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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Boys Night Out
After picking up Emma Okesson and dropping her and Emily off at church for kids choir practic, the boys and I leisurely drove to GD Ritzy's. (Jenny was attending the Josh McDowell event with Angela Collins.)
The boys and I ate hamburgers and fries and had some fun conversation. Isaac seemed to like the oldies music and moved his shoulders to the beat of the music. A fifty-something gentleman was working in the eating area, cleaning tables and vacuuming the floor. He was very friendly and smiled and talked to most of the patrons, including Jacob, Isaac and me. He came over and made some idle prattle with the boys and we commented on the relative innocence of the 50's music compared to today's secular slop. Isaac was still sort of dancing in his chair to the music and the guy and I were very poorly singing some silly lyric to a song, which Isaac found very humorous. Jacob, who tends to the shy, easily embarrassed side, asked me to please stop, although you could tell he liked the silliness.
I allowed Jacob to take a five dollar bill to the front and get his own junior scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream in a cake cone. He came back with the change and his ice cream exuding a proud, "I did it all by myself" look on his face. Isaac was still working on his hamburger. I asked Jacob how much the ice cream cost, and he said the lady didn't tell him. I told him that if he could figure it out, that I would give him a quarter. He said he couldn't do it without a pencil. I obtained a pen and a napkin from the counter and he proceeded to count up the change ($3.83), then wrote down 5.00 - 3.83 on the napkin and figured out the correct answer of 1.17. I had to remind him not to forget the units, at which point he promptly added the $. During that time, I had taken the change and went with Isaac to get his ice cream and used up the quarters along with another quarter I had in my pocket, leaving me in a dilemma - no quarters to give to my little mathematician. So, I opted to just give him a whole dollar. Jacob was a very happy camper.
I commented on how the afore-mentioned gentleman was still working very hard cleaning up, being friendly and pointed out the fact that he had an excellent attitude. I mentioned to Jacob that jobs like this don't pay very much, but it's very encouraging to see that the guy was so friendly and worked so hard. Jacob mentioned that the guys attitude and friendliness would please God.
We finished up and I was gathering up our stuff to throw away and noticed Jacob was fiddling with the dollar I had given him. I told him he should put it in his pocket so he didn't lose it. He had one of those, "I want to say something, but am not sure if I should" looks on his face. I asked him what was on his mind. He shyly mentioned that he would like to give his dollar to "that guy" for working so hard. Meanwhile, the gentleman had disappeared momentarily. We took our time cleaning up, waiting for him to come back out. We ended up having to request someone let him know we'd like to talk to him. He came out a bit perplexed. Jacob, who is typically very shy with people he doesn't know, took the dollar out (plus another dollar I had given him because I told him I thought that his idea was a great one) and handed it to the confused man, telling him, "Here, I wanted you to have this."
The guy was obviously touched; as was I. That boy can really drive me crazy sometimes. Tonight was a rewarding time to be his father.
3/31/2005 08:27:00 PM by Todd Bacon
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