Quote:
Originally Posted by phenweigh
I went to a Korean wedding today. At one point in the ceremony, the groom's strength was "tested", and he did a few very flamboyant push-ups. What's the most unusual thing you've seen at a wedding ceremony?
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I was an altar boy when I was in grammar school and at that time, the typical tip for altar boys serving weddings was five bucks ro split between the two of us, more if it was some big shot's wedding. This was in Miami and I discovered to my dismay, that the Cubans had their own eccentric wedding traditions. Among them, the groomsman carried 13 new dimes in his pocket and at some point in the ceremony, the groom presents the bride with the 13 dimes, she gives them back to the husband...and then he gives them to one of the altar boys. After the wedding, the groomsman comes by and exchanges the ceremonial new dimes for 13 regular dimes.............and that's the tip for the altar boys, we got to split $ 1.30, a whopping 70 cents each.
While none of the altar boys were happy about this, there wasn't anything we could do about it except to try and avoid getting assigned to Cuban weddings.
Except Paul Goyette. He was assigned with me to serve a Cuban wedding one Saturday, his first. I told him about the 13 dimes business and that infuriated him. So after the wedding, instead of waiting around to exchange the dimes, he decided to punish their cheapness by stealing the ceremonial dimes. He
didn't even take off his vestments, just made a beeline for his bike right after the ceremony was over. The groomsman came around for the dime exchange and I had to tell him that my partner was in the process of fleeing with them.
The groomsman went outside to look for him and spied Paul just as he was taking off. So the groomsman chased him up the street, screaming at him to come back with the dimes. It was an interesting sight, a boy in altar boy vestments on a bicycle, being chased by an enraged Cuban man in a tux on foot, screaming curses at him in Spanish....and they passed right in front of all the wedding party gathered outside the church main door.
Paul got away that day, but of course the Cubans complained and the school put the arm on Paul the following Monday, making him return the dimes and terminating his career as an altar boy.
Note that the entertainment value of all this served as my share of the tip....I got zip otherwise.