To finish the cruise story, We went through Miami, stopped at the international airport and got out to go and find a small bank or something that might cash a check. No go. Then, I went to the airbase, called Homestead, nothing was open, and we didn’t score there either.
No worries. I went on board the cruise ship, said, “hey, we are booked to go on your cruise and I need to get some cash.” You would have thought I had asked to hijack the ship. The look they gave us was pretty daunting and quite impressive. When they recovered their service orientation, they politely suggested that this should be better accomplished in Nassau. We spent the first half of our one day on Nassau going to banks. They weren’t like what we are used to today. You had to prove to the armed guards at the door that you wanted to go in and make a withdrawal.
I think that is actually what they were afraid of. Must have been the short military haircut that I sported at the time. Finally, we got in and convinced the bank manager to call our bank in the US and verify whatever he could. He politely limited us to cashing $50.00. Well that did allow us to keep on a very tight budget. Everyone longs for the good ole days, but, some things are just much better now.
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