This evening the wife and I were having dinner at a restaurant. The booth directly adjacent to us was occupied by a family of three, a man, a woman, and a small girl of about three or four. She was a bit restless as children can be and every so often would stand up and look over the back of the booth at me. She was adorable and I would smile and wave at her.
At one point during the meal, the man stood up to go to the restroom (I assume). He appeared to be in his mid to late twenties. As he passed me, he noticed my t-shirt;
“nice shirt bro, Article 15 Clothing, did you serve?”
I’ve watched a ton of Matt Best’s videos, as most of us have, and had laughs with all of them. Seeing his company advertised I checked it out. The t shirts seemed fun and I figured why not support a veteran owned business. So I got a few.
I said honestly “no I havent, but I like the guy and his products. Figured I would support him”
He mentioned that he did serve, Army, can’t remember the rest.
I shook his hand and said “thank you for your service” as I do often when I see a person in uniform. He continued on his way and and came back to his seat a few minutes later.
When they were wrapping up their meal, he was saying something to the waiter. The waiter came over to me and said that the guy gave him money toward my bill. I was perplexed, did he think I said that I did serve? I was really thrown a back. I had no idea what to do. If anything, I should be paying for his bill. He went overseas to protect me.
As they were getting up I couldn’t help but ask “I didn’t serve, why?” He simply replied “thank you for supporting veterans” I didn’t know what to do. I got up and have him a hug and said again “thank for your service, you did a lot more than I ever did” and shook his hand again.
Since the deed was already done I simply made the waiters tip that much bigger. It wasn’t a lot of money but it was still something that really threw me.
I’ve done nothing to deserve that. I donate to WWP, but that is me being thankful. No one has to thank me for me being thankful, plus, he doesn’t know that. He just saw a guy with a t shirt he recognized. I should be thanking him, I should be buying him a beer. Not the other way around.
I am sorry for rambling. I just had to share. I’m still a bit confused. To have someone who protected my skinny ass thank me is a more humbling experience than I could ever imagine.