There are two kinds of older gentlemen:
kindhearted and grumpy.

There are always crossovers, of course.
Ebenezer Scrooge was a grumpy old man
who turned into the opposite. "Mr. Wilson"
from "Dennis the Menace" was grumpy on the
exterior, but inside was a kind heart. I think.

Our own Howard would definitely fall into the
kindhearted category.

We met one of those today while we were
having lunch at McDonalds. My son was
playing peek-a-boo with him and his wife
before we got our food. Of course, once we got
our food, Jonathan was absorbed in his meal,
but about halfway through, the elderly couple
finished and got up to go. I heard the man say
something like, "I need to tease this young
man a little bit before we go." He tried to get
Jonathan to talk to him, but he always gets
bashful when strangers try to talk to him. He
puts his head down and looks at the floor, but
that didn't deter the gentleman. He tried to get
Jonathan to "slap him five." This did not
happen, but he did manage to elicit a smile,
and got to see a mouthful of french fry. That
made the kind old man happy and he and his
wife went on their way.

Gri"anecdotal"shny