Several years ago, I was visiting with my son while he was attending college. We had gone to a local restaurant in the college town and toward the end of our lunch, he informed me that he sure could use a few bucks. Well, of course, he was not talking about male deer or rabbits. He needed a spot of cash. I’m sure any parent has heard that before!

As he and I were finishing the meal, my son left the table to head toward the restroom. I reached into my pocket to pull out $40 that I had and was going to give to him. At the same moment I was reaching into my pocket, I looked up and my son was headed back toward the table. I nodded at him as I struggled to pull my money clip from my front pocket.

I kinda motioned with my head that I was placing the money on the table for him. The waitress had already laid our ticket on the table, so with one hand I picked up the check and with the other hand, I laid the $40 on the table. As I headed toward the cashier to pay the meal ticket, I looked back and my son was standing behind me at the counter and I quickly said, “Did you get the cash from the table?” when our heads spun and there was the young waitress with cash in hand, looking somewhat stunned at her new $40 tip.

There was no way in the world I had the heart to go ask this young college-aged girl for this money back and my son and I looked at each other with surprise. It was a very awkward moment, but I just figured our miscommunication had become this girl’s good fortune. I could tell from her overall expression that apparently she needed the money real bad because her whole countenance brightened up!

Now fast forward a couple of years and my son shared with me something that happened to him. He had gone into an establishment with his buddies and as they left, he pulled out his wallet to check his cash and suddenly realized he had mistakenly just tipped his waitress a crisp, clean…what he thought was a 10…turned out to be a $100 bill! He said he felt sick to his stomach.

Now, we advance forward another seven or eight years and it’s my daughter’s turn! She had taken my granddaughter, my wife and a young friend of my granddaughter’s to a water park near Dallas. As they entered the park area and paid for their ticket, they were instructed in great detail that they should not lose the arm band they were given.

A replacement would cost $40 (Here goes that $40 again!). Within ten minutes, the young guest with them had lost her arm band and the ladies were in a panic trying to find it. They searched their room, their luggage and my wife even backtracked through the large parking lot searching their trail from the car and then inside the car. They had to ride from the ticket booth to their room in the car across the parking lot because of the distance…all to no avail. The arm band was not to be found.

As my daughter was rummaging through papers and suitcases looking for the arm band, she picked up some trash that needed to be thrown away. Since they were at a water park, she did not have enough pockets for everything, so she headed toward the ticket booth to try to plead her case for another arm band with all this stuff in her hands.

She stopped at the trash can to throw the trash away. Luckily, she was able to retrieve another arm band without another payment, but as she was headed back toward her room she then realized she had just thrown $100 into the trash can! (There’s that hundred again!).

In a major panic she rushed back to the trash can and there in the lobby of the hotel she found herself dressed in a bathing suit with a cover up over herself rummaging around in the trash like a bag lady! There in the trash, soaked in chili, soda and ketchup she found the money, so all was not lost.

Now, if my son and I can just find some money lying on the ground we too will be caught back up! The women are even. We men are $140 behind.

Clifford

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