Day One Hundred and Eighty: Pay Attention

I pay attention to people.

I have this little boy who comes into my shop every once and a while. I wouldn’t call him a regular; he and his brother and his mom come in about once or twice a month. He’s a really nice kid, although a little weird, and has that type-A gotta talk to everyone I meet kind of personality.

He likes the lemonade sorbet. But he won’t eat it if the sorbet has been touched by another ice cream, which in an ice cream shop with like twenty four rotating flavors, happens a lot. What usually happens is someone uses the spade to scrape down the chocolate or whatever, and then doesn’t rinse it well enough before they scrape down the lemon. This doesn’t hurt the sorbet at all, no change in the flavor or anything. It does leave little brown smudges on the sides of the bulk which most people don’t even notice.

This kids notices.

The first time he asked if I could open a new bulk, it was a little annoying. But I did it anyway. Turns out that the kid has some OCD kind of issues. His mother confessed to me that it was hard sometimes for them to eat out because if the glasses or silverware were smudged from the washer, the kid wouldn’t eat it.

He and his mother and brother came in tonight. He always orders the same thing, so he’s pretty easy. But I noticed that our lemon had some choco-smudges on the inside. Before my coworker had a chance to scoop it for him, I grabbed a new bulk, opened it and scooped it from there.

I’d never seen a kid so happy. He just looked at me and said “You remembered!”

It was a big deal to him. It was also a big deal to his mom, who was over the moon that not only had I remembered how he liked his ice cream, but that I hadn’t made a big deal out of making a minor adjustment for him.

And that got me thinking. How many times a day to I get an odd request for something that might really make a difference to someone? Not that often, but when I do, I think I should pay attention.

Challenge to my Reader:

Small things count. Pay attention to the way a regular likes their coffee or who is riding your bus in the morning. Any time you can help someone, take it, even if it means going out of your way a little bit.