PATTI AND THE RICH DUDE

Had nothing for today so I dug back 10 years to rework a lighthearted story from 2010. Figured with all the heavy lifting our minds have had to do lately, we could use a break.  I know I could. 

Many, many years ago I worked for a bank.  Bank wages were notoriously low then and are probably not much better now. In those days, bankers were supposed to somehow eat prestige.  They were famous for giving titles in lieu of a raise. I found titles had no buying power,  contained zero calories and less taste. Titles are only useful at class reunions for bragging rights. 

I really enjoy working for the bank but I sometimes found myself working a second, part time job a couple of nights a week for spending money.  Now of all the jobs I ever had, full or part time, the one I enjoyed the most was as a cocktail waitress. It was kind of like being at a party, sober, but paid well. There was fun, laughter, constant kidding around and almost everyone was in a good mood.

The bar where I worked was part of a large hotel chain that had a very posh steak house restaurant. The lounge was mainly where people went for drinks while waiting for their reservation.

What I really liked was the mental sparring with the customers. Working there I am sure I increased my retort IQ on a nightly basis. The sharper your comeback, the bigger the tip. I can sometimes come up with a ho-hum quip today when under pressure, but with the constant give and take each night in those days, it became very easy and second nature. It is one of those "use it or lose it" abilities.

Of course, people who drink are easily amused so I shouldn’t have judged my skills by their reactions. Regardless, I had fun and could make in two nights what it took all week to earn at the bank. Rarely were these exchanges with the customers of a ribald nature for these were mostly people on dinner dates. We were just having fun.

One night, I had one of the 5 richest men in America walk into the lounge in a party of 4. I had met him earlier that year at a dinner during a PGA golf tournament. While rich dude and I had shared a dinner table and brief pleasantries at the tournament, I felt he in no way remembered me. I was right.

Roger, the bartender, gave me a wink and said not to expect a tip from that table. The uber rich fellow was notoriously tight. I had dated  Rich Dude's right hand man for a while and he often regaled me with stories of the man's world class tightwad nature.

Marc, my former boyfriend, said that once they were inspecting a construction site for a new hotel, when the old fellow, jumped down from a six foot high concrete wall to retrieve a half dozen unused concrete nails lying on the ground.

“Perfectly good nails,” he growled. “People have no respect for the cost of things.” Evidently, retrieving the nails outweighed the possibility of a broken leg for the elderly man.

So I wasn't expecting anything but maybe a pleasant exchange. Surprisingly, the old fellow had a really sharp mind and we kind of went toe to toe for the amusement of his companions. He would quip and I would counter.

There was the rare loud customer at the bar that night who was annoying everyone near him. Rich dude looked at me when I served their drinks and commented rather protectively, “Is he giving you any trouble?”

I replied, “No, I was tempted to give him a nasty look, but I saw he all ready had one.”

Rich dude loved it, clapped his hands in delight. They prepared to leave for dinner and when I returned his change (which he pocketed), he slipped a couple of bills into my hand on the sly.

Thinking it was two bucks, I was still quite impressed for he was famous for leaving zero tip. After he left, I saw it was a twenty and a ten. The bar tab was under twenty dollars and he had tipped more than the bill. Stunned would put it mildly.

I would like to say that he became a regular and paid my way thru college but the next time I saw him at a function, he had no idea who I was. Some impressions just don't last. I've pretty much perfected that.

He has been gone for a long time now having passed about 5 years after that meeting. Today if you watch NPR, a lot of the programs you see are partly paid for by his foundation. The foundation is also involved in many wonderful grants from the arts to human rights. He may have been frugal in business but he was quite the philanthropist in death and as far as I was concerned, he is locked in my memory banks as a witty man and one heck of a tipper.

Ever had someone surprise you by their uncharacteristic behavior?