Billy Bitner’s High Stakes Cakes

By Steve Bigham &

Jeff White

Twelve-year-old Billy Bittner walked into the Sandy Hook Diner for the first time Friday afternoon for some lunch. Little did he know that he was about to become engaged in a pancake-eating contest.

Billy, dining alone, bellied up to the counter after spending his morning working on computers at Intuitive Computer Systems across the street. Famished, the Brookfield boy ordered what turned out to be a prodigious plate of pancakes. Eyes wide open, Billy began to dig in.

Seated down the counter was Gary Wheeler, a Newtown police officer and local school bus driver. Gary couldn’t help but notice the stack of pancakes in front of Billy and offered to pay for his lunch if he finished them.

The pancake-eating contest was on.

Little Billy gobbled the first pancake with ease and wasted little time sinking his fork into pancake number two. But then it was time to eat the third and final pancake, and that was a different story. Clearly losing his enthusiasm, the young man’s bites became smaller and smaller. It was becoming clear that Billy might come up short.

“I just don’t think I can do it,” said the now sated boy.

Gary, the compassionate man that he is, promised Billy that he would pay for his pancakes even if he was unable to finish. He hated to see the boy suffer.

“Save your money for an ice cream,” Gary said.

But by this time, eating ice cream was not high on Billy’s list of things to do. Leaving just a few of bitefuls left on his plate, Billy made his way out of the diner, thanking his friend Gary along the way.