Life Lessons From Observations

I enjoy people watching. When I lived in Thunder Bay one of the jobs I had was working in a restaurant. I worked behind the bar, sat people, processed their checks, and filled in waitressing when needed. During slower moments I was required to stand there and wait for the next time I was needed for something this gave ample opportunity to watch people interact with each other. There was the group that was bar hopping, the young couple on their first date, a business meeting.

My favorite interactions to observe were when elderly folks came in. There was a rowdy group of older women who took over the back room every saturday morning. Their favorite person to be waited on was the young hot waiter. I'm pretty sure he didn't mind their tables either.

Then there was the tiny elderly fellow who came in every day at approximately the same time. He was always alone and always dressed in a suit coat and dress pants. He ordered a select few items, never needed a menu, and didn't need to be seated. He picked who he wanted to serve him and sat in their area. He knew the difference between coffee that was made in the restaurant and coffee that was made in the catering section of the hotel; even though they were exactly the same. But demanded they left during the busy lunch rush and head to the catering wing to get his coffee. He seemed grumpy, never saying more words then he needed to and even then sometimes just grunting. And when it was time to pay he always had exact change with a tip left on the table for his waitress. It was easy to pass judgement on him and assume he's some bitter bachelor who never married and hated the world. But over the years the waitresses got his life stories from him and there was more to his hard exterior. He spent his life working really hard in the service industry. That's why he wanted service the way he wanted it. He expected perfection because that's the way he had served people his whole life. One could also assume that he'd be a cheap tipper. But the girls always said he tipped the respected amount. One waitress, a single mother told a story of a time when she had mentioned her car had broke down that morning, that afternoon when he left a tip, he had covered her repair bill.

My favorite regular customers to observe was this adorable older couple. They came for lunch every other Sunday, always dressed really nice. They walked slow and took time getting to their table but were always smiling to everyone and greeted them like old friends. My favorite thing about them that would make me tear up was when she would leave to use the washroom during the meal. She always needed to every time they ate there, sometimes twice a meal. And every time she went to stand up, no matter if he was in the middle of his meal, he would stand up and wait for her to get up and walk away to the restroom. When she was out of his vision he would sit back down. Then the second he would see her walking his way, he'd slowly stand up out of his chair and wait until she had seated before he returned to his chair. They were cute together. They didn't always need to talk but you could tell in their eyes the love was still as strong so many years later.

 

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