ILYPANTS.NET
Notes To My Kids: Little Stories About Grown Up Kids
How many kids of yours had the proprietor of a pizza place autograph a pizza box? One of mine did at Charlie’s Pizza one day near where we used to live.
Charlie’s pizza was a neighborhood institution on the east side of Fort Worth. For over 30 years Charlie and his family owned it and produced New York style pizza for we hamburger, BBQ, and Mexican food obsessed Texans. His pizza was always fresh and delicious, topped with fresh ingredients and a good thin crust. Indeed it was tasty and we ate there frequently as did many others who lived on that side of town. In fact one year it was voted as “best pizza” in Fort Worth.
Over time Roger was old enough to realize what Charlie’s was and ask for it. He also knew who Charlie was since we ate there in person many times. Roger would always be happy when we announced we would be eating there and ate his share of each pizza pie. Like us, it was one of his favorite places to dine at. And remained so over the years.
But what was the most special thing about Charlie’s was the time Roger wanted Charlie himself to autograph one of the pizza boxes from the restaurant. So I was obliged to do so. One day when I was there I asked Charlie to sign the box containing a large pizza. Charlie looked at me funny and I explained. He smiled real big and whipped out a pen and ascribed his John Henry on the top of the box. I took the pie home in its box and showed it to Roger. And of course Roger loved it all and literally kept the box for years, sauce stains and all, in his closet.
Over the many years since then the box disappeared in house moves but the act was not forgotten. A couple of years ago before he sold his business I was in the restaurant and like so many times Charlie, now grey headed, was behind the counter making pies. He took my money and I saw the stacks of empty pizza boxes behind him and asked him if he remembered signing a pizza box several years ago. He paused briefly and said that he did recall doing that with a big grin on his face. I refreshed his memory some more about how happy it made my son. He got a laugh about that and said no one had ever asked him to do that as long as he had been in business.
So that plain, ordinary pizza box, just one of billions like it in fact, was signed and then treasured by Roger like an autograph penned by some famous movie star or actor. That small act of kindness by Charlie Langdon teaches us that the star on life’s stage is not always someone well known and famous but instead can be an average person. Indeed Charlie was an average person but he was still someone very important in the big, bright eyes of a little boy named Roger who liked his pizza.