I always tip well for services that are rendered well. I also make an effort to be very nice to wait staff; I would kind of like it if, at the end of the day, the person I was nice to thought, "Wow, what a hard day, but, you know there was that one nice customer..."...
I bartended at a rock club here in Hollywood in the mid-70s and had to suffer through the ego trips of many patrons, among them some celebrities, who seemed to think the world owed them everything for just being there. There were some good moments such as when a few members of Sha-Na-Na (!) came into the club. They were rather ill-treated by some of the "too cool for the room" rock wannabes in the club but, just after they left, their manager came back into the club and presented me with a $100 tip on behalf of the guys and said they thanked me for being nice to them during their visit. Back in the 70s, $100 was a goodly amount of money and I was happy to recieve the tip. Another person who was a bit of a regular was Keith Moon. He always came in and was just a great friend to everyone who worked at the club. He would always ask how I was doing and he really was sincere in asking. Once when I took a turn at running the door, there was was an altercation I was involved in and the manager and bouncer both grabbed the guy I had the hassle with and shoved him out the door and gave him a good thrashing. As I was trying to restore some order at the door, Moon suddenly appeared at my side, rolling up his sleeves, saying "I heard there was a fight, do you need any help?" I told him it was basically over and he asked if I was OK, and when I sais "Yes", he said just to let him know if there was any further problems and went back to his table in the club. When Moon went back to England, just before he left, he dropped by the club and gave each of the employees a gift as a thank you for treating him so well...
Those were things done by people who didn't have to do what they did and there were others who were just as nice and I remember them wll even after nearly 40 years. That's why I remember how I felt and when I am someplace where there is wait staff or bartenders, I try to treat them as I had wanted to be trated when I was in their situation...
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