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An Experience At Max and Erma’s

By Jeff “Mario” Smith

I want to share something with my family, and all my brothers and sisters.

My son, of whom I am so very pleased, is a Sergeant in the 82nd Airborne and an OIF Veteran. He came home on leave last night for ten days before he goes to a new school at Ft. Bragg for 6 weeks. It is great to have him home.

Today, I had to take him to the bank for some business, and from there we went to the Harley shop in Lexington, KY, a brand new one, and then to lunch.

All the restaurants you can name are at the Man-O-War exit at Hamburg Place off I-75 in Lexington. We saw an Applebees but wrote that off because of their arrogant big wig who is also our Vice Mayor, Mike Scanlon. You gotta know all that this guy has done to understand, he is a piece of work. Add to that the terrible and insulting service I have received at Applebees in the past and they are on the top of my black list.

Denny's is also on the black list because of their allowing the fleecer and extortionist Jesse Jackson to take millions of dollars from them, willingly.

We saw a Max & Erma's and a Raffertys and a Fridays. My son chose Max & Ermas.

We strolled in and got a table, there weren't many customers at 3PM. We did the typical ordering and small talk with the waitress and started talking about what has been going on in his military career. When the food came, he started digging in and I asked him if I could say a grace. I thanked God for bringing my son home to family from Iraq (the first year), and for bringing him safely home on leave to spend time with us, and for all His blessings, and I asked for safety for all our troops in harm's way, in the name of

Jesus Christ, Amen.

Apparently the waitress overheard our prayer and came over to the table to ask if Ryan was in the military. He answered in the affirmative with a mouth full of food and motioned for me to explain further. I did, as you might expect a proud father to do, and the waitress proceeded to say that Sergeant Smith's meal was bought by the management and thanked him for his service. What a moment!

There are good people out there who appreciate what the 4 tenths of one percent of Americans do for the rest of us and the 3% of Americans who have an actual emotional attachment to the war through family or

friends who serve. God bless them.

Max & Erma's at Hamburg Place on the Man-O-War exit off I-75 in Lexington, KY just gained a loyal customer who will go out of his way to eat there from now on. Additionally, they have a painting of Uncle Sam on one of their walls that is very patriotic. The manager who did this couldn't have been a day over 30 either!

It gets better. When the manager came over to personally thank Ryan, I thanked him for the nice gesture. He refused my thanks and said it was he who needed to say thank-you. If you see a soldier, airman, marine, or

seaman out there, buy him or her a meal. It isn't about the meal; it is about the gesture and the thank you. If you haven't served, or had family serve in harm's way, you don't know how much this small gesture meant.

To my Vietnam Veteran brothers who suffered so much at the hands of a disrespectful and forgetful nation, I thank you for blazing the trail for this new breed of military who will NOT go through what you went through

because you have been working for over 35 years to educate the sheeple of America about the travesty of what they did. God bless you all, my heroes.

I have been feeling down a bit lately and this was a nice shot in the arm. God bless our troops!

Jeff "Mario" Smith

Lexington, KY

Task Force Omega of KY

Patriot Guard Riders

American Legion

AMVETS

Veteran

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