Another little story for you.
1985...Right after separating from first wife, me and a big old country boy was in Crystal River Florida so he could get his Advanced Open Water Scuba certification. We went out to eat one night at this right nice place. The table next to ours was occupied by 2 Yankee couples. One of the Yankee guys was fussing and complaining loudly the whole time we were trying to eat. He was vulgar to the extreme. Big Boy leans over to me during our meal and says in a whisper, "I just hate a damn Yankee. The very sound of their voice just grates my nerves."
We got up and went to pay up and the loud mouth Yankee cuts in front of us. He demands to speak to the manager. They hunt up the manager and he listens to the loud mouths complaints. Manager tells the loud mouth if the food and service was that bad he doesn't have to pay. Big Boy was standing behind Loudmouth and when he heard the manager say Loudmouth wouldn't have to pay, he went off like a rocket. He said something to the effect of, "Just wait a damn minute here. If the food was so bad, how come he cleaned his plate...We couldn't enjoy our meal for his loud mouth. Now if you let him out of here without paying, I'm going to whup your ass and his too." I thought for sure we were going to have to fight. When Loudmouth turned to see who was making a fuss about his bitching, there stood Big Boy, all 6'8" 280 pounds of long haired, woolly faced country boy looking down on his frail little short ass. Loudmouth got very humble, very polite, and paid his bill and left.
The waitresses swarmed Big Boy and thanked him for speaking up. They asked where we were from, why we were in town and how long we planned to stay. We were staying just one more night. They told us to come back the next night, they'd save us the best table in the house and everything would be on the house. Seems they had had trouble with Loudmouth before. Man, I've never been treated better than we were treated the next night.