dbmcclellan.com

Once upon a time in a forgotten land I was not a cycling-crazed computer geek.  I know this seems strange, but there you go, facts is facts.  Instead, I was a Black Angus foodserver and bartender slewing food and drink to customers visiting the Citrus Heights store.  It was a fun and well-paying job back then where I met lots of people and moved really fast.  I also served some of my high school buddies and one of them left me a tip which included this $5 bill folded with some kind of magic origami voodoo.

Now, keeping in mind this all happened back in the late-70’s, and most of my memories have been seriously clouded with more than 30 years time, it was quite the surprise to locate this tip.  Then, I also recall the customer.  By name!  You see, he was one of my high school buddies.  We were in band together (he on saxaphone, me on trumpet) and we drove our Datsun 510’s all over town at high rates of speed.  We went to Don’s Burgers located close to the corner of Marconi/Eastern all the time and had an interest in the great cyclist, Eddie Merckx.

This mystery guy and I were great friends and when he came to visit me at Black Angus would always make me smile, and would always leave an over-sized tip (which coincidentally always made me smile).  The last time he visited one of my tables at the restaurant he left me the usual too-nice tip along with the folded up Five Dollar bill shown below.  It was never spent, never unfolded, and never thought of again after that night.  Instead, it went inside a box-of-memories and stayed right there until last night.

Last night, with a great sense of wonderment, I opened up a box, and like those Russian Nesting Dolls, located another box with my box-o-memories inside.  I just about crapped my pants when it opened up and found that folded up five dollar bill!  Along with it came the memory of serving my friend and his date a nice dinner, some cocktails, and dessert.  The tip that night was awesome but the thing I remember best was that folded up fiver.

So now I want to get a shoutout to my good friend, Mike Fish.  If you didn’t figure this out, he is the Mystery Man referred to in my little story above.  He currently resides in the Land of Utah with his wife and kids and I’ll bet he is leaving a tip every now and again that makes his food server smile!

Pay it forward, make that guy or gal who just provided you some kind of awesome service a big gratuity.  Opportunities abound!