Why does nobody talk about the regular who bought me lunch every Tuesday for a year?

Evan Cooper · 2026-09-17T03:40:04.59315+00:00

I worked the register at a diner in Akron, Ohio for about 4 years and there was this older guy named Walt who came in every Tuesday around 2pm. He always ordered the same thing, a club sandwich with no tomato and a glass of unsweetened iced tea, and he always sat at the counter instead of a booth. One Tuesday about 8 months in he slid a $20 across the counter after paying his check and said "get yourself something real for lunch, not the fries you pick at back there." I told him he didn't have to and he just shrugged and said "I know I don't have to." After that it became a thing every single Tuesday, and it kept going until he moved to Florida to live near his daughter. He died about 6 months after that, and his daughter actually called the diner to tell us because she found our number in his phone book. I still think about that $20 sometimes when I'm on break at a job where nobody says two words to me. Has anyone else had a regular who did something small that stuck with you way longer than it should have?

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Why does nobody talk about the regular who bought me lunch every Tuesday for a year? | Behind the Counter - Talk Freely