Doorman in Flip-Flops

For Father's Day we ended up at Olive Garden after being told there was 2-hour wait at PF Chang's (for which we had a gift card from Paul's generous boss. Maybe we'll use it for his birthday at the end of this month.) I don't like Olive Garden at all, but it wasn't my day to pick.

We got there and were told there'd be a 25-minute wait. That's fine.
We took seats outside on the benches and retaining walls close to the front door. Joel found various forms of entertainment. One of them was this: hold the door open for guests.

Joel loves to hold the door whenever and wherever he can for people. No one has to tell him. He just does it. It's something his daddy always does for me at the car. It's something his older brothers have modeled and told him "that's what real men do." And, of course, he'll do anything to be cool, to be a "real man" just like them. You can tell it gives him a special feeling, because he will hold the door for a very long trail of people.

It was cute watching him stand there with his body keeping the heavy door propped open for those coming and going. Old ladies patted him on the head. Big burly men smiled as if to say, "Look at this kid showing me up!" A frail old man in a wheelchair acknowledged his help with a nod.

I wish I'd had a videocamera for what he did after about 25 people shuffled in and out. He took off his flip-flop and started to place it under the door to prop it open.

We chuckled in unison and told him "good idea but you need to keep your shoes on." We then told him he didn't have to keep holding the door if he was tired. He took a little break but went back to serving at the door until our flashing disk lit up.