And it reminds me of a story. The only time I met Mike Tyson.
About a thousand years ago after the Paleozoic but before Y2K I worked at Jerry's Famous Deli in Beverly Hills. Easily one of the the worst jobs I ever had. Gah. Terrible. I worked the 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. shift. We got celebs in all the time so I waited on just about everyone, Johnny Depp, Jerry Seinfeld, Jennifer Anniston, Bob Saget (hehehe). You name 'em, I served 'em eggs at 3 a.m. One night at about 4 Mike Tyson rolled in with 4 chicks all dressed to ring in the next round at one of his boxing matches. Dude is wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiide. Like he's what? 5'10 or something and he's got to be 4 foot wide. His neck? A tree trunk and his noggin? Seriously gigantic. Humungous pumpkin head big. This was maybe a year after the Evander Holyfield incident and not a one of us little waitresses wanted to wait on big, scary Mike Tyson. So it fell to the smallest and sweetest of our crew, the one who didn't know who he was. I am so ashamed I don't remember any of the ladies names that I waited with, they were such a wonderful and funny lot, so I don't remember the name of the poor sweet angel who had moved from the Philipines a mere two years earlier, who was still learning English and trying to master the minefield that are our colloquialisms. Bless her heart she trotted her nearly 5 feet of energy over there and introduced herself and took their order. Who knew Mike Tyson was a chatter? Not us, but he was and for all the scary tattoos and physical imposingness (I am well aware that is not even a word!) he was a total sweetheart to her. Polite, funny and we all felt very silly for being afraid to wait on him. Every time she went to the table he would chat with her for about 5 minutes, which is an eternity when you've got other tables! While they were chatting the bell rang in the kitchen and she glanced to the line knowing that his food was up and would soon be cold. She tried to make her excuses to go fetch his food (I don't know why we all huddled around the computer watching and not one of us made an effort to bring it to the table for her. Shame on us.) Finally she smiled so sweetly at him and misspoke a phrase she'd just learned a few days ago. I know because we taught it to her, among several others while on shift.
"I'm sorry Mr. Tyson, I'd love to stay here and chew your ear off but I've got to get your food."
And she scooted off into the kitchen.
We all stood there, afraid to breathe and then with one rush of activity raced into the kitchen surrounding her with oh my Gods, and what did you just says. And to answer your next question, no she hadn't seen the fight and had no idea what she'd said that was funny/horrifying.
He was not bothered at all by it. He smiled and even teased her a little for giving him a hard time. He continued to be a perfect gentleman, even with 4 scantily clad ladies as his dates and he tipped her a hundred bucks. Say what you want about him, the man handled that situation with class.
My memory of him will always be a pleasant one and my heart breaks for his family.
1 comment:
This is a funny post;) Especially about chewing the ear off. I feel sick to my stomach for his family also. An accident like that could happen to anyone. BTW you look great in the self portraits;)
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