Waitresses have to be one of the most unappreciated workers in our society. I don't know about now, but in the early 70's it was legal to pay them less than minimum wage because it was assumed they would make up for it in tips. That was presupposing that customers would actually TIP the waitress after all that hiney kissing and effort. More often than not, the dishwasher at a nice restaurant often brought home more than a new waitress.
So you can understand when I tell you about a certain waitress who had not just a bad, but a thoroughly rotten day. She was very new, and newbies often get the worst tables and hardest problems, like youth groups who upturn uncapped salt cellars and leave the mess to the waitress, untipped. She was running around in a panic, tears welling up in her eyes as one after another table left her little or no tip. And this was a posh restaurant mind you. By the end of this terrible evening, she got a table of 8 and they ran her through the ringer. But she took it chin up with the thought of a big 8-person tip. But these terrible people gave her the last insult and left her nothing. She broke down and I watched her sobbing while trying to maintain an outward positive image somehow.
At a table in the center of the room was a young man who was rather quiet and taking this all in. He was her only comfort, till he got up to leave too. The waitress went to clean off the table. Suddenly I heard this whooping kind of scream and saw her waving something over her head! What could it be I thought. She went from person to person ecstatic over something and finally reached me. That quiet young man it seems had made a statement louder than any you could imagine. He had left her, in her now trembling hand, a crisp new fifty dollar bill. And his dinner only cost less than ten dollars.
My simple point today is that it only takes one person to turn the worst of nightmares into the best of dreams. There could be a "nice young man" among the PTB - just one is all it takes - to make the difference and turn Battlestar Galactica into the wonderful continuation it was meant to be. We the fans would whoop and cry out just like that waitress friend I knew, knowing that someone, finally someone, appreciated us for what we are and what we do. More importantly, the dream of a magnificent BSG that we see so clearly would come to pass.
It only takes one person to make your day. May we find such a person to turn our tears into joy.
