You are wearing a hat that says you were wounded and received the purple heart. Yes, in 68’, her response did you kill anyone? Yes. She reply I have never talked to someone that has killed someone; how did it feel? It didn’t feel good the first time. It made me sick. By the way, it never felt good, but the first time was the roughest for a Mississippi boy taught they shall not kill. She went about her business and served some tables and came back. Do you have any kids? Yes, four. Have you told them? Yes. (This waitress is very young, maybe 17. )What did they say, me; nothing? I wondered what was going through her head because you kept looking at me as if she had more to say.

I got up to pay my bill, and I heard her tell the boss that she wanted to pay my bill later tonight when she had enough tips. I surely didn’t want to take her money. I went over to thank her and told her it was alright. The gesture, as the gift, was as good as the gift without costing her tips. She says it is something I wants to do. I relented. As I was leaving a couple eating at the outside table, I gave them a twenty-dollar bill and asked them to leave as a tip.

This happened months ago. This came to mind today after a man in the Buttercup Cafe in Bay Saint Louis today over heard me talking to woman about my hat and time in Vietnam, he told the waitress to add mine to his bill, that his best friend in the world died in “68”in Vietnam.

MISSISSIPIAN HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE GREATEST PEOPLE ON EARTH