Saturday, I took my aunt M out to lunch. It’s always a delight to see her. She’s my father’s sister, in her late 80s now. We decided to go to one of those big Chinese buffet places. I drove us over there, found a decent parking spot, helped my aunt out of the car, and in we went. Now let me say that my aunt looks pretty good for her age – not a day over 80 you might say. The greeter in the restaurant welcomes us and says, looking at me, “I see we have a senior citizen today”. She then looked at my aunt and said, “Can I see some ID please?” My aunt looked at me, clearly not understanding what was going on. I realized this was about a seniors discount on lunch, so I said, “My aunt is 89 years old, but she will not be showing you any ID”. “But we need to see ID” “Look, you know she’s a senior citizen…..just let us sit down for lunch, OK?”
So we’re seated and we enjoy lunch. My aunt likes the place, much like my dad did in his later years. There’s a certain bustle of activity going on, lots of people enjoying themselves. After lunch, we had a coffee and we’re chatting about this and that when our server comes up to the table. She leans over close to my aunt and says “Can I see some ID please?” I interrupted and said, “My aunt is 89 years old. You can see she’s a senior citizen. Leave her alone please. She’s not going to show you any ID”. The bill came, and we were charged as two adults – no seniors discount. I didn’t care about the discount. If they had never mentioned it, I would have been perfectly happy, no problem. It really bugged me to see their determination to extract some ID from my aunt though. She obviously didn’t get what they wanted or why. I would have even been fine about them asking the first time. When they asked a second time, though, I will admit I was annoyed.
I paid the bill, and wrote a love note to the manager…
My aunt loves dogs, and wanted to visit Memphis, so off we went to Anchovy World Headquarters. Memphis gave her all kinds of the type of slobbery affection she specializes in. I played a few songs for her on the accordion. M closed her eyes, swayed to the music and slid into napland. “You had a little nap.” “Did not.” “I think you did.” “I wasn’t napping. I was thinking.”
27th Street 
Hilarious story Salvelinas!
A silly situation to be sure especially since the greeter looked at you and said “I see we have a senior” etc. I think THAT is the insulting part of the story.
Meanwhile…I don’t believe in “senior discounts” but thats not the point…the behaviour was agism. And as far as I remember although Stephen Harper would love to ruin our country…he hasn’t YET been able to change our human rights and charter of rights and freedoms.
My all time favorite newspaper columnist was Richard Needham who wrote for the Globe and Mail. One week he decided to do an experiment in restaurants. The plan was go in, eat, then claim you lost your wallet and watch what would happen. His first stop was dinner at Winstons, a very expensive Toronto dining icon. After a meal that included a nice wine he discretely mentioned to his waiter that it appeared that he had left his wallet at home. The waiter said yes sir one moment and a few minutes later the maitre d’ came out stopping at all the tables along the way ensuring everyone enjoyed their meal. When he got to Needham’s table he said “I understand there is a problem?” So Needham explained that he didnt have his wallet. The maitre d’ discretely passed Needham a business card and said “yes sir perhaps you could mail us the amount of the bill and discretely left without further ado.
Next day it was a large chinese restaurant. Same routine.. no wallet. The waiter promptly shouted out something like “Hey Bob this guy ate and now cant pay!!” and immediately a crowd of chinese employees gathered around all yammering away loudly.
Next day his adventure took him to the Bay Street Honeydew which was a sandwich, salad and coffee cafeteria style joint. He put a couple of sandwiches and a cardboard container of milk on his tray and proceeded to the cash register where again he said sorry I seem to have left my wallet at home. The cashier promptly grabbed his tray, handed it to some other employee to put back and proclaimed “NEXT”
The moral of the story is of course that if you ever need a good meal free then your best shot is a really expensive restaurant.
OH MY GOD – that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard! Do they think 30 year olds dress up as seniors so they get a discount? This is just plain insulting!