sometimes, pre-conceived notions are funny

For various occasions, my side of the family has family dinners out, and who is in attendance depends on who's available. For a particular dinner a number of years ago, the husband and I were there, along with my sister and her then-boyfriend/now-husband, as well as my sister's then-teenage daughter and son, at a Chinese restaurant.

We order family style, so we'd put our order in, and my sister asked the waiter for two forks.

When the waiter brought the forks, he didn't give the forks to my sister (normally, they bring the forks to whomever actually asks for them), but rather, put one fork in front of each of the husband and my sister's boyfriend - the two white people at the table. Both the husband and my sister's boyfriend knew very well how to use chopsticks - the forks my sister had requested were for her two kids, who preferred to use forks to chopsticks.

It was obvious that the waiter assumed the kids were old enough to know how to use chopsticks, so the forks *must* be for the white people, who, you know, can't possibly know how to use chopsticks.

The rest of us all laughed when the forks were put down, though I think the husband and my sister's boyfriend were offended at the assumption that the forks were for them, simply because they were white.

This counts as a magical memory for me partly because of the waiter's erroneous assumption, but mostly because of the looks on the faces of the husband and my sister's boyfriend when the forks were put down in front of them. :)