LITTLE PITCHERS HAVE BIG EARS

We were eating at a nice restaurant with family members and as my husband picked up the bill to pay, he placed a 20% tip on the table. At the time, my grand-nephew was about ten years old and he spoke up and said, "Uncle Gerald tips too much." I remained calm and said, sweetly, with not a trace of sarcasm, "I didn't know that you had studied percentages in school already." He asked, "What do you mean?" I replied, "Well, to know how much tip to leave you'd have to know how much the bill is and to be able to figure percentage." I could tell the discomfort level by the others at the table, as it was obvious that a child who had no idea of the total of the bill or how to figure percentages, had heard that Gerald tipped too much spoken by someone else in his family.

"Little pitchers have big ears", my mother always said. I handed the bill to the child and said, "How much tip do you think it should be for this amount?" He shrugged and said he didn't know. In his Christmas stocking that year, I put a "tip card". He's grown up now; I hope he uses the tip card.

A couple of defining moments in my husband's life:

Gerald was a bellhop at the Hotel Washington and this was before Route 71 was constructed; people traveling from Cincinnati to Columbus would pass through Washington Court House. One evening, Cab Calloway stayed overnight and Gerald carried his bags to his room. Cab Calloway gave him a $5.00 tip!

Gerald was a caddy at the Washington Country Club and the customary tip was $2.00--two $1.00 bills folded together--when Gerald went home and counted his tips, there was a $1.00 bill and under it was a $10.00 bill. He didn't know which person had given him that tip. My husband is a regular Abe Lincoln--he called all the ones for whom he had caddied to tell one that he thought there was a mistake, but when he spoke to Dr. Griffeth, he received this answer, "No mistake, son, I won the tournament!"

Those are the kind of men my husband emulates!