Chapter 10: Is It Not All You Can Eat?

I grabbed the man by the front of his shirt and Arthur took him by one arm and we dragged him out of the room and into the main area of the restaurant. Then, right there, in front of all the employees and customers, I raised my voice.

“NOW THEN, HOW THE FUCK CAN I HELP YOU? YOU FUCKING CAME INTO OUR PRIVATE ROOM AND FUCKING SWORE IN FRONT OF MY CHILDREN LIKE SOME KIND OF FUCKING USELESS COCKSUCKER! SO, NOW THAT WE’RE OUT OF THERE, LET’S TALK ABOUT WHAT YOU’RE FUCKING PROBLEM IS, YOU BASTARD PIECE OF FUCKING SHIT!”

The man looked around in horror as every eye in the restaurant was looking at us. There was the sound of a glass dish hitting the floor and breaking, but other than that the place was quiet as a tomb.

“Please take your party out of the restaurant,” now he was speaking quietly but with a slight tremor in his voice.

But I wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.

“WHY THE FUCK WOULD WE LEAVE YOUR PLACE? FIRST YOU COME INTO OUR PRIVATE ROOM AND STARE AT THE WOMEN NURSING THEIR BABIES. THEN YOU CUSS OUT LOUD IN FRONT OF ALL THOSE CHILDREN. AND NOW YOU WANT US TO LEAVE? WE HAVEN’T DONE ANYTHING. MAYBE YOU SHOULD LEAVE UNTIL YOU STOP BEING A LOUDMOUTH, UNCOUTH, DICKHEAD!

The sweat was forming on his forehead and just then Arthur nudged my shoulder and looked in the direction of a rather large, very unhappy looking, woman.

“Oh ... Hello?” I said politely.

“Hello, I’m the manager. What is going on? Is there a problem?”

In the midst of the craziness, Arthur had walked to the kitchen and gotten the manager and mentioned that there was a problem in the main dining room. I looked at her and spoke in a normal tone of voice.

“The only problem is that this man came into our private party room and began to ogle the breasts of the three women in there who were nursing their babies, in private, and then he began to curse in front of the more than one dozen children that are in there. I removed him from the room, and we have been having a rather loud discussion in front of the entire restaurant.”

She looked at the man and quietly said, “I expect a written report from you within the next sixty minutes. Now get in the back and let me speak to this gentleman.”

“Sir, I heard much of what you said. I am normally an advocate for the customers, but your volume was out of line.”

“I’m sorry. But I lost my temper when he did what he did and I decided that if he could raise his voice and curse in front of my children, then I should return the favor in front of his guests and employees.”

“May I come to the party room?”

“Of course, it’s your store.”

I turned and walked towards the room, followed by the manager and Arthur, who, I noticed, was adept at staying out of the way. We walked in to see my little children upset that I had become violent and the moms upset because I had become violent and my eldest daughter upset because her husband had helped me become violent.

Lynn was about to speak when the large woman walked in behind me.

“Hello. My name is Erin Snodgrass and I’m the manager of this restaurant. First, I apologize for the actions of my assistant manager. He will be dealt with. But second, I am going to ask that you please finish your meals and leave as soon as possible. The actions of this man,” she pointed at me, “was in excess of what a normal reaction should be.”

That set off the nuclear weapon known as Beth Adams. My buxom wife stood, still nursing two babies, and stood beside her daughter-in-law.

“I’ll need the name of the sexist pig who came in here and stared at the breasts of these ladies. The laws of this city allow women to nurse children their children as long as they are in private or under cover. These ladies were in a private room and the only people who entered were females. The only time a male entered the room was when these mothers exposed themselves to nurse. I don’t think it was a coincidence that then your assistant came in at that time to enjoy the boob show. I also want the name of the inconsiderate person who hired him. I live just down the street and I plan to organize the local La Leche League to begin picketing your restaurant.”

Erin Manager stood her ground, never flinched and then spoke calmly and professionally.

“You do what you need to do, ma’am. But I can’t have a customer screaming and cursing at the top of his lungs in the middle of my place.”

“But it’s OK for an employee to do it in front of children?” Beth replied.

“No, it’s not and he will have to face the consequences for his actions.”

“Those actions had better consist solely of his termination from employment. I will accept nothing less,” Beth said, as she was starting to get hot, so Erin stepped in.

“Excuse me. I’m Erin O’Dell and as one of the women that was involved, I’d like to know why your man had such a severe reaction. The man who reacted is my husband, Paul. He is very protective because over the years I’ve been accosted and assaulted because of these,” she pointed at her breasts. “We make it a point to be good customers when we go somewhere. We strive to have my children and those of these other ladies’ act in a polite fashion. The children were upset that the man raised his voice and swore. They were also upset that my husband had to become physical with the man to stop him from continuing.

“We normally go to buffet’s as a treat so the children can sample a wide variety of food. We’ve taught them to behave in a certain manner. We’d really like to remain and finish our meal and our afternoon together. Beth is from here, but we are on vacation from Idaho.”

Erin Snodgrass looked at the blonde standing several inches taller than her. She also took note of the two massive breasts that were feeding two infants. She looked past Erin Mom and around the room. She then noted that the room was not a mess and that all the eyes of the children were on her. After a few seconds of observing the room, a cute little blonde girl got out of her chair and walked to wards her.

“Hello, Ms. Snodgrass. My name is Margaret Erin O’Dell. I’m sorry if my family caused you a problem.” She looked up at her mother and continued. “Mom, if they don’t want us here, we should leave. The servers have been very friendly so we should leave them a tip after we clean up our tables.”

Erin Snodgrass’s jaw dropped open as Margaret Erin continued.

“Ma’am, we’ll be ready to leave in a few minutes. We really liked all of the food here ... except the beets. None of us kids like them at all.”

Margaret Erin turned and walked back to her place and began to place her utensils on her plate and stack it on top of another empty plate. The other children, even Sunshine and Ariel, began to do the same. The manager stood there in amazement. Erin Mom returned to her seat and joined the moms in cleaning up their places.

“We’ll be gone as soon as we can,” I said quietly to Erin Manager. “If you have bus trays on a cart, we’ll put the dishes in those, and if you have a trash barrel, we’ll throw the napkins and maybe some diapers in it. I’m sorry to have raised my voice and to have been so vulgar.”

“My people will take care of all that,” she said in a softer tone.

“If you don’t mind this is a part of the kids learning curve. They pride themselves in leaving a place cleaner than they found it. At home all of the local restaurants love to see us coming.”

She looked at the children cleaning and then back to me.

“Are you a Mormon or something? These children are all yours, aren’t they?”

“We are not Mormons, but we are something. And yes, all of these children, except the two older girls, are mine. Those two girls are the children of my daughter Beth, here.”

“Mr...”

“O’Dell. Paul O’Dell.”

“I’m sorry for the way this ended. I hope that you understand that despite the actions of my employee, I can’t have a customer doing what you did out there. Had you done it in here there would be much less of a problem.”

“I do understand, and again, I’m sorry but I couldn’t react that way in front of my children. I thought that he might be the manager and felt the need to make a point about the inappropriateness of his tone and actions. Now if you’ll get us something to put the dishes in, we’ll finish up and be on our way.”

She smiled slightly and turned to find our two main two servers behind her.

“Please get these nice people two bus carts,” she said before turning back to us. “Put everything in the trays, including napkins and any leftovers. That’s how we do it.”

Feeling like she was making peace, I smiled and answered.

“Leftovers? Look at this Herd, are you kidding? They even ate the beets!” She laughed and nodded before turning to leave.

In a few seconds our two main servers returned with a couple of bus carts and bar towels. The kids cleaned the place up and wiped down the tables and then lined up at the door, to say thank you to each server they saw. I was last out the door leaving three $50 bills on the clean table. On the way out, I told the one server who seemed to be in charge of our room that one of the bills was hers and one was her helpers and the third was to be split between the other servers who popped in and out to help.

“Thank you so much. It will come in very handy.” She had tears in her eyes. “Times have been rough, and I only get to work on a couple of weekday afternoons when it’s not usually busy.”

I nodded to her and followed Blossom out the door to see the servers waving at the Herd as they exited. The manager was waiting at the door with a piece of paper.

“Mr. O’Dell I’m sorry. Thank you and your family for being more than gracious.”

“Before I go, tell me something about the lady who was our main server.”

“Her husband was military and was killed overseas. She has two children and is working three jobs to get by. I try to give her as many hours as I can, but she can’t work the busiest times because she has to be home with her kids.”

“I left her a tip; would you please give her this as well?” I handed Erin Manager another $50 bill.

“She’ll appreciate this a lot. Before you go, I’m sorry about what happened, please take this. For your records. I’ve comped all your meals. If the credit doesn’t show up on your credit card in a week to ten days, please let me know.”