Guess Who's The Old Guy?

When Mrs edgarblythe and I went to eat at the I-Hop ta other day, the waitress suggested that we were eligible to-buy-one-get-one-free, by way of senior discount. We ordered coffee, the perused the menues. When it came time to order, I asked for the half a roasted chicken.

Waitress: "What vegetables would you like?"

"Peas."

Waitress (writing): And what other vegetable. You get two."

"It says it comes with red potatoes."

Waitress: "You don't have to have those."

"That's what I want."

"Do you want a salad?"

"No."

She tried to cajole me into taking the salad, or at least something, despite my insistance I didn't want it. Finally, I agreed to a dish of cantaloupe chunks, which I had no intent to eat. She was extremely solicitous, coming over once and saying to me, "Good?" To which I nodded, mouth full of chicken.

The whole thing sounds very innocuous and hardly worth telling, except-

I began to feel the way Spencer Tracy's character felt in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? Remember the way he was old and flustered, and how he threw the sock drawer down out of frustration? The more she fussed with me, the more I felt like that guy. A harbinger of things to come?