Getting through tax season deserves a reward. I’ve tried chocolate, watching a movie, ordering an indulgent carry-out meal. But nothing matches this year’s hurray. I went on eBay and bought myself an old calculator with a paper tape.
Retail therapy is rare for me. My stock in trade is getting rid of stuff. I run workshops, urge people to find the stories in their stuff, keep those and not the stuff. But with the calculator, I told myself I was practicing retail therapy in reverse.
If my dad had left me his calculator, I wouldn’t need to buy one. Instead, I went searching for something like he used to have. He’d add up a column of figures, print it, and staple it to the working papers he brought home from the office. That way, he’d have a record of how he got to a particular sum.
“You have to put a “0” at the top of the tape,” he’d tell me. “That way, you can prove you didn’t start with a number already in there.”
Exactly who we were proving this to, I didn’t know. Maybe the IRS. He used the calculator for taxes.
Maybe that’s why I’ve been uneasy using the calculator on my phone for taxes. No proof. It took a while to find one like my dad’s with buttons just for add, subtract, multiply, divide and clear. But ultimately, eBay didn’t disappoint. For $15, I had an old Sharps, complete with enough yellowed tape for a millennium of tax returns. The “On” button no longer said “On,” and the ink had dried up. But voila! There are replacement cartridges online.
I know it’s tough giving away old electronic devices. But don’t give up too soon. There’s nothing like the sound of a stapler attaching that tape to those work papers. I know dad would be proud.
