Walking into work on Sunday was just like any other day that I have worked. I first went to the UGA baseball game with my family earlier that afternoon. UGA won both games. They played a double header verse LSU due to a rain out the day before.
After the game I went into work and my parents came in to eat. I served them as usual and enjoyed the last hour or so with them before they went back home to Kennesaw. After they left I sat around for a minute. We were never that busy at the beginning on the night. Then I got a party table of 8. GREAT table to get as a first table. Starting the night off with a party table only meant good things for the rest of the night. As I got the tables drink order and walked to the back to make the drinks my manager followed me. He told me that I better take good care of that table if I wanted to get a good tip. Of course I always took good care of my table but who could this party of 8 be? I told him I had planned on it, but ask him who they were. "Mama Sid" of course. Mama Sid, that sounded so familiar...but who was she? ahhhh. Then I remembered. Earlier that month I had eaten at Mama Sid's Pizza off of Barnett. I had noticed all of the pictures on the walls, and soon realized why she looked so familiar. Her husband and she traveled all around the world and had placed some real life photographs in her pizza shop. What an honor to serve Mama Sid!
Once Mama Sid had left, I went back to serving my regular tables. The next table that came my way made my night. Maybe even made my week. My heart was seriously touched after this table and I saw just how important community can be in Athens. My next table was a three top. Two of the three were dressed very nice. It looked like Sunday Church attire, however by 6pm it was too late for morning service and too early for night time service. The third of the guest was an Athens Clarke County Police officer. I walked over to the table, bubbly as ever and greeted them. They were very quiet and seemed almost too mellow. I feel dumb now not connecting the two together, but later on I soon realized they had just left the funeral of the police officer who was shot and killed by Jamie Hood. The way I realized it though was a great way. One of my fellow servers came up to me and told me that their table had requested to pay for my table’s bill anonymously. What a great thing to do to show appreciation to the police officer. Especially doing it anonymously. They were not asking for praise or anything, they just wanted to do something nice for a police officer in their community who was going through a tough time. That was a wonderful thing to be done, however it was only the beginning. On top of that table paying for their bill, four other separate tables also tried to pay for their bill. It really showed me how great community can be and how everyone can pull together in hard times.
My final table of the night was not as powerful or moving. But I did get to serve on of the UGA football players and that was really exciting to me!
My Sunday night close shift turned from bad to good in just a matter of three tables! You never know what the day can bring, so always look at things optimistically!
I love your little slice of life. As someone who served tables for 5 years or so, this brings back memories. The story about the people all trying to pay for the meal says so much about the community and the desire to reach out and show appreciation at a difficult time.
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