\Will that be all?"" the garbled voice said.
""Yeah,"" I recited, ""That'll hold me.""
Then the thousand-times stated, thousand-times repeated waltz went on. The voice told me to pull around, pay at the first window and accept my change.
This time, though, it would be a little different.
This is typical of any drive-through experience and it would end with an extra ounce on the stomach and probably some spilled pop on the lap. With a bit of hesitation, I admit that I fell temptation to fast food this summer.
Because of my job as a cab driver, I wanted to keep moving and it would be good if I could eat at the same time.
So there I was in cab 73, a Crown Victoria of the Badger Cab fleet, moving to the window to put a few bucks into some kid's hand. The choice of the day was the Big Montana, purchased from Arby's, 1609 S. Park St. The sight is absurd, I know, but I was hungry and I wasn't ready to chase the call in McFarland without a half pound of roast beef coursing through my digestive system.
The cashier/order announcer was a kid, or at least somebody younger than I am. It seems like every person who takes orders via headsets with grease on them is somewhere between adolescence and 20. This girl smiled, despite the way I took my time to find a five-dollar bill and the amount of wrinkles it featured.
I think the total came in around $4.50 and I disliked the pennies amongst quarters I was about to receive. Besides, I already had a pocket full of change from the passenger who paid a $6.75 with a mix of coins.
The receipt was the foundation and the change holds it down. The cashier's hand touched mine and I didn't even close it. I looked up and said, ""You can keep the change.""
Her response was surprised to the point of annoyance.
""What?"" she demanded.
""Keep it,"" I said. ""I work for tips.""
The annoyance dropped away and in that instant she understood, probably more than I did. The cashier was a passenger who went around the south of Madison and it seemed like the Arby's was the nicest place she saw all day.
We tip waitresses, waiters and bartenders. The owners of the establishments pay them but it's up to customers to give them something to live off of. There's an understanding that our generosity makes up for the low wages.
Maybe I wasn't thinking about all of that at the time, but I was considering that the girl was probably making a little above minimum wage and that every little bit helps. I know it's true for my job.
She accepted the money, the little that it was, and even smiled a bit wider than she had for the cars in front of me. I drove away, grabbed my sandwich and chased that call.
blschultz@wisc.edu.
