That explains why those who came up to be kept saying, "O Captain! My Captain!" At first, I thought I had a Standing Hampton problem.
Your post reminded me of when I used to wait tables many a year ago.
Around the corner from the restaurant I used to work at in Carol Stream, IL, was a housing project that catered to folks who weren't operating on full thrusters. They used to come in at all hours of the night, sit at the counter, drink tea, and share their lithium pills with one another. In fact, one used to work as an accountant at Pyle National in Chicago the same time my dad worked there.
At the most, they would only leave a quarter, and for this reason, among others, the seasoned servers didn't want to wait on them, letting me serve them, of which I didn't mind, and enjoyed their company. One day I told one of the waitresses that it would be neat if they all showed up at once, whereupon she said, "I don't even want to imagine such a gathering." (paraphrased, but pretty damn close to what she said)
About two weeks later, I showed up to work and said waitress had this worried look on her face. She immediately said to me, "Your wish came true. They're all in the back room throwing a birthday party for one of their ilk." (again, paraphrased)
I smiled, and immediately went to the back room where all my loyal customers were happy to see me as they sipped their tea and took their lithium.
One of the guys was a scientist of sorts, and I remember sitting with him one day in a booth on my day off, and for 2-3 hours we both performed calculations, figuring out how much thrust it would take to put the salt shaker on the table into obit. Good times! Damn, I miss doing math on a daily basis.
~TMIBTCITW