Eventually, my dad made it to the car. I asked him how much he gave the guy and he said, "I had only very little spare change. I only gave him $0.22."

All I could say was, "That's good enough dad." That poor guy probably had his hopes up high, only to get $0.22 and a cute smile from daddy Oh.

Made me laugh.