Typical alcohol delivery from BevMo, just some wine. Decent paying, $11 bucks for 4 miles after traffic cleared up. Not too bad.

An older gentleman opens the door, and everything is fine. It’s taking a bit to upload because it’s a dead zone, so we chat for a minute about how hot it is out and he’s telling me about his old Porche, and I’m smiling along trying to hang in the convo even though I know nothing about cars.

All is said and done, he hands me a $20, and everyone here knows how absolutely rare that is. It caught me off guard.

This is what I say verbatim, because this has run through my head for two days now. “Oh, dude, thank you so much. Close to a thousand deliveries, and you’re one of the only ones who’s ever tipped me like this, and it’s so appreciated.” Verbatim, I was seriously so thankful. It was a hard day for me, and not just in regards to work so that was so unexpected.

He gives me an awkward smile and nods like “yeah yeah yeah, actually… actually can I see that back for a quick second?” I’m just like “uhhh, yeah of course” kind of confused, and he takes the $20 back and he reaches in his back pocket for his wallet and I’m thinking “is he really about to give me more?” but of course not. He puts the $20 back in his wallet and looks me dead in the eyes with the most grave expression and says “you call your superiors ‘sir’… not… ‘dude’…”

Before I even open my mouth to be say “whoa I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to offend” he holds up his hand and gives me a disappointed look before saying “have a wonderful night” as he walks inside and closes the door in my face.

I was pretty dumbfounded as I walked back to my car. I really felt like I did something wrong, and after a few minutes later after processing it I was just furious. I wanted to egg his fucking house like a teenager. It’s not about the money, I know I’m not entitled to good tips every time and I’m grateful when they come in, but the amount of times I’ve been ‘put in my place’ as a fucking delivery driver is really stacking up.

This isn’t my only hustle, and we’re all just trying to get by, and if you’re anything like me, this isn’t permanent but for the moment it’s an absolute blessing because it came exactly when you needed it. But the constant reminder of how lame people can be towards people they view as ‘lesser’ because of how you’re making money is just the worst.

Everyone I’ve told has said he never planned on letting me keep that $20. ‘Dude’ is the most common colloquialism of SoCal. I noticed his Texas plates as I was leaving, so it very well could have been that, but that’s still no reason to do that to someone.

But yeah, that’s my rant. I usually wouldn’t give a fuck and just shake it off, but this one really got under my skin.