In the world of banking, the people on the front lines of the industry are known as tellers. These are the people who are expected to help customers with all of their day to day banking needs. It is often a thankless and miserable position to hold. These are their stories. These are their legends…

This one time, my manager found out that I like to draw. Once he had seen an example of my work, he decided to make me the official whiteboard artist.

The whiteboards inside the branch were used to advertise various specials that the bank happened to be offering at a particular time. So I was put in charge of decorating those whiteboards for an extended period of time.

My first board advertised the bank’s website. To help illustrate the ad, I drew a picture of Schroeder from Peanuts. But instead of him sitting in front of his piano, I had him sitting in front of a laptop computer.

My second board wasn’t anything special. It just advertised a special CD rate that we had going on. I couldn’t think of anything clever to draw with that one, just a bunch of dollar signs and some arrows denoting the passage of time. Really not special.

Next, I was commissioned to draw something advertising our amazing auto loans. So I drew Mater from the Disney/Pixar film Cars.

Once, the whiteboard simply asked the customers where they worked. Next to the big, bold letters, there was a picture of Dilbert. You’d be surprised how easy Dilbert is to draw.

All that is to say that it was really annoying doing those boards. Not because I didn’t like to draw. I loved it. The annoying thing was the customers that felt the need to touch the boards and erase the dry-erase marker that made up the words and images. Really, it wasn’t so much the customers that did it, but their ADHD kids that they were unable to control in public.

One fateful day, as I was doing my job and running transactions for people at the drive through window, I heard a very small child laughing near the whiteboard. Her father was at the counter being helped by our manager. Suddenly, I heard the unmistakable squeaking sound that small fingers make when they’re rubbing back and forth across a dry erase marker board. “Look, daddy! I’m drawin’!”

I was glad I had my back turned because I probably had a pretty nasty look on my face. I know what most of you are thinking. I shouldn’t have gotten mad at a little kid for just being a little kid. You’ll probably tell me it’s my own fault for keeping the board displayed in a place that was accessible to small children. But does that mean I don’t have the right to be annoyed that I had to redraw the whiteboard all over again? ‘Cause I really was. Annoyed.

Kids, man…

Anyway, here are some other examples of the boards I did during my time at the bank. I’m retired now, but could be coerced into making you a nice Christmas card from time to time.