No One Ever Told Us That: Money and Life Lessons for Young Adults

CHAPTER FIFTY

KEEP THE MARKERS OUT THERE

A marker is slang for what one owes a bookie or loan shark. Someone to whom you owe money, usually at very high interest rates. You agreed to pay because you were a gambler or really needed the money that no one else would lend you. The marker was a note that you signed. The word is also called a chit, as in, “I've called in the chit.”

I once had a friend who was Sicilian and grew up in California. Her family, most of whom lived on Long Island, New York, were rumored to be connected to certain relatives who could supply you almost anything, because “it fell off the truck.” She was the first person I ever knew who used the expression “He's dead to me.” Long before The Sopranos marched onto the stage. Years ago, she and her best buddies had a favorite restaurant in the Back Bay section of Boston. They were regulars. But one night, the maître d’ was so rude to them, so dismissive and insulting, that they fled in dismay and anger. When she told me the story, I said, “Why don't you make the call?” meaning, jokingly, that she call her relatives on Long Island.

She took it seriously. “I'd never do that,” she said.

“How come?”

“Because then I'd owe them. And you don't want to owe them.”

I treat this subject, favors for others, as if it's a kind of savings account, something to use in a rainy-day situation. I like to help other people. Maybe it's insecurity, I'll admit. But there's satisfaction in solving problems that people don't seem able to solve ...