Restaurant Kindness

[timkona]

This is a true story...well, you know, like, 95%.

Went to see Meet The Robinsons with alpha f., daughter, and her friend. After the movie, we go to the Pizza joint in S. Kona, Paparoni's (shameless plug) by the cop shop.

Sit down, order, and start playing games with kids. There's this gentlemen at the next table. We talk. He's new to the islands from east coast. Nice guy. Little older than me. Bought land, and now he's growing coffee. Gettin used to the islands. Hard work never killed anybody. Blah, Blah, Blah. Nice fella I'm thinking.

The kid's and I were in a wound up mood, playing all kinds of fun question and answer games cuz there is trivial pursuit cards on each table. So I'm askin made up questions because 5 year olds can't get the answers. Heck, I can't even get some of those tough ones. Can anybody?

Anyway, the guy is laughing and saying what a great family we are. And reminiscing about when his kids were little. You get the idea.

Pizza arrives, and I start telling the "screwed-up" version of the 3 Bears, where the kids get to correct me over and over. It's a real laugher. So the kids are chompin on their pizza through the laughter, my wife is shushing us and shushing us, and we barely notice the guy get up and pay, and walk out. He says good bye and we all wave and say Aloha.

So 10 minutes later, kids are done, we gather it up, and I walk up to pay the counter. The stunned boy working the register looks up at me and says,

"That guy just paid your bill"

Well knock me over with a feather. So I dropped a 5 and some 1's in the tip jar, and we left stunned over our good fortune.

Well.....THANKS A LOT STRANGER !! You really made our day. And I promise to Pay It Forward. This story should make you smile wide.

[TATTRAT]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

Great restaurant eperience!

I work in 'em, not often that happens. Karma is a good thing, and the gesture will be repaid.

Congrats to you, and the kind stranger.

[Miulang]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

Well.....THANKS A LOT STRANGER !! You really made our day. And I promise to Pay It Forward. This story should make you smile wide.

Every now and then, I pull off one of those "random acts of kindness" too. When in line at SBUX, I'll buy the next person's latte for them. More than a wish to make that person feel good, it makes ME feel good that I helped put a smile on someone else's face, if only for a minute.

Miulang

[CranBeree]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

true story 100%.


several months ago i had a hankering for oxtail soup and so the hubby, the kid and me are off to go at kapiolani coffee shop,- was about 7-30 ish or so. there were 2 cpls in front of us, the first couple left, then the other couple who was elderly turned around and told us, i remember what it was like when we had our kids, and i know its late and she must be getting hungry already, so they told us since they were old they could wait, but we shouldn't let our kid wait, so they insisted on us taking their spot so we could be seated first. well not another 10 minutes went by and they were seated also.

so...we paid their dinner bill and left.

[Pomai]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

I've followed folks out of restaurants several times to give them their belongings they left behind on a table near us. Once a purse. Another time a pair of prescription glasses. Of course they were elated, relieved and very appreciative of the gesture.

Once I was in line at a take-out restaurant, when the president of our company arrives in line behind me, to which he paid for my meal. Thanks!

Regardless of the monetary value, any gesture of kindness speaks volumes about the character of a person and should be interpreted positively.

[AlohaKine]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

They'd be a lot more kind if people could smoke in the semi-enclosed and lanai areas. That's why I don't go anymore and nobody who smokes should either until their restaurant assocition changes its' opinion on the ban from "neutral" to openly against the ban.

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

They'd be a lot more kind if people could smoke in the semi-enclosed and lanai areas. That's why I don't go anymore and nobody who smokes should either until their restaurant assocition changes its' opinion on the ban from "neutral" to openly against the ban.

Pity. You might be missing a free meal provided by some nice person who was into "paying it forward."

[DiverDown808]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

If you made the effort to NOT smoke around my 6 year old daughter while she's eating, I'll gladly buy your dinner.

DD

[AlohaKine]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

If you made the effort to NOT smoke around my 6 year old daughter while she's eating, I'll gladly buy your dinner.

DD

I respect your daughter and you. My friends and I just want is a space for us that doesn't bother those who don't like it. Humanity put a man on the moon, it is possible to set things up so we can co-exist. It can work, I've seen it done in industry with other airborne issues. Something a little smarter than flower planters as dividers. The anti-smoking groups don't want this because it would be tough to get rid of because second hand smoke bothering non-smokers would cease to be an issue. That's why they lie and claim it could never work. Let's all have aloha for each other - peace.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

They'd be a lot more kind if people could smoke in the semi-enclosed and lanai areas. That's why I don't go anymore and nobody who smokes should either until their restaurant assocition changes its' opinion on the ban from "neutral" to openly against the ban.

And what was a friendly, smile-inducing thread gets derailed into someone's personal crusade.

Why not keep your smoking ban issue to the smoking ban thread, where it can be avoided by those who don't wish to be subjected to it, rather than having it drift over to this one?

Sorta like second-hand smoke...

[Palolo Joe]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

Why not keep your smoking ban issue to the smoking ban thread, where it can be avoided by those who don't wish to be subjected to it, rather than having it drift over to this one?

Here we go again...

Why not focus on your own posts, instead of telling others what to do?

If you want to bully other users into the type of behavior you desire, allow me to do the same.

Why not cut back on your pointless one-liners that litter so many other threads on HT? Contrary to what you may think, they really aren't funny and do little more than eat up bandwidth.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

Okay so getting back OT...once I was driving into town (HILO) when for some stupid reason I cut off this other guy. I guess I was just in an anal fit but we both ended up at the McDonalds drive thru at the Puainako shopping center with him behind me (I know he wasn't following me, we just ended up at the same place).

After sitting thru the drive thru I realized what a jerk I was and felt really bad but couldn't get to apologize to the guy behind me who I cut off earlier. So when I drove up to the window to pay for my coffee I told the cashier I'd cover the guy's breakfast behind me. She was surprized and I told her to tell the guy I was sorry for cutting him off.

Before he could respond I drove off with a shaka and a smile.

As for restaurant kindness, a long time ago in the 80's I was eating dinner at Kings Bakery on S. King Street with my then girlfriend Lynn. As we ate my girlfriend waved at these huge Hawaiian guys sitting across from us. It turns out it was Larry Mehau and his sons. Apparently Lynn's father was a good buddy of Larry and that night we got to know him very well.

Larry and his boys left and when it was our turn to leave I asked the hostess for the bill. She said the big gentleman paid for our dinner. Later on I got to meet Larry at his ranch in Kamuela and thanked him.

The ironic part of his association with my then girlfriend's father was that my girlfriend's uncle (from her maternal side) was the former and late senator Larry Kuriyama who was gunned down by Hawaii hitman Ronald Ching. Ching also confessed to the murder of Charles Marsland's son. Marsland went on a vendetta to pin the murders on Mehau but could never prove it. Then one day Marsland dropped his efforts quite suddenly.

[leashlaws]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

When we are at the airport heading to the mainland you always see a serviceman/woman alone eating in the bar area. My husband always tells our server that he will pay for their meal but don't say who. We usually end up leaving before our patron leaves anyway so they'd never know, he always tells the server to tell the uniformed person "thanks and be safe."

[timkona]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

I ALWAYS pay for the drink of any uniformed service member at any bar.

Larry Mehau got mentioned in the Hawaii Free Press this month. He's got excellent connections according to the story.

[Leo Lakio]

Re: Restaurant Kindness

I ALWAYS pay for the drink of any uniformed service member at any bar.

If I gain any one thing from HT today, it will be this. A behavior that I will emulate - thank you, Tim.