My father was very frustrated by having to send his money orders (they would NOT accept checks!) to one state, that then sent the money to another state, which then sent the money to my mother. The first state would always claim not to have received all of the weekly money orders.
After a few years, my father was called to deadbeat dad court. He was not an educated man. He could not afford a lawyer. He waited in the court room and watched the judge berate one after another delinquent dad.
Finally it was my dad's turn. The judge was prepared to give him full treatment. My dad claimed that he had faithfully gotten his paycheck every week, and faithfully went to the store and got a money order, and faithfully mailed it to the state. The judge did not believe him.
The judge said, "I hear that from men every day. Do you have any proof?"
My dad produced a shoe box. In it was over 300 customer carbon copies of the money orders. "You honor, I kept all the receipts right here. The are in order. You name a Friday, and I have the carbon copy right here."
The judge was skeptical. He said he would pull out a calendar, name the date of a random Friday during the last 6 years and that my dad would have to pull out the carbon copy and give it to the bailiff, who would bring it to the judge.
The judge rattled off a date from 3 years previous. My dad was able to pull it out. Then one from 5 years previous. My dad was able to find it. Then the judge asked for one from six month's earlier. "Too easy," my dad said, "that's way in the back of the box."
The men waiting for their cases to come up, who had watched the judge take away driver's licenses, send me spend a day or two in jail, or sentence them to spend every day they were not at work in jail, were starting to pay attention, and some even whooped and cheered when my dad was able to find the carbon copy receipts.
Finally, the judge called out a date. My dad was rifling through the box. It took a minute.
"Can't find it, hmmm? Maybe you didn't pay that week."
My dad asked for the date again. The judge repeated it. "August 10, 19xx."
"You are right, your honor," he said. "I can't find it, because I did not send a money order that date."
"Ahhh-ha!" said the judge.
"Because August 10 was NOT a Friday that year. Are you sure you are looking at a 19xx calendar? I have receipts for August 6 and August 13. Here they are. Would you like the bailiff to show them to you?"
The men waiting for their turns cheered. The judge banged his gavel, then re-looked at the calendar, and sure enough, he was off by a year. The waiting defendants cheered again. The judge banged his gavel.
The judge declared my dad "Father of the Week" and excused him. He was never called back to court again.
Eventually, my dad was able to send me checks directly. He never missed a week. The money orders he sent to one state, only to be sent to another state, only to be sent to my mother for my brother's upkeep....well, a certain percentage got "lost."
His state insisted on money orders. Checks were more traceable, and in that pre-internet era, tracing down a lost or stolen money order was a difficult process.