I love to strike up conversations with strangers. Sometimes I get rebuffed but I have found most of my best friends this way. The weird part about it all is that I used to be terribly shy. But then I discovered a secret - strangers don’t know you, so what they think of you doesn’t matter because you’ll never see them again. I’ve met three of my good friends this way and countless other wonderful beings.
I flirt with babies in the checkout line at the grocery store. I help short people get things down from tall shelves. I’ll rush ahead to hold open the door for someone with his arms full. What does it cost me? Nothing. And it can put a smile on someone’s face. I’m a depressive type so making someone else smile, makes me feel better too.
I learned all this behavior from other people being kind to me. People I didn’t know gave me money when I was robbed. A stranger towed my car off the highway to a convenience store lot when it broke down. Several people chased my papers when I dropped them on a breezy day. I am a lucky person to have received these kindnesses. What can I do but pass them on?
I can’t think of one right now but this thread is pushing me to want to be the kind of awesome stranger you guys have been describing. Dagnabbit, I’m going to go out there and make a stranger’s day tomorrow!
Last year, I was on a business trip overseas, waiting for the tram that would take me to the train to the airport for my flight home. While I was waiting for the tram, a couple of Canadian ladies came to wait and we worked together to try to piece together the foreign language fare information (zones?) posted at the stop with the vague instructions we’d gotten from our hotels, and we ended up exchanging some small coins to make correct fare.
When we got to the train station, I hustled right over to the timetables to find my train, and one of the ladies came running up behind me. They found my wallet on the floor of the tram before I even realized I didn’t have it - figured it belonged to their new American friend by the Bank of America card. (No wallet … no money … no train ticket … missed flight home…)
I became a single parent of three very small children without much warning and it was a really dark time for me. I wasn’t working, and I was staying with a relative in the burbs so I knew I needed a car to make a life.
I found an barely affordable used car in the classifieds, it was in good shape and would get us around town to school and allow me to find work so I agreed to buy it.
As we were doing the paperwork in the seller’s kitchen she suddenly said “well… the price has changed a bit”. I was crushed because I had barely pulled together the original price, no way could I pay more.
But then she said she had a feeling I was a single mom right? well, yes, I am. And you’re struggling a bit financially yes? yes, I am. Ok, she says, I’m going to sell you this car for $200 (a huge price reduction) because I’m guessing you can’t really afford much more than that.
As it turns out she had been in exactly the same situation and had bought the car from a kind soul who lowered the price for her in the same way. She was doing well now and she just felt like passing on the favor. Then she took me down the road and filled up the gas tank for me on her own dime.
It was a great little car too. She gave up hundreds of dollars just to help out a stranger.
Something like that happened to me once, too, meanjoe. I bought an old used car from a private seller, he allowed me to pay by check, and a couple of weeks later he sent me $250 back in cash through the mail, with a nice little note about how he felt for me being a single mom and all. Sometimes I love people.
This is not a story of a single persons’ generosity but just the kindness of strangers. About 3 years ago my son worked a late shift a few nights a week while going to university. He would ride the subway in Toronto from north to south on his way home and take the few moments on the ride to ‘rest’. His posture was such that he was bent forward, forearms resting on his knees and his head bowed.
He told me that invariably someone would gently tap him on the shoulder and ask if he was okay - it happened more often than not. He was never a clean cut preppy looking guy - and it wasn’t just ‘mothers’ who were concerned: guys in suits; other young people; all races; etc. It just warmed my heart to know that people care enough to ask someone if they’re all right.
A few years ago, I was exiting the highway in a fairly rural area one Sunday morning. A local construction job had resulted in the off-ramp being covered in pea gravel, like little rock-flavored ball bearings, and before I knew it the Miata was spinning like a sumbitch.
I ended up against the guardrail facing the wrong direction, with the whole side of the car bashed in. I trudged over to a nearby house and called the Mrs., who agreed to call a towing company and come fetch me. I returned to the car and sat there on the guardrail, feeling a bit dizzy; my head had smacked the windshield post pretty good during the excitement, and I had a big knot with a bit of blood.
As I sat there waiting, no less than eight cars stopped and asked if I needed help. There are a lot of good people out there, and sometimes we tend to forget that.
I’ve mentioned this fairly recently in another thread, but it warrants mentioning again in this one. My wife and I were in Spain and had gone to a small park to fill about a dozen or so postcards for friends and family. For one reason or another, later that day in the post office we realized we didn’t have them anymore. Damn.
When we got back to the US, we discovered that everyone had received them. Someone found them, paid for all the postage, and mailed them.
Here’s one I did myself. While I was living in San Francisco, I got a call on a Friday night from tourists that wanted a cab to pick them up at such-and-such intersection, and they were going their hotel. Before I could tell them they had the wrong number, they hung up. So I called De Soto and hooked them up. This went on for about four days - them calling me, me trying and failing to tell them they had the wrong number, then me calling a cab for them. By the end of their trip I stopped correcting them and just answered their call ID “DeSoto Cab.”
While arranging their cab to the airport at the end of their trip, I wished them well and told them I hoped they had a great time in the City.
A police officer let me through the cordon that noone was supposed to go through to get to him, an army guy walked me in the dark for over a mile to get to his place, an old couple put us up for the night sight unseen, the car rental guy found me a bus to come to my door so I wouldnt have to pay hundreds of dollars to get back to the airport, and the bus driver wasnt going to charge me anything.
About 20 years ago, my (now ex) husband and I did the “backpack around Europe and stay in hostels” thing for our honeymoon. We were there for three months, and had somewhat underbudgeted (big surprise). There were a lot of days during that trip where we had to choose two of the following three, but couldn’t afford all three: sleep somewhere comfortable, eat food, or see the sights. Usually we were running on little sleep and/or little food, since we weren’t going to give up the sights.
So, we were in this little cafe in…Basel, I think?..doing our normal European-eating ritual - sharing water and a single appetizer between us (I lost something like 20 pounds that trip). The people sitting at the table next to us struck up a conversation. They were Americans, too, and we all had a great time sharing the experiences we’d had.
Next thing we know, a HUGE pizza hits our table, along with a pitcher of beer. As we started to protest, the couple next to us said, “No, it’s on us.” They explained that years before, their daughter had been traveling in Europe much like us, and many strangers had watched out for her, so they were paying that kindness forward.
I was so hungry and so tired, I started crying right there in the restaurant. I was mortified, but they understood.
I’ve never forgotten that, and I try very hard to look out for instances in which I can do similar things for others.
Valentine’s Day morning, one year when I was in college. It’s dawn and I’m walking home from a party, happy and drunkish and tired. As I pass by the all-night shop, a couple about my age comes out and the girl hands me a rose. She says, ‘This was for the first girl we met on Valentine’s Day.’
I can still feel just how lovely that was. I hope they’re still together.
I can’t think of anything terribly awesome with a stranger, but I have had a very pleasant encounter with law enforcement.
I was a college freshman, and my stoner/high school dropout/can’t hold a job boyfriend and his best friend borrowed somebody’s truck to come and pick me up for the weekend (it’s about three hours one-way). We didn’t leave until midnight. Round about 2AM something goes horribly wrong under the hood and we are totally stranded on the side of the interstate miles from the nearest exit with no cell phone (this was fall of 1998). I think I had just started to cry in the cab of the truck when flashing lights popped up behind us. A kind and helpful state trooper was headed the same way we were, so he gave us all a ride … not quite all the way home, but at least to a convenient exit on the east side of town. Also, he let us use his cell phone to call everyone we could possibly think of who could come and get us at almost 3AM.
So every time he and his friends would rant and rage about how all cops were pigs/assholes/power hungry blah blah blahs, I would wag my finger and say “not ALL of them!”
Back in the day, I was the single father to a toddler. It was a Sunday morning and we had little in the house with several days to go until pay day. So I drove to the store and stopped off along the way to check my bank balance: $16.00. I got to the store and picked out a small pack of diapers, some eggs, bread, a small bottle of milk, etc. Cashier rang it up and it was around $14.00. Swiped my card and… nope. Tried it again… nope.
The cashier pointed me to an ATM and I checked my balance again. This one said I had $4.00 in my account. I apologized to the cashier and went back to the car, wondering what we were going to do for food. Then I heard a woman behind me saying “Excuse me!” I turned around and an older, well dressed woman had my groceries. She explained that she had paid for them for me. I tried to get her information to pay her back and she just said that she had been in that place before in her life and then she left.
Ten years later, typing this story is still making me tear up.
Oh yeah! I had a ridiculous moron of a gas station cashier one time who prepaid the wrong amount on the wrong pump. She could NOT figure out how to give the other woman her money back and charge me for it. After five minutes of “um, uh, lemme call my manager” from the cashier, we decided to take care of it ourselves instead. I just wrote the lady a check for the difference. I was in a fabulous mood, because it was my birthday and we were moving into our very first home that day, and I happened to tell other customer that. About two weeks later, I got an envelope in the mail with a note in it saying “Happy Birthday and Congratulations on Your New Home” from the other customer with my check in it.
I spent 5 weeks working in Belgium. I had two big suitcases, and two laptop bags - one laptop for “normal” work, and one that was also a SCSI analyzer.
Near the end of the trip, I drove to the train station in Brussels and returned my car. I then started making my way with all my bags to my train to London. It was a struggle!
Two strangers came up and asked me something in French. I don’t speak French. I smiled and told them that. They pantomimed carrying bags. I nodded and smiled more. They looked at my ticket, and walked me to my platform…and left without even trying to get a tip.
There are 2 similarly named hotels in Beatrice, NE; my friend had rushed home for a funeral and was staying in one and I called the other by mistake. The wrong one gave me the number to the right one right away when they realized my friend wasn’t their guest.
When I called the right hotel I learned my friend was out and they took a message; I asked if they could recommend a bakery that delivered. No, but they could give me the number of the local delivery guy - he picked up and delivered from anywhere.
I called him and even though he was working right then at a pizza place he had his aunt call me from her bakery where I placed an order and charged him a tip as well for 2 dozen donuts and a coffee cake for the family.
Helpful Strangers - it should be on the Nebraska license plate.
This is a story that restored a little of my faith in humanity.
My son and I were driving down Powell Blvd running some errands, when traffic starts backing up. Then I see the tell tale signs of a fire up ahead; smoke and lookey-loos. As we get closer, I see near an intersection a car is pulled over on the side of the road, flames coming out the top and bottom of the engine compartment.
My CERT training kicks in. I assess the situation to see how this disaster needs to be handled. Expecting to see nothing but dumb-asses standing 20 feet away watching the car burn a la Idiocracy, I see a lady at the intersection about 100 feet away waving at traffic to turn around. There’s a biker dude who looked just like Bill from Left 4 Dead turning people around on the other end of the street (where I am). There’s other people on the sidewalks telling pedestrians they need to back up and get away.
So I think to myself “Well, I’m going to assume no one has called the fire depar… oh, here they are now!” As if on queue, a fire pickup truck shows up, then two police cars show up literally 30 seconds later. A bored looking fireman takes a fire extinguisher out of the back of the truck and starts dousing the car in retardant, then an actual fire engine arrives on the scene. At this point I’ve turned around and taken another side street, knowing the situation is well in hand.
This was a major street during rush hour traffic and instead of seeing what I thought would be people putting themselves in danger just to watch a car fire, everyone did what was best for all concerned. I guess I should stop being so cynical and jaded sometimes.
