Turnabout

Written by cycleguy on May 27th, 2014

It is one thing to tell people to say thanks.

It is another to be thanked.

Over the weekend I reposted a blog (with a few revisions) of one I had written last year. You can see it here. On Sunday during our morning worship I asked those who had served or were currently serving in the military to stand and we gave them a round of applause- a thank you if you will- for their service to our country. Even though I never served in the military, I am big on saying thanks to those who have.

Monday, I was thanked. It surprised me to say the least. Our youngest daughter and grandson were visiting over the weekend so Monday we decided to head to Bloomington to eat breakfast. Jo loves IHOP but there is not a one in Bloomington so we did a process of elimination and ended up at what Braden called the “old peoples’ breakfast” (Bob Evans).  I’m old…I admit it.  🙂 Anyway, we had one of those perky waitresses, the kind I like to have and tip. She commented about my t-shirt.

It had on it 58,282 Heroes.

Last year the local youth fishing team sponsored bringing the traveling Vietnam Wall to Spencer. They sold these t-shirts to help raise money to make it happen. Let me tell you it was quite the sobering site.  Ironically, I had another “T” on when I decided to change.

This waitress looked at me and said, “Thanks for wearing that shirt.” She went on to tell how her husband is a Marine (17 years), has done two tours of Afghanistan and will soon be stationed in California. We talked a bit more about it and then moved on.

But I gotta admit…I wore that T-shirt just a bit more prouder than I did when I first put it on. It is nice to be thanked instead of being the one encouraging others to thank.

Have you ever been on the receiving end of unexpected thanks like that?

Also, thanks to some folks stepping up, there will be a few more installments of the Second Chance posts coming soon. 😛

 

5 Comments so far ↓

  1. Daniel says:

    Bob Evans is indeed the old people’s breakfast place. We don’t have them in my part of the country, but we had then in Bloomington (same one you went to) and Athens. Oh, and nice story.

  2. floyd says:

    It is amazing when others thank us for things we don’t even think is special. Shows the grace and love and respect on their part I think. Thanks for sharing that, Bill. It’s the little things…

  3. Hi Bill,

    My kids and I studied the Vietnam war for their history classes, and we were impacted by the lack of thanks that the Vietnam vets received upon returning. So sad. There was a powerful documentary about four vets going to their first appreciation gathering, years later. Powerful.

    Re your comment on my post “What Captain American and Superman Knew But We’re Still Learning,” yay, Bill! My little son would be thrilled and impressed with your t-shirt collection. 🙂

    “Tomorrow” can be a debilitating word, I agree. Go forth too!

    Jennifer Dougan
    http://www.jenniferdougan.com