When The Flowers Dry

Guest Post #2

Your server is here, the unsung hero. Enjoy this heartfelt story from Schmuckraker

The table is covered with plates, dishes, glasses. The leftovers of food that few could eat.

The server looks at the game for what it is. Clean it as fast as it can be cleaned, as professional as it can be done.

The tension in the room is thick.,. The music plays in the distance a song of melancholy dinner blues. It's another wedding. Another class reunion. Another birthday party.

The room is suddenly spinning...

The smells of perfumes and colognes, the odors of beer and prime rib and shrimp abound in the restaurant...

Most people don't see the affect a server has on life. Most diners disregard the impact a waiter or waitress has on the overall spirit of the evening out. Most customers await their food and forget the feelings of the often nameless server. The person that writes "thank you" in happy letters on the check.

A server's impact can be either severe or wonderful. A friendly server can make a dinner party's emotion pick up like new snowfall under a moonlit sky. A server of lesser skills can be an inferno that never stops burning until the dinner is over.

A wedding can be ruined by spilled gravy or coffee. The faked spirits of a class reunion can be killed with an angry bartender.

A server is so often invisible. There's a face but no name. There's a claim of a soul even when the customer's ignorance is bliss. It's easy to forget the feelings of the server. The $2.83 an hour worker is there to bring out your food, but there's so much more.

Your steak temperature won't be right unless the server gets it right. The salad dressing won't be correct unless the server writes the right one. The overall experience will be poor unless the server goes out of his or her way to get to know what the table wants.

A table doesn't always want the server to bend down and take the order. You must know the audience. A good server knows the persons that want privacy. In contract, a good server knows the tables that need humor to break up the monotony of a disastrous dinner party.

A good server knows when to recommend food and knows when to watch for the false teeth and tell customers professionally to avoid the pork chops.

And a good server is there, through thick and thin, sweat and often blood when clumsily cutting lemons. A good server is there to make sure the dinner goes well. Though he or she doesn't eat it's a pleasure to understand a table's overall experience was one they want to have again.

A good dinner is made better so often with a smile .. And a good server makes sure dessert is dressed to perfection to top off the night.

And when the funeral party's coffee gets cold, or when the birthday cake's candles are out.. the server is there. When the class reunion's 'memorial candles' blow out, the server is there.. Ready to clean.

And when the wedding flowers are dried and the groom is clearly intoxicated and the bride frustrated.. when the centerpieces are gone.. the server is there. The hero of the day.. so often the unsung hero.

When the night is done and the server chooses a few Coors Lights and french fries, the customer is home--not cleaning tables or putting away dishes that dishwashers can't get put away on their own.

The server is there.

The unsung hero. Without the server your dining experience would be forever altered...The hero of the day, nameless.

But it's just as well. Because in the end, for the server, all the parties blend together in an aura of dirty dishes, broken glasses, and customers' faces.

And when the customer's bed is filled with snores and dreams, the server cleans the last bit of food off the floor and goes home.

Ready to start the day all over again in mere hours...while you sleep

Thanks Schmuckraker for your great story about the under-appreciated server and for taking part of Guest Blogger Month. Please visit Schmuckraker's blog, There's Soup on My Fly and support the people that support this blog.