Community Banking

Last week, we opened a joint account at the American Community Bank on the other side of our building.

I heard “Hello there!” “Welcome back!” as soon as we walked in. Since there weren’t any other customers and the two ladies behind the counter were smiling directly at us, I figured they meant us. I’m not used to getting so much attention at a bank, and with one of them standing to my left, the other to my right, I struggled to make eye contact with both of them to explain we needed a new account. It was like watching a tennis match from mid court.

We were shown to an office where a third lady did the paper work. She remembered Scott from a few months ago and they chatted about how the bank used to be a diner, the NCAA basketball tournament, her daughter who lives in Atlanta, her commute to work. I asked about the name of the bank and got elbowed by Scott. That just cost us another five minutes of chatting.

After the branch manager Peggy came in to say hello and talked about the neighborhood happenings that night, it came time for me to choose a user name for online banking. Scott suggested “wong” and it went through. Not “wong2012”, “wong123” or "wongnc. Just “wong.”

According to Wikipedia, there are 60 million Wongs in the world. At the Charlotte American Community Bank, it's possible I'm the only one.