This story is from when I am very young, probably three or four years old. My family is on vacation to Mackinac Island, an island in Lake Huron. One of the things the island is most famous for is its fudge, and at least for my family, it is an unwritten law that whenever we visit, we have to get at least two kinds of fudge.

We’re in the middle of a confectionary that sells mostly fudge. It’s crowded, given that it’s the height of the tourist season, and the line is so long that my parents let me stand by the glass barrier that separates the shop into the main area and the kitchen so I can watch a handful of workers cutting up huge slabs of fresh fudge while we wait for my parents to get to the front of the line.

I’m completely engrossed by the process, even though I’m not really tall enough to see more than what’s on the table right in front of me.

One of the workers notices how closely I’m watching what’s happening and silently gives me a small piece of soft chocolate fudge from the trimmings. To my three- or four-year-old self, this is the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me.

I don’t stop smiling for hours even after I eat the fudge.

If you’re out there, kind fudge shop worker, thank you. I’ve been to Mackinac Island a few more times since, and every time I think of you and that little piece of fudge.

This story was included in our May 2020 Inspirational Roundup.

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This exchange happens almost every day with different customers.

Me: “Hi. May I get you started with something to drink?”

Customer: *To their toddler* “Honey, can you tell the lady what you would like to drink? “

Toddler: “Chocolate milk!”

Customer: “It’s ‘chocolate milk, please.’ Remember, we use our manners.”

Toddler: “Chocolate milk, please.”

Me: “Okay, and for you?”

Customer: “A Coke.” 

No “please,” just exactly what they’d scolded their child for. I don’t think they’re being rude; I just find the exchange to be amusing every time it happens.

Me: “Would you like paper or plastic bags today?”

The customer immediately slides their credit card through the machine.

Customer: “Credit.”

I work at a major fast food chain. Two times, this has happened with the same woman. I’m standing at the cash register in the lobby, taking orders.

Me: “Hi. What can I get for you today?”

Customer: “I would like a #6, but just the sandwich. And a drink.”

Me: “Okay, so that’s a [#6 sandwich] and a drink. Correct?”

Customer: “That’s right.”

Me: “Okay, that’ll be [total].”

The woman pays for her meal and the food comes up. She looks at the food on the tray.

Customer: “This isn’t right. I wanted the six-piece [chicken] meal!”

The manager gave her the food she claimed she’d ordered. I resolved if she came in again I’d ask the manager to take her order.

After college, I moved in with a friend from high school, renting a room in her house. The house’s washer had been malfunctioning — and by that, I mean shooting water back out the pipes — and I offered to meet with a plumber after work so we could get it fixed.  

The plumbers were two super nice gentlemen who figured out there were roots growing all throughout the plumbing and would need to be removed. One temporary option was $500; the more permanent option was $1,000.

My friend had left me a blank check for this but I wanted to check in with her first. Upon calling and telling her the situation, she immediately started freaking out over the cost but said to go ahead with the $1,000 option. 

Ten minutes after the process had started, she called back telling me to stop them from doing anything because these men were con artists and lying to us. I insisted that I had seen the roots myself on their camera and that the men had already started. 

These two men could hear her screaming and crying in my ear about how these men were lying and I was too stupid to know that. She wanted me to make them pull a piece of root out from the pipes to prove they weren’t lying. The process these men were using was to shoot a high-pressure hose down the pipes to break them up, meaning no “proof” for her.

She eventually just left work and came home and “thanked” them in a sarcastically cheerful manner and, thankfully, paid up. I informed her that, in the future, if she wanted something fixed in the house, she’d better be there herself.