July 18, 2021
If you watch enough news on TV, you would think that there are people fighting on every street corner in America and no one is getting along with anyone else anywhere. I saw something yesterday afternoon that refutes all that and makes me think that there is hope for America after all. As Marie and I were taking our granddaughter, Rileigh back home yesterday, I was a witness to the strangest thing. We were hungry (if you ever travel with me and Marie, you will discover that we stay hungry) and decided to stop and eat at Mildred’s Restaurant in Ardmore, Alabama. When we walked inside, we discovered the place was full. When we were seated, we discovered something else. They were short-handed so you couldn’t order from the menu, you had to eat at the buffet. I could have made this little post about all the gluttony in which a person participates when he or she eats from an all-you-can-eat buffet, but I will save that for another time. What I will mention is that in this restaurant, surrounding the food trough, I mean buffet, were white folks and black folks. There were Asian people and Middle Eastern people, skinny people, hefty people, tall people, and short people. Some were decked out in Sunday clothes while others were dressed in shorts and flip-flops. The amazing thing was, everybody was having a good time. In spite of our differences, we all were laughing and cutting up while filling our plates. There was even a guy in an Alabama shirt laughing and having a good time with another man who wore a Florida Gator shirt. I thought that perhaps the world had come to an end, or that the rapture had occurred. Then it dawned on me that the scene I was witnessing was a precursor of what heaven just might look like. People from all different cultures and ethnicities getting along and fellowshipping with one another. I also wondered if the news and TV people are paying attention to the wrong folks. If they would come down to the Heart of Dixie in Ardmore, Alabama and film folks at Mildred’s Restaurant on a Friday night, America would discover what I realized last night. I realized that in that a small out of the way restaurant at that moment in time, hope and laughter could be found, in spite of our differences and that my friends, made my day.
Be blessed and be a blessing . . . Andy