I used to go to Tim Horton’s every Monday to get an Iced coffee. I’d regularly talk to the staff there and before long they’d know my name as well as my usual order, to start making my drink as soon as they saw me enter the building. They’d smile and ask me what was new with my life and if there was time, I’d tell them everything they wanted to know. (Usually more.)
They don’t have Tim Horton’s in Kentucky, though, so when down there visiting the wife’s family, I’d have to settle for Dairy Queen’s Iced Coffee equivalent.
“You really like that Iced Coffee?” Brenda, the Dairy Queen worker asked me.
“I do,” I responded with a smile. “I have one all the time at Tim Horton’s.”
“Is he related to the Horton family up there on Richmond Road?” she then asked me.
“No,” I responded, a little puzzled. “Tim Horton’s is a Canadian based donut and coffee chain of stores and there’s one in Columbus.”
“Oh,” she responded with a smile of understanding, “from what part of Canada are you?”
I stood there and blinked in confusion for a second. “Manitoba,” I then responded, deciding to just agree with the woman who clearly wasn’t listening to what I was saying.
“Oh it’s beautiful country up there,” the woman then happily responded.
“Isn’t it,” I replied with a smile.
The wife thought it was slightly callous of me to let the Dairy Queen worker believe we were from Canada and told me as much as we headed to the car.
“When people aren’t listening to what I’m saying and it’s just small talk anyway, it’s just easier to agree with them in order to get through the conversation,” I told her.
“Well it still seems mean,” she responded.
I didn’t want to unknowingly be callous to others, so the next day at work I headed to my Tim Horton’s and asked the workers there if I’d ever been rude to them.
“Not at all,” one responded after hearing my question.
“How about you, Rosemary,” I asked another worker there, “have I ever been rude to you.”
“I’m doing fine today,” she responded with a smile, “and you?”
1 Comment
September 18, 2007 at 12:15 am
I think Laura was just embarrassed to be accused of being Canadian. I sure would be. Soviet Canuckistan, has anything good ever come from it? Outside of Mario Lemieux, that is.