This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Friendly's: Where Some Patrons Are Anything But

Apparently it's easier to tell kids to "Shut up!" instead of communicating respectfully with the parents.

To celebrate our boys' birthday, my wife and I took them and some of their friends to the Friendly's on Hempstead Turnpike for an ice cream party.  As anyone who has dined there knows, it's a casual family-friendly restaurant which doesn't take reservations.  However, I had spoken to Ron the manager earlier in the week to let him know we would be coming around 2:30. I figured a 'heads up' might be the courteous thing to do.  Ron appreciated my call and said that when we arrived, his staff would do everything they could to accommodate us.  He also said that was a perfect time to come: between the typical lunch and dinner service times when it's rarely crowded.

True to his word, Ron's courteous team got us seated in fairly record time in the back area where a section of tables had been set up.  Our server, Chrissy, was nothing short of awesome: her patience with the kids -- some who changed their minds about their ice cream selections several times -- bordered on saintly.  Ice cream was devoured and a good time was had by all.

Well, almost everyone.

When we arrived, there was already a family sitting in the booth across from our party.  After our event was drawing to a close, I discovered that the matriarch of this group was apparently extremely offended by our presence.  My wife and I were not privy to everything that was said, as we were busy focusing on the kids (clean-ups, bathroom runs), but apparently this woman had a few choice things to say.

Things like: "I can't believe they would have the gall to show up unannounced like this."

And other things like: "They're not getting THIS booth.  We're going to stay longer now!"

And something along the lines of, "Someone should tell those kids to shut up!"

Or this statement to own kids, made clearly loud enough to get other people's attention: "Go ahead, play on the floor like the other animals here.  I dare someone to say something to me!"

Or this particular gem: "I wish that little black kid would just shut up."

Again, I only heard about these comments after the fact -- but they were told to me by more than one source, and given my relationships with these people, I have no reason to doubt the validity of the information.  That includes one little child who came up to me with sad eyes and asked "Why did that lady tell me to shut up?"

My wife found out that the woman apparently took the Friendly's manager to task about the situation.  My wife in turn went to the team and again thanked them for being so gracious and accommodating to us.

So, I'd like to take this opportunity to address the unhappy patron: I obviously don't know who you are, whether you're even a resident of Levittown or if you'll even have a chance to read this.  So let's just call this an 'exercise in catharsis,' shall we?

Frankly, Ma'am, I wish we had more time to get to know each other: it's not every day you meet someone who was born middle-aged and never had the experiences of being a child.  Gosh, the things you missed: play dates, running, screaming, ice-cream, laughter...happiness.  As someone who was fortunate to once be a child (albeit a long time ago), I can tell you missed quite a lot.
 
You must have really related to that "Benjamin Button" movie from a year or so ago, huh?

Snarkiness aside, I'm not saying I don't understand that your desire for a quiet late lunch / early supper might have been dashed a bit by our arrival.  Were the kids perfect angels, sitting quietly waiting for their ice cream, reading "Dick And Jane?"  Of course not: they're kids.  They wanted their dessert.  They wanted to laugh, poke one another and be silly.  But we did our best to remind them that other people were there as well, and to not be too loud or crazy.  And honestly, I think they were pretty damn good.  A lot better than you gave them credit for, frankly.

And allow me to remind you that we were at Friendly's -- not Petrossian in New York City or some Five Star Michelin rated restaurant (no offense Friendly's) where reservations are made months in advance and the only children in the vicinity are those walking past the restaurant outside with their parents.  Since we moved here to Levittown a few years back, we've eaten at Friendly's more times than I can count, and I can assure you that 'quiet' it has rarely ever been.

The thing is, if you had simply called either my wife or I over, and said "Hey guys, I know the kids are having fun, but is there any way you could ask them to tone it down?"  we would have done our best to talk about the situation, respect your wishes and meet in the middle somewhere.  But instead, you chose to take a different, rather disturbing approach -- one that demonstrates what kind of a sad society we've become: where instead of reaching out to a human being to have an intelligent, respectful dialogue, a person -- such as yourself -- debases themselves by being obnoxious, rude, insulting...and apparently a little racist.  So because of that, I'm sharing the experience with everyone here on the Patch.

Again I have no idea if you will read this.  But I hope if you do, you'll think a little bit about how you handled it so that future similar situations might be a little more "Friendly."

(Again, a ton of thanks to the wonderful staff at Friendly's for making the boys' ice cream party a great one!)

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?