Civility

We took our brood of young women to the local Braums last night to celebrate one of the girls’ birthdays. There are, counting my wife and me, nine of us. Obviously, when we got into the Braums ice cream line, it automatically became a long line as they allow only one at a time to pass through it and prepare whatever treat the customer asks for while they are standing there. Besides, there were three or four people already in line, making it even longer.
This evening there were two young men working the counter. They quickly called a third to be a gopher and man the cash register at the end of the line. My wife headed the line and I brought up the rear so the cashier would have easy reference for what to bill me.
We hadn’t been there but a couple of minutes and two women came in and went to the end of the line. They didn’t look like they needed an ice cream treat any more than any of us did, but were pleasant. After perusing the situation for no more than about 20 seconds, I asked the women to go on ahead of all of us so they wouldn’t have to wait so long.
They at first did not wish to do so, but after some prodding and then the resultant thank-you, they went on ahead. I didn’t think anything more of it until they finished paying for their treats, turned to me and thanked me again two or three times over.
I expected a thank you at the first, but not at the end. And I didn’t expect them to be as pleasant as they were. Life is like that. Sometimes it hands you something totally pleasant from way out in left field, and you encounter it, then sort of marvel at it for a bit. Nothing in the way of miracles happened there, but I do know that civility isn’t dead. Next blog, if I think about it, I’ll tell of another encounter in that Braums the same evening.