The year was 1996, we were teenagers and we were spending July school holidays on the beach. It was the year of the Olympics and this time it would be in the United States: Atlanta Olympic Games. We loved the Olympics, we watched every contest of every kind.
On the first day we went to the beach, when we bought popsicles, we discovered that Kibon was performing a promotion in which we could win collectable replicas of Olympic medals. I don't remember if the toothpick was awarded or if we had to put together a few toothpicks and pay another amount of cash, I just remember that in 3 days we already had everything we needed to exchange for 2 complete collections.
One of the popsicle vendors told us that the only trading post was a pastry shop downtown. There we go. When we arrived, we asked the attendants which one was responsible for the exchanges, they told us that only the owner of the bakery, Mr. Gentil, made the exchanges, but he was not at the time, it was better to return the next day.
That's when we started an epic hunt for Lord Gentle. I know it's been a long time since it's been hard to find a kind person out there, but Mr. Gentle was even harder. Every single day we would return to the blessed confectionery, ask for the blessed Lord Gentle and hear the same blessed answer: "- Today he is not, you better come back tomorrow".
August was already coming and, along with him, the end of the fortnight and the holidays, but we did not give up and finally, on the tenth day, when we arrived at the door of the confectionery, before we entered or talked about something, one of the attendants was already coming near us and talking all excited and smiling: "- Today he is! Today he is! You can come up and he's in the office upstairs!"
Mr. Gentil had a thing of Santa Claus: he was fat, nice and had very white hair, all he needed was beard and red clothes. He answered us very quickly, gave us the medals, apologized for his absence in the last few days and said goodbye so kindly that he lived up to his name. We thank you, we went down, we said goodbye to everyone and we went back to the apartment where we were staying.
At the end of the holiday, we returned home to our city, as if we were athletes returning from the Olympics, with our medals, won, deserved, as well as theirs.