Tonino's, Little and Friendly

Once during the summer I took the kids to little Tonino's after going to the Greenwood park. It was dark, hot, and the people who worked there seemed remarkably unhappy. Probably because of the heat.

Another day we went there, the 2 youngest and I, after playing in the sprinklers at the park. The plan was to have pizza and then get ices. I'd been in the weepiest mood for some reason. The end of summer? Before we left the park, I got to watch 2 pigeons bathing, they were actually lifting up their wings and letting the water wash underneath. Just like men in soap ads for Irish Spring or whatever.

Aye, but I like it, too.

My kids picked out the table at Little Tonino's, the small round one in the center, which pleased me greatly for some reason. It was very small but we had no extra space to trash so this was good. After the pizza, I sent my daughter who is two to ask for 2 lemon ices. She stood in front of their tall cases, somehow the man behind was able to see her. She delivered her question 3 times, of course, before he understood her. It was cute. Then he had to break it to her:

No ices today.

I watched him. He felt BAD. I didn't mean to use my daughter to manipulate him in any way, but it wound up seeming like that. I just enjoy it when my kids talk to strangers, train wreck of a mother that I am.

We got ready to leave. As we walked out the door the man who had to say no came walking in with 2 pre-made sundaes he just bought at the deli down the street. He asked if my kids can have them and refused to take money for them. They had strawberry sauce, my sons favorite thing, chilled to a gelatinous goo. It was kind of moving.

As the kids ate their ice cream in silence, I harassed and annoyed the pizza guys. Who are the Menas, depicted as a group in a picture on the counter. In the photo, there are a lot of young men, leaning on eachother, coherence is apparent. That's them, that's their family.

I asked them what's the weirdest thing that ever happened there. So I can blog about it. I know I shouldn't have bothered them with a question like that, but I do. They said they couldn't think of anything, what did I mean? At that moment my son knocked his ice cream onto the floor. It was mostly empty so he didn't pitch a fit. He had had his fill. The mess on the floor wasn't too bad, some smears of sticky pink stuff. Was that weird? No. That was entirely normal.