By JAN LARSON McLAUGHLIN
BG Independent News
Items get left behind in restaurants all the time. Eyeglasses, keys, purses.
But this is different.
The waitstaff and owner at Call of the Canyon restaurant in downtown Bowling Green are searching for the diner who left behind his Vietnam War veteran hat.
The hat has four pins, including one for an Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., from Dayton.
“We hope somebody recognizes it,” said Steve Schinsky, owner of Call of the Canyon on North Main Street.
The waitstaff does not know the name of the couple that left behind the hat. But they have some clues.
The pair came in for lunch on a Thursday a couple weeks ago, and sat in the same booth as always. The staff doesn’t believe they are from Bowling Green, but are likely from this area.
The couple always orders the same meals, according to Barb Hedlund, who has waited on them.
“She gets half of the Little Daisy (a sandwich), and eats half of that and takes the other half home,” Hedlund said.
The man always orders the Cowboy Beans.
They always enter the restaurant from the back door. The last time they were there, Schinsky remembered the man commenting as he walked past the back office.
“‘Did you make those beans? Keep up the good work,’” Schinsky recalled the man saying.
Like many in the restaurant business, the servers often don’t know names, but they remember what items customers order.
“I’ll remember he’s a No. 10, hold the onions,” Schinsky said. “I’ll know him if they come in.”
The desire to return the hat to the veteran is particularly meaningful to one server at Call of the Canyon, Tonya Dunn.
Recently Dunn’s dad lost his Vietnam War veterans hat when it blew off as he was riding a motorcycle. He had worn the hat like a uniform, Dunn said, and was “sooo excited” when an ODOT driver found it along the highway and returned it to him.
“He literally gets up every day, and puts it on like a uniform,” Schinsky said of Dunn’s dad.
“Tonya’s just hell-bent we’re going to find them,” he said of the couple who left the camouflage hat at Call of the Canyon.
Though Schinsky is not a military veteran, he has a nephew who served in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“I’ve got a nephew who’s been in the war and a lot of family members. I understand,” he said.
