By Jim Hagarty
2012
I was going through the drive-through at A&W at noon hour today when the young woman who served me at the window asked me very cheerily and with a large smile how I was doing. “Fine, thank you,” I replied. She then handed me my junk grub and said, “Have a good day, sweetheart!”
Sweetheart?
A young person of the opposite sex who I have never met just called me sweetheart. I don’t mind saying this made me feel pretty darned good. But I was a little rattled, wondering why she called me by this term of endearment. Does she say that to everyone, I wondered, but then rejected that notion. She was very sincere and very clearly wanted me to know that she thought I was a sweetheart.
(For awhile I wondered if what she really called me was a sweathog but then I decided that no, it was really sweetheart.)
I finally came to the only conclusion that made any sense: She was blown away by my sheer awesomeness. There I sat in my little rusting-out Chevy, with my cloth winter coat on covered in sawdust from working on the renovation project in my garage. I was also sporting about 10 days unmanaged beard growth and on my head, a barely scabbed over red spot where a falling hammer clobbered me last night. I also had not gotten around to brushing my teeth yet and had used no mouthwash which probably left me just a little nicer smelling than a water buffalo emerging from a day in the swamp.
Oh yeah, and I have a drippy nose.
Still, it is obvious that enough of my magnetism shone through all this to cause a twenty-something, attractive woman in a drive-through to call me her sweetheart. (Well, she didn’t really say I was her sweetheart, but I think that’s what she meant.)
So, I spent the afternoon in a golden haze, preparing to live off this little bit of encouragement for many months to come until I heard on the radio later in the afternoon that today is National Compliments Day. You don’t suppose my girl was just following the spirit of the day, do you? Nah. If there weren’t a few decades’ difference in our ages, I would right now be fighting her off with a stick.
Reminds me of the tale of the 90-year-old man who was heading off on his honeymoon with his 20-year-old bride. A friend was worried about the effects an exciting wedding night might have on the old fella and he said to him, “Aren’t you worried, you know, about sudden death?” “No,” said the old guy. “If she dies, she dies.”
I wonder if my A&W server knows how good she made me feel with one little word. I think she does. I think she is just a happy soul.
I am not a charmer and not quick with buttery comments; I often think later about what I should have said in a certain situation. But one day a few years ago when I was helping deliver my kids’ newspapers I started walking up a driveway behind two young women who were heading to the home’s backyard for a party. I saw them look back nervously at me, wondering why I was behind them.
“Just following the beautiful women,” I said, before depositing the paper in the mailbox and returning to the street. Both women immediately smiled big, broad smiles and maybe even blushed a little.
Finally, I thought, the right words were there just when I needed them and I managed to spit them out.
Maybe I am wrong but I have a feeling those two felt a lot better about themselves for awhile after that. I don’t know what made me say it. As far as I know it wasn’t National Compliments Days.
What I do know is that I felt pretty good about myself too.
Maybe I should get a job at A&W.
