When I set up my account, I walked into the branch here in my little town and the place made me immediately think I'd stepped into a time machine. It was like I was magically transported back to the 1980s. And in a bank no less. That's not actually a happy experience for me.
It was in a small town bank in 1985 that I cashed in some US currency for West German Deutschmarks in prep for a trip I was taking and the teller actually slipped in a bill that had undoubtedly been in her drawer for some time since, among the regular, 1980s issued banknotes, I discovered a note with swastikas on it! It was Nazi money! I found it way too late and I, of course, never used it but I didn't save it either. I'm not sure whatever became of it actually. But weird, right? Or should I say "weird, Reich?" Ha ha, I crack me up.
Another vivid memory is when I was sitting in another small bank branch in my hometown on a cold winter morning in 1986 waiting on word if my loan application was going to be approved (it didn't) and all of a sudden the bank employees were clearly acting disturbed. The Shuttle Challenger had just blown up.
Now, my 80s memories aside, this Sebring bank brought those back with the styles of clothes and hairdos the ladies wore, the interior design of the place -- beige, fake-wood accents, fake plants everywhere, a fish tank in the middle of the lobby, recessed lighting in the vaulted popcorn ceiling, and very-low-volume muzak playing gentle, soft tunes of the sixties (as would have been the norm for places in the 80s) like "Do You Know The Way To San Jose?"
Even though I've only had a small amount of interaction with the staff at this bank, each time it's been, well, weird.
I set up the account with a woman who was in her twenties but was dressed like she was Amish. We're in Florida, far from Amish country. But I figured like many around here, she might have been really conservative Christian. She spoke in very hushed tones and when she gave me my paperwork and stuff I saw that my name would appear on my checks and debit card as my full name, all spelled out, first, middle and last. I told her I usually have accounts set up with either my first and last only or my first and last with my middle initial in there. She tersely stated that she had to set it up the way it was because that's how my name is on my driver's license (like everyone's DL, it has full name of course) and that was the law. I know this is bullshit since I've had numerous accounts over the years and still do with just my name as I want it displayed but I didn't argue with her.
Another weird interaction was when went to deposit $500 cash at the drive-thru, the teller forgot to take the money and when my license came back in the pneumatic tube cylinder thingy, the cash was still there. I took it, drove towards the exit of the lot and thought twice so I drove back around and gave it to her but she wasn't presenting as super-embarrassed or excited I returned with it, she was blaze blaze like it happens everyday.
Today, as I closed my account, the customer service rep made out a check for the fourteen cents still in my account left from the monthly interest payment. I brought a check, I could have just made a check out to myself. She then cashed the check she just printed out and went and grabbed the dime and four pennies to give to me. I mean I really would have preferred they transfer the 14 cents electronically to my Ally account but that wouldn't be 80s-ish or weird enough. Now, since I never use cash, those coins will sit forever in my catch-all dish where I put my wallet and my keys.
Like the eighties-esque styled logo (which was designed in the late nighties since this bank only dates back to then) and the orange grove industry it was supposedly set up to serve, this tiny four branch bank is now fading into just a memory of the past. And not just for me. They've been taken over by a larger regional bank. From the looks of it, they're just as stuck-in-the-past weird as well.
