paying it forward

a couple of months ago heather and i were eating at an ihop in arlington. as we came in i noticed the hostess had a balloon shaped like elmo. i said cool balloon then noticed that there was a guy making balloons for the kids there. as we were seated i wondered was i to old to have a balloon. i probably was since he never made it to the table.

there was a table next to us that had a little girl maybe four years old with a baby brother not even a year old. the balloon guy made his round and asked the parents of the little girl if she wanted one but they said no, thankyou. i thought why not. i wasn't upset just wondered why the little girl couldn't have one. she kept looking at everyones and had this sad look on her face.

i waited a little longer to see if the guy would come around. i'm thinking maybe adults are to old for balloons. i asked the waitress to ask him to come to our table. he came over and i asked how much were his balloons. they are $2.00. i said i would like to buy one. heather already knew the moment that we walked in that ihop that i was going to leave with one so yes you can imagine the look on her face when i said i wanted a balloon. if it can be done i always ask for something different or hard to do so i got me an elephant.  after he was done i gave him $2 extra dollars and i told him to please go to the table next to us (i pointed) and asked him to make the little girl a balloon. so he walked over and told the little girl which one she wanted and he was going to make it. the parents said o thankyou but we didn't have any cash. i just smiled back and said that's okay.

which brings me to my next story.

i don't remember what me and my dad were talking about but i ended telling him the story about the little girl and the balloon. it probably wasn't important but in the end it made cense. he told me that when me and my sister monica were little. he took us to traders village and he bought us both a balloon.  i wondered how much it would have cost back then but me and my history thinking. all he remembers was that monica somehow let the balloon go on accident and he just saw her eyes get big and watch her balloon fly into the air. i asked if she started to cry i guess because i assume that a kid would. he told me no but the next thing he knew was that a couple had already bought a balloon to give to her.

i'm thinking maybe a 30 year gap that this happened. how something so simple can happen again, a cycle. someone buying my sister a balloon and i 30 years later buying one for a little girl. if i hadn't brought it up i would have never known this episode of our lives. i wonder if my sister remembers.

the question is will the little girl at ihop repeat the cycle 30 years from now. call it what you want. whether its paying it forward, an act of friendliness, or something triggering my mind to keep the cycle going who knows. maybe the actions that we do being small have something to do with what we don't remember of our past.

friends be it whatever it maybe just keep it going.