Transactions used to look very different before digital tools and card swipes took over.

A farmer proved that point by handing over a check that the cashier practically wrote for him.

Read on for the full story.

Just sign with an X and go about your day.

This tale was from many years ago at a large farmer-centric factory supply store in Indiana.

I was in line behind the cliché farmer with overalls and boots that had a thick crust of all sorts of organic matter.

He was buying several smaller but bulky items like baling wire, a few fence posts, and the like.

It became clear he was no stranger to this store.

When it came time to pay, the cashier rang them all up quickly and exchanged pleasantries with the customer, and it became apparent that he was a regular and was known to the cashier.

What happened next was quite odd to me.

When the cashier said his total was $54.34 or whatever, he handed her a blank check.

This was well before the days (early 90s) of the automated check printers.

The strange behavior continued.

The cashier then stamped the company name onto the “TO” field, then proceeded to fill out the whole check.

She then turned it around to the farmer, who dutifully and slowly scrawled a single letter in the signature block, with that letter being a large and wiry “X.”

I believe that she then signed her name below the “X” in the margin.

So the puzzled customer asks the cashier what just happened.

After he left, and since I was the only other person in line, I asked her if the farmer who just left was one of those people who just can’t write.

She said yes, he’s a regular, and they get quite a few farmers who simply “put their mark” in the signature block.

She explained that the cashiers do the rest, and their counter signature makes it somehow legal enough for the store to cash.

What a strange encounter.

What did Reddit think?

Even something as seemingly simple as signing your own name can bring someone lots of satisfaction.

Apparently this system is quite old.

Turns out there’s a fair amount of flexibility in a signature.

Just a simple squiggle usually does the trick.

To the cashier, it was just part of the job, but from the outside looking in, it was quite the odd thing to witness.

It felt like witnessing a strange but legal magic trick.

If you liked that post, check out this post about a rude customer who got exactly what they wanted in their pizza.