Bud #3: A Stale Birthday Cake and Randy Gets a Kiss

Last time I was out to Bud’s Geauga Corners they were holding a food drive for the hunger center. The community around Bud’s Geauga Corners brought an incredible amount of donations to Bud’s. The bar and the bar stools were completely covered with food and supplies.  Bud, the proprietor of Bud’s Geauga Corners sat at a booth with Randy. Together they shared a diet cola with a lemon slice. Randy was Bud’s friend and part time employee. Randy had served in Vietnam. His return home was full of troubles. But now with Bud’s help he was a long time in recovery.  Randy really enjoyed sharing a non-alcoholic drink with Bud. Both of the men were amazed and proud of their community for this massive outpouring. 

I sat at a booth in Bud’s on that Sunday afternoon and watched the food drive.   I wasn’t a bit surprised at the generosity.  Lots of the people around Geauga Corners had been through tough times. They knew what it was like. They wanted to share. The food drive ended around 4 o’clock. Bud closed up early. Bud and Randy stood staring at the massive pile of donated items. Finally, Randy said “On Monday morning I’ll load all this up in my pickup and take it to the hunger center.

The following morning, with his pickup loaded, Randy started toward the hunger center.  As he drove he was thinking. At the intersection he turned and headed toward Middlefield. He drove to the bank. At the teller’s window he told the teller he had an account and asked for his balance. The teller looked it up and told him it was $1412.23. Randy didn’t hesitate. He said “I’d like to make a withdrawal of $1,400. Could you make me a cashier’s check for that? The teller looked up and paused a moment. She saw his military baseball cap with the insignias. The teller said “Who should I make the check to?”

Randy said, “Please make it out to the hunger center.”

She wrote out the check. When she was done she looked up and said “You Vets are really something else.”

By the time Randy got to the hunger center word has spread. The teller had called her sister who volunteered there. She relayed the story. When Randy pulled his pickup into the lot all the volunteers were waiting for him. He handed them the check. After they unloaded the truck they gathered round him thanked him and shook his hand.

A little lady with curly gray hair grabbed him and gave him a hug and a kiss on his cheek. She said “I really go for you soldiers, especially one like you.”  The group laughed and clapped.

Randy’s face turned beet red. He looked down and he shuffled his feet.

As all of this was happening that judge sauntered in with a plastic bag containing two cans of food and a cake in the bakery box. With great ceremony he handed the cake to one of the volunteers. In a loud voice he announced that this was a birthday cake for one of the children. The worker took it and smiled a polite smile. As she sat the birthday cake on a table she noticed the expiration tag on the side of the box. It said use by November 15. She looked up at the calendar on the wall. It was January. The cake was so stale that it would have to be discarded. She had heard that judge often did things like this. That judge started to make a speech about his generosity, but no one was really listening. They were all talking to Randy. Randy just shuffled his feet and looked embarrassed.

Later, when Randy got in his pickup he realized it was that judge who had come in with the stale cake. Normally Randy would have been enraged, but Randy didn’t care. He hadn’t felt this good in years. Randy chuckled to himself, “If I get to feeling any better I might sprout wings and fly home. And I got a kiss from a pretty lady.” As he was driving back to Geauga Corners he started thinking about that judge and his stale cake.

He was thinking that maybe he could handle those memories of JAG’s who disrespected him. Did it really matter if that judge had been a desk jockey JAG.  He thought that maybe he could stop caring if that judge had been a JAG. He thought when I get back to Geauga Corners I think I’ll buy my friend Bud a diet cola.  He also began to think that he might not need that lemon slice in his diet cola.

NEXT TIME: Stuffed Birds of a Feather

The opinions expressed are solely those of Dave Partington and of course Bud, Randy, Harold, Larry and the rest of the guys sitting at the bar at Bud’s. Bud’s Geauga Corners is a work of fiction. Bud’s Geauga Corners is paid for solely by Dave Partington.