Whatever That Thing's Called ...

Because my grandmother was born not that many years after the Civil War ended, she did not begin life with the word, "car," as part of her regular vocabulary and so, throughout her later life when I knew her, she referred to it as a "machine."  As in, "You'll need to take the machine to the store."  Granted, she mixed in "car" and "auto" as well, but "machine" often popped out.  Okay ... just a bit of background.

The machine in 1921

So the other day I was in our local family-owned hardware store--the sort with squeaky wooden floors and plenty of clerks to lead you through the maze of aisles to find just the right floor wax, light bulb, or weed zapper.  I'd gone for a tube of household glue to mend a sandal.  Glue in hand, I went to the check-out counter in the back of the store where a clerk at the computerized-unit-where-financial-transactions-take-place was busy keying in a price for another customer.  As I stood waiting, a second clerk, a tall greying man, approached, ready to check me out.  I acknowledged that, yes, he could do that but, glancing over at the other transaction, I said, "I'm waiting for ..." and then I realized that I didn't know the name for that thing, so I said, "... the machine."

Even if I hadn't completed the sentence and just pointed, I would have been better off because the man gave me the most amazing (even startled) look and said, "The machine!?"

What was that thing called, I asked myself?  It wasn't a computer.  Those were for getting on the internet, cleaning out your recycle bin, keeping your files in "My Documents," and using as a word-processor.  I couldn't call it a cash register.  Those were the old ca-ching, ca-ching things that went out some time ago.

But even as I left the store, household glue in hand, the image of my grandmother filled my mind as I made my way home again.

So, I began asking around.

The clerk in a toy store called his "the point of purchase."  He seemed a tad hesitant about that but claimed it was good for both the check-out place as well as the unit that rang up the financial transaction.

Someone in an electronics store called his a "terminal."

Another clerk, "the register."

Finally, a fourth clerk, after thinking about it awhile, said, "It's a point of sale terminal."  And there, sure enough, at the top of her monitor screen were those very words, "Point of sale terminal."

At least, in the end, I had a good laugh about it when I told some friends, noting how disconcerting it was to begin a sentence that I then realized I didn't know how to finish.  I know I won't call it a "machine" ever again.  I'm probably still old-fashioned enough, though, to stick with "register."