Evan Seeks Employment

You know you have an 8-year-old when... he goes out looking for a job? Let me tell you the story.

As many of you know, we moved last November and are now situated off Marion Road, quite a ways from town. About a half mile before our turn, there is a tiny, dilapidated restaurant called "The Grill". It does not seem to have regular hours, but the lights are often on early in the morning. So one morning, a Saturday, Evan and I stopped in to see what it was all about. The lights were off, but the door was open. Inside, we found one of the oldest people in the state, a bent-0ver old woman with train tracks all over her face and a very hunched back. She was accompanied by another elderly woman sitting in a booth.

It turns out that the first woman and her husband founded the restaurant in the late 1940s. Of course, he, being a man, went off and died, leaving her with these buildings and the restaurant. I don't know how long she carried on in the regular way, but now she uses the extra buildings as rental storage and cooks sourdough pancakes to be ready on weekday mornings for a pack of retired teachers. She said she could not make any more pancakes because she doesn't have the strength to do more than one batch of batter.

So Evan had been thinking about this. A few days later, he asked if he could go back and ask the old woman if he could help her. He figured that he would mix the batter and then she'd be able to make two, or three, of however many batches she wanted. We tried to stall him, thinking maybe he'd forget, but he didn't. He kept after the point. So yesterday I drove him back to The Grill and made him go in by himself. His deal, after all.

He was probably inside for five minutes -- long enough for Daddy to wonder if I shouldn't go in and see what was happening. But finally he emerged.

"She said no, Dad. And then she told me why she had to say no. Something about how you make sourdough pancakes. She just went on and on. It was really boring."

Well, of course I was very proud of Evan for seeing a need and trying to help. He didn't really even want any money. He just thought that maybe he could help an old lady who was trying to keep the last shreds of her restaurant alive.

If you need any help...