I had a story I had to share with you tonight, because it speaks to my post from yesterday. There was a younger couple, early twenties, sitting and talking over coffee tonight in my restaurant. They come in quite often, and are very nice people.
An "older" couple comes in, probably in their fifties. They tell the waiter that there are just there for coffee. He says, "Go ahead and sit wherever you'd like, except there or there (pointing to two tables that were recently vacated and not yet cleaned)... or with those guys (he pointed to the young couple)." Of course, that part was meant to be a joke.
The older man kidded, "Too bad. We wanted to sit with them."
The younger couple instantly moved farther into the booth and invited them to sit down and talk. I watched as they all shook hands and introduced themselves to each other. The two couples sat down together and chatted for almost an hour. They were laughing and having a great time each time I happened to go into the dining room.
This is the kind of thing that I'm talking about in a small town. It just doesn't happen in bigger cities. It was a heart-warming interaction between two sets of people who may have had very little in common, but who were willing to sit with someone they did not know, and to share stories and a small piece of their lives. As a restaurant manager, that is part of what I do. I share the lives of my regular customers. But, to see customers welcome each other so readily and so unselfishly... it just makes me feel good. I don't know the names of the older couple, and I may never. I don't think I've seen them before, but those four people made my night. They gave a different meaning to Thanksgiving... even if a day late.
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