Daddy, How come the rain is yellow???

I had a lesson in the "Trickle Down Economics" of our times today. You see, I work at a family-style restaurant that serves basic meals for basic prices. We are corporate and we are one step up from "Fast-Food", but we are not even the next step up to Fancy. Basically, that means Denny's and not Applebee's. Your meal with drink will hit ya for for about 10 bucks average ($7-$13 an entree). It is not someplace I work because it makes me rich, but rather because I enjoy my work environment and the people. Peace of mind holds value to me. I may not have that luxury in the near future, but that is a different story. Because we are a casual coffee shop, we often get business types in for extended lunches and meetings. They often order little and stay long. It's part of life. We joke about being the cheapest office space in town. Normally they treat us well, not always, but usually. Today, I waited on 3 business buddies. They seem to know each other well and spoke of events spanning many years. I couldn't help but overhear snippets of their conversation, as they were in a prime table for the duration of the lunch hours. They spoke of the troubles in business and how their investment portfolio's had taken hits 4 years ago. They mused of the woes of the contractor's life and how much the easy profits had become something harder to achieve. They spoke of life and loss, of divorces that hit in the midst of financial crisis, and how even though it had been tough lately, four years ago had come upon them like a surprise storm.

I came to think again that we are all just people at differ levels of life, like I usually view the world. They continued with how tough things were. How hard it was to find good help that did what they wanted at the wages they offered. How tough it was that his 50 acres in McCall was so hard to reach and the 30 acres in Donnelly was so much nicer with the retirement cabin on it, but too far from town to be comfortable. I realized that the difference between current hardship and the prior good life was not that they didn't have wealth, health and business, but rather that the well was simply producing now, instead of gushing with abundance.

They sat in one of my better tables and took it up for the entire lunch rush. I probably could have sat it 3 more times, but that's the way it goes. I can say that they received the best of my service and got prompt and courteous care. As the rich men left they put up there Gold Card and paid there $34 check. I received a $4 tip. This is pretty normal these days. I get between 10-20% on average. I guess I should be happy that they tipped at all. There is so much less to trickle down. Still, hard to hear them bemoan about there housing devolopements and resort acreage while I wonder if I'll pull $40 out of the days shift to feed me and my three children. Must be tough having to count all those assets. Guess 15% was just too much to ask for. I guess I should hope they come in when they sell another home for a big profit. I might even get a fiver!