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I’m not saying it’s the hat, but…
I ran out of coffee at home yesterday, so last night while I was in town I stopped at the local Starbucks to pick up a bag of dark roast. As I pulled into my parking spot, I noticed an Obama-Biden sticker on the car next to me. I figured that meant overt displays of political affiliation were allowed, so I grabbed my Make America Great Again cap from the dash where it lives, popped it on my head, and went inside.
My favorite gay bartender/barista was on duty, so after nodding a quick hello to him, I grabbed a bag of Verona and walked up to the counter, where a young fellow I didn’t recognize, a bearded college-age kid, was waiting to take my order.
I handed him the bag of beans, asked him to grind it for flat-bottom drip, and fished out a Starbucks gift card that, I figured, had enough left on it to complete the transaction. The young fellow rang up my order and turned away to grind my coffee. When he came back and I held out my card, he waved it away and said: “we got it, you’re all set.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I have a ton of coffee credits. Employees get them. I put it on mine,” he told me.
I asked if he was serious, and if he really wanted to do that. He said he was, and wished me a nice day. So I thanked him, picked up my bag of ground coffee, and walked out.
I have yet to experience any negative feedback while wearing the Make America Great Again hat. I’ve had a few positive comments, a couple of unexpected but pleasant conversations with strangers during which politics was never mentioned — and, yes, maybe an odd look or two. But free coffee? That’s a first.
Published in Politics
That is way cool!! Gives me just a little hope for our future generations!
That is a really feel-good post. Thank you.
Maybe Susan is right and there is hope for the future after all.
You’re in N.Y., right? That’s neat.
Don’t write off my generation just yet.
You look a lot meaner in the picture than you do in your avatar.
Wow. Nice surprise ending.
I was expecting something rather different. (I’ve read too many culture war stories)
Gee and I thought it was because you looked like Dirty Harry with a MAGA hat.
He probably just didn’t want to touch your card and be contaminated!
.
Just kidding. It is much more likely that 99% of people are basically decent even to those with whom they disagree about politics. This is a nice reminder of that.
The 1 % (more or less) are looking for a confrontation. Maybe they are mentally unstable, or whatever.
Perhaps we can just reintroduce a word that has fallen out of common usage.
They are jerks.
Before I read the article, I thought it was a picture of Mike Rowe.
What Starbucks in what town? That’s a great story but it might draw a crowd of MAGA hat wearers!
Maybe he saw the hat and thought you were simple-minded.
A few years back I took my car to one of those squirt it yourself car washes. While washing I found a magnetic NRA stickers. I threw it in my center console and more or less forgot about it. A few weeks later while driving Miss Cheese to the mall and dropping her off to shop I parked behind a car with every conceivable liberal bumper stickers known to man. I just couldn’t help myself. I found a spot not covered and he joined the NRA. I only wished the sticker was harder to get off.
Uh-oh.
Where do you live?
In Hillary’s head.
Way-upstate New York.
A heartwarming story.
It seems just possible, too, that he actually supports Trump. There are bearded college kids who are also conservative. Or, he could be politically apathetic. (Sometimes I think they are the wisest ones.)
I’ve long believed that most people are largely apolitical — both disinterested and uninformed. On both left and right, the outliers are loudest and, generally, most offensive to the other side: they form the basis for the caricatures that keep us apart.
It’s also possible the kid is a closet Trump supporter.
This would not happen in Austin or NYC or LA or San Francisco or Portland or Seattle.
I could see it happening in Atlanta or Dallas or Houston, though it might be touch and go.
Surely Buffalo or Rochester.
It’s ridiculous that anyone would do anything negative ever based on a piece of clothing, so I’m glad it happened somewhere.
What a nice surprise! Maybe I should try that, haha.
You have to pull your hair through the hole between the hat and the size adjustment band so that it looks like a ponytail, though I’m pretty sure Henry didn’t do that.
That would be gay.