When my daughter was very small, her dad worked for a pizza restaurant. Our marriage didn’t make it the long haul, but he was a really nice man. He taught me a very valuable lesson that I took to heart and still carry with me to this day. It was a lesson I didn’t know I needed to learn necessarily, but he made me see something totally different. A lot of folks he worked with felt like their job wasn’t important. The prevailing attitude seemed to be that since they were just working in the food industry (and not exactly fine dining), it was hard to be serious about your work or career. They felt they weren’t making a difference. My ex-husband had a different attitude about it. In his mind, he told me, he was helping families make their day a little more special. He was giving moms a few extra minutes with their children, and he was in charge of someone’s daily meal. He took that responsibility very seriously. That’s such a great attitude to have, and that made me have a lot of respect for him, even now today. The story below reflects that spirit. We don’t know if this is a true story or a work of fiction, but it’s a great read. Enjoy it.
I delivered for a couple years after high school. We knew who tipped and who didn’t. Guess who’s order got bumped to the top of my route whenever possible? But from time to time I did get a heartfelt apology on why they couldn’t tip more.
I got one such apology from someone that still sticks out in my mind. It was a man in a small unkempt house(at least on the outside) who had ordered a small cheese pizza. He was profusely apologetic that he could only tip $1 (still not a no-tip like some other more well off people).
Then I saw through the door to the kitchen all 4 kids and a teenager that were waiting anxiously for their pizza. 6 people sharing a small pizza because that was all they could afford. It broke my heart. My shift was just about over so I went back to cash out and made 2 large pizzas, wings, chicken tenders, grabbed some sodas, the whole nine yards.
It looked like this grown man was going to burst into tears when I gave it to him, he was just super appreciative. He offered to come down and pay for it all another day which I flat out refused. Yeah, I didn’t do anything to get them out of their situation and it was the restaurant footing the bill anyway. But my hope is that he remembers that and maybe his kids learned that when you treat someone like a human being good things can happen.
