One of the most random compliments I’ve ever received was when I had a complete stranger tell me that I could say anything and it would sound like a song.
Now, Shae’s the amazing singer in our household, but there’s a different reason why I was told this. And it happened at a McDonald’s in Kentucky of all places.
Here’s what happened…
Several years ago, Shae and I took a trip to Ohio to visit our friends who were about to have a baby. As in, nine-months-and-ready-to-pop about to have a baby.
We went to bed on our last night at their house thinking we’d arrived a few days too early to meet their newborn. We got lucky though – we woke up the next morning to a text saying she’d given birth overnight.
Although we had a 10 hour drive back to Virginia that day, there was no way we were missing out on being some of the first people who’d get to see their new baby boy. So we grabbed our stuff and headed to the hospital to meet their little one.
We were both hungry by the time we left the hospital, so soon after getting back on the road we stopped at a McDonald’s in Kentucky for a late breakfast.
We were greeted by a teen girl who took Shae’s order first. When it was time for me to place my order – a sausage and egg McMuffin with no cheese, a hash brown, orange juice and a parfait – her eyes got large and a smile grew on her face.
I think it was my order of the parfait which clinched it. Her reaction wasn’t just because everybody loves parfaits…
It’s because I have a British accent and I’ve a feeling they didn’t get many Brits in that corner of Kentucky. The accent seemed to charm her in the first place, but the way I pronounced ‘parfait’ seemed to tip her over the edge.
Our cashier didn’t say anything at the time and handed over our food a few minutes later. Shae and I found a table and smiled at each other because of her reaction to my accent.
I noticed they’d added cheese when opening my breakfast sandwich, so it meant I had to return to our cashier. She apologized for the error and arranged for another one to be made without cheese.
While I waited, she pointed at her name badge and asked me to say her name.
“Tiffany.”
Pointing at her colleague, she said “Say her name.”
“Sarah.”
Pointing at her other colleague, she requested the same thing.
“Andrea”
“Now say all of our names together.”
“Tiffany, Sarah, Andrea.”
Letting out a long sigh, Tiffany gave me the most random compliment I’ve ever received: “You could say anything and it would sound like a song.”
It’ll be fun seeing what other comments my accent garners while we’re on our 50 state road trip!
We have visited all 50 states, but not within 5 years–more like over 40 years. Sounds like a great adventure. Will be interested in whether you experience travel fatigue. We always get a little burned out after 3 weeks and are ready to head back home, but that may be that we are always trying to cram so much into our trip. Maybe a slower pace will help with this.
Yep, it’s going to take a little while for us to get into the groove of things. It’s one of the reasons we’re planning on spending ~5 weeks in each state – it’d definitely be easy getting fatigued from moving all the time and trying to cram in too much stuff in a short space of time.