I pulled into Smith’s Sudden Service in my home town on a cold Monday morning. My car had been sitting in my mom’s garage for two months because I was driving my dad’s truck. It felt good to drive an F-150 down in the city. I sat up high, listened to country music, got 10 mpg – and I missed my dad and sometimes it felt like he was sitting next to me. So, after two months of inactivity, my right front tire was flat. Or, actually it wasn’t so much flat as it just wasn’t full anymore and I had to drive four hours on icy roads in subzero temps to get back to civilization so I thought I should get it checked out. So, I found myself parking my bright red Nissan in front of the station and walking in to look for Ron. A bell rang as I opened the door, not an electronic bell but an actual bell that was hanging above the door. Coming in out of the cold, I felt 4 pairs of eyes on me. The room was thick with smoke and smelled like oil. George Strait was on the radio. I recognized Ron, the owner, because I’d been in there with my dad, but he had no idea who I was. The other three characters must have been regulars. They were standing around, smoking and drinking Ron’s coffee. “Good morning,” I said tentatively because it wasn’t and I was nervous. “What can I do for you?” asked Ron in response as his regulars sized me up. I could almost hear their thoughts, “foreign car – can’t put air in his own tires – wearing a girl’s coat (North Face) – dress pants (J Crew) – and shoes with no laces (Cole Haan)” I broke through the stereotypes with “I’m Steve, my brother called about my tire.” “Oh yeah,” said Ron, “I was sorry to hear about your dad” and then he said, “I can get it in right now.” So, Ron left me with the regulars who continued to stand and smoke. Finally Ron came back after what seemed like an hour (about a minute). Just as he did, a regular’s phone rang and everyone said “You got Al” and laughed. Al waited for them to be done and flipped open his phone and answered, “You got Al.” Ron told me it would just be a few minutes for them to pull the tire off and check it out and then he handed me a cup of coffee saying it was the best in town. When he left again to check on my tire, one of the guys whispered that the coffee wasn’t good at all but it was hot and free. I laughed. My dad would have stayed there all morning.