MY FATHER'S PROUDEST MOMENT
No, it was not the when I graduated college, nor exactly when I got my masters (he did not live to see my other accomplishments in life), but rather it was when we went out for dinner after the ceremony.
There was, in those days, a very nice restaurant near Carbondale, IL, called "The Gardens." It was a sort of steak house, very comfortable, very good food and very very strong martinis. (I had two the first time I was there and could barely see my dinner.) And being the nicest place in the area it had the unfortunate habit of not taking reservations.
My parents I planned on eating there and, knowing that it would end up jammed later, went out for, what was for us, an early supper, and arrived at The Gardens shortly after it opened for the evening. It was as we had planned, virtually empty but obviously, soon all too painfully obviously, prepared for a mob. We went in and the hostess took us through the place, all through the place, to a back back room in which card tables had been set up with folding chairs! My parents were dumbfounded at this treatment (and father had not even had a chance to get his summer suntan yet so obviously race was not a factor) and I was a bit unhappy myself, maybe even more than they.
What happened next happened very quickly. My father was reaching into his pocket to get some money to bribe hostess for a better table but before he could, I, lowering my voice a whole octave, said in a growling monotone, "Surely you have something better that this?" The hostess, realizing that she had a somewhat better class of diners than she was expecting, immediately led us back to the main dining room and seated us at a very nice table right next to the pond, one of the prime locations in the place. (Which was precisely where we had expected to be seated in the first place!)
I thought my father was going to burst! He turned to my mother and said, "We did raise him right."
It was a very good dinner.