THE DINER

It's nice to know that some traditions are still going strong.

World War II veteran Edmund Rusinek turns 92 years old in a few days. To mark that milestone, he treated himself to a rather extravagant gift – the honor of buying some $1,500 worth of meals for military families who happened into the Rossmoor Chick-fil-A last weekend.

It wasn’t the first time Rusinek surprised active service people with his largess, nor will it be his last.

But it was his most generous.

“This tradition, so to speak, got started in 1945 when I was a draftee training in Little Rock, Arkansas,” Rusinek said. “To take a break from the GI food, some of my buddies and I left base for some good ol’ Southern food.

“At the restaurant, an elderly gentleman stepped up to us and asked, ‘Can you do me a favor? Will you let me buy your lunch? If you want to thank me, pass it down.’”

Rusinek, whose birthday is Feb. 19, has been passing it down ever since he landed his half-century career in engineering. “Someone did it for me, and I want to do it for others,” he said.

And he uses the same verbiage that so touched him all those years ago: “Can you do me a favor and let me buy you lunch?”

My father told me the story of when he got home from the war, got hungry and pulled into this Kansas City diner.  I guess he hadn't even been home yet and was still wearing his uniform because the folks in that diner informed him that whatever he wanted was on the house.

If I know my old man, he pretended to bitch for a few moments ("Ah, you don't need to be making me any free meals...").  Then he told them, "You know what I'd love?  I'd love a BLT."  So they made him one and that was my dad's first home-cooked meal back from World War II.

A BLT.

God bless Kansas City.  And God bless America.