Slammed by Pop at Denny's FREE Grand Slam

As some of you will recall Denny's Restaurant had a nation wide promotional FREE Grand Slam Breakfast yesterday. Our son Bret was pumped about this opportunity for a pile of free pancakes, eggs, bacon and sausage. So about 30 minutes before the offer expired, the four of us jumped into the car and headed for Denny's. We made it along side all the homeless and downtrodden with 15 minutes to spare!

From the moment we landed Pop started asking how much he owed us. We explained the "FREE" scenario to him knowing that the information would not stick but, what the heck. You can't be rude. You gotta answer his questions.

The waitress came, we ordered our 4 Grand Slam breakfasts and waited expectanly. Pop turns to me and asks, "What we are ordering?" "We already ordered Grand Slam breakfasts," I say. "Oh," says Pop. "Who do I owe?" We give Pop the shortened version to the story. "It's free, Pop." He looks at me and frowns with a surprised look on his face.

Our steaming hot plates of cholesterol arrived and Pop gleefully dove in. He downs 2 large pancakes, two sausage links, two strips of bacon, two eggs, two cups of tea and a portion of a pancake hush puppy. We look at each other in amazement and roll our eyes. Where does he put all the food in that thin little body he carts around?

He finishes his last bite. "Boy that was good" and starts to dig in his pocket for his wallet. "Who do I owe?" This time we don't bother to explain that the breakfast was free. I take a dollar from him and tell him we are even. Handing him his baseball cap and coat he turns to me again, "How much do I owe you?" Again I don't bother to explain I just take another dollar from him.

As we move out into the crisp afternoon air he moseys over to me and asks, "How much do I owe you?" I ignore him pretending I don't hear. We get home, walk in the house, he reaches for his wallet and asks, "How much do I owe you?" I walk over to him take his shoulders between my two hands and look him square in the face. "Pop you don't owe us anything! The breakfast was free!! A promotional deal!!! Stop asking me how much you owe me!!!! You don't owe anything!!!!!" I leave the room and that's the end of it. I've learned that sometimes a little volume and a straight-look-in-the-eye approach sometimes works.