This Happy Moment happened a few days ago, but it still has me feeling great. It is somewhat related to the "What Strangers Think of You" thread.
After dinner I had a craving from gelato from the local ice cream shop. When I arrived and got to the line, there was a woman , probably in her mid 20’s-mid 30’s with two young girls, probably no older than 5, ahead of me. They were white. I was dressed in a polo shirt and casual slacks. The woman smiled and said hello, and I greeted her as well. The little girls just stared at me.
After about 10 seconds, the younger one turned to woman and said, pointing to me “Mom, look! It’s the doctor!”
The woman just smiled and said ‘No, that's not our doctor.”
Then the older one said “But he could be a doctor!"
I laughed and said "Thank you, but I'm not a doctor. But my brother is a doctor."
The older one asked "What do you do?"
I said "I used to work with computers."
She exclaimed "My dad works with computers. You must be smart!"
I laughed again, and asked the woman "Please, I would really like to treat the three of you to whatever you want to order, can I?"
At first she said oh, you don't have to, but then I said "Well, there was a time when little kids would think I was something very different..." She got a look that I knew she knew what I was talking about, and then said "Thank you, we'd be honored."
It was a nice moment, I did not want to burden her relating my experiences when younger of white children calling me not-so-nice racial things (and parents present doing nothing), or patients declining to have my brother examine them because he was not one of the "white" doctors. Just an example that, in my view, the world is not perfect, but it is certainly better in many ways.