Oh wow, when I mangled my leg I was on crutches for a while and I think it would take forever to mention the small kindnesses that came my way, even as simple as holding doors open, helping with my shopping and crossing roads.
Canadian two dollar coin.
Oops. Never mind.
One small thing I like to do: If I see a mom in the parking lot trying to wrestle a shopping cart and get a toddler in the car at the same time, I offer to take the cart so she doesn’t have to leave the kid in the car while she takes the cart to the cart rack.
For a while some grocery stores around here sold stamps at the cash register. I stood in line several minutes to buy one stamp, only to find you had to buy a full book. I didn’t have the money for a full book. The woman in line behind me heard and dug a first-class stamp out of her purse and would not take my money. I’ve paid that one forward many times. Just recently, I’ve given several people two 1 cent stamps to add to their mail to make up the new rate.
Phlosphr , Yup, what Leaffan said.
Cleaned out my pants before going to the show,had some bills in my pockets. Normally, what with our loonie and toonie it’s easy to walk around with $20 of metal banging around in your pants.
Not that night though. Nada!
If Canada ever contemplates a $5 coin, I’ll be applying for US citizenship. :smack:
So you pinched forty bucks off your employer and gave it to him, in effect. Philanthropy at someone else’s expense? :dubious:
The last time I stopped to give someone a lift, I went about ten miles out of my way… on a 15-mile trip. But she was sorta cute, even if she was shilling for a couple of guys as well. 
I’ve had my toll paid for me.
I’ve had strangers let me in front of them at the checkout line, and done the same for others.
I’ve let someone use my cell phone for a local call.
I’ve had strangers help me with car problems.
I’ve given change to strangers who were a few cents short and had them do the same for me. Ditto with stamps.
Holding doors for people who are disabled or have hands full is a no-brainer, and they do the same for me.
I’ve helped little old ladies (or gentlemen) find things in the grocery stores (sometimes they have trouble reading the labels).
Let someone out into traffic ahead of me, and had people do the same for me.
It’s really hard to think of all the examples, because I just try do the right thing out of basic human kindness without thinking about it all that much, usually. You see a (genuine) need you can fill without seriously disadvantaging someone else, you fill it. It should be that automatic. When I see a need I could fill, but I’m just too lazy or grumpy to bother, it makes me feel bad for a long time afterward.
I was riding the subway home one day when a middle-aged gentleman offered me his seat. Smiling and thanking him, I took it. One stop later, a man hobbles on the train with a cane. I ask him if he’d like my seat. Smiling and thanking me, he took it. The next stop, the train emptied out, so there we were – Me, the middle-aged gentleman and the man on the cane – all sharing one bench. It was a nice moment.
Oh, and one kinda fun one–I was at a convenience store, and standing in a huge line. There was a group of teenage boys there. One of them walked up to the clerk and asked if there was a mall south of us on the highway. The clerk said (correctly) that there was no mall to the South, just a small town, and then turned away. The kids all retreated to the back of the store, laughing and joking, but not leaving. I listened in with half an ear and figured out they were lost. I waited until I had finished paying, then walked over, asked to see their hand-drawn map, and figured out where they wanted to go. They were going in the complete opposite direction, and I gave them good directions. I felt good about that, because a lot of people wouldn’t have approached a rowdy-ish group of teenaged boys voluntarily, for one reason or the other. They were very grateful and polite, however, and I was glad I ignored my normal instinct to avoid groups of teenagers.
Once I was at one of those wonderful 24-hour greasy spoon diners late at night, where all the food is unhealthy and delicious and all the patrons are drunk or tired or weird, or all of the above. The kind of diner Tom Waits wrote songs about and Jack Kerouac stopped at along Route 66, with pies and cakes on raised stands under glass domes on the front counter. Well, as I was settling my tab on the way out, I ordered a piece of pie to be sent to every customer in the place, on me. I didn’t stick around to see people’s reactions, but hey, free pie at 2 AM, who wouldn’t be thrilled with that?
I was sitting in the waiting room at my orthopod’s office when I sneezed, and because I didn’t have any tissue on me, had to just hold my nose and keep my hand over my nose and mouth. I started looking around the room to see if there was a box of tissue anywhere, and noticed the little girl of about 7, who had been sitting with her mother across from me, had darted up to the sign-in window and grabbed a couple of tissues from a box on the counter. Before I even had a chance to get up, she’d run back over and handed them to me! Is that sweet, or what?
Last Friday morning, life’s not so great.
Leave for work, walk to the subway. I come down the stairs, train pulls into station. Someone talking to booth clerk about some problem. Frustrated guy behind her, waiting to purchase the fare, being held up, won’t make this train. I swipe fare card, go through turnstile.
I know how annoying it is, trying to refill your fare card, and train is right there and/or leaves. Impulsively, call him over, swipe fare for him. He goes through thanking me profusely several times.
I’ll bet he smiled at least twice that day – when I swiped him through and, probably, when he made it to where he was going on time.
I know I smiled several times because I did something for somebody else, not because they asked, not because I was pressured, but because I could. And I don’t mind that it made me feel better about everything else for the whole day.
On behalf of frazzled moms everywhere, thank you.
I can’t count the times someone has given me a moment’s help with my little ones, and I try to return the favor to other folks who are having a difficult moment with their tots.
I carry extra change to feed meters when I see meter maids coming.
Last time the postal rates went up, I had just purchased quite a few 2 cent stamps- more than I needed. Right downstairs from where I was stationed was a USPS, and the line was very long on day one, and the machine was out. So I got my roll, and went down the line, asking dudes if all they needed was a few 2 cent stamps. Anyone that wanted less than 5 got them for free.
When I was riding the Train, I’d often have some days left on my pass that I wasn’t going to use, so I’d find a dude about to feed the machine for a day pass and give him my monthly pass. Just to show what goes around comes around, the last time I did this, I accidentally gave the dude my next months pass- some $200 worth, and he came after me to give it back.
I know Downtown really well, I often ask lost looking dudes if they need help or advice. This also allows me to send customers to places that have treated me well, so it comes around again!
Yes, I love to do these little random acts- because they make me feel good and I have a small hope for Karma.
Many years ago, when the Internet and communities were all the go, we ( the members) all became quite friendly. Although we never knew (IRL) each other- it as the way things were. Just before Christmas, one of the Community friends was stunned when her husband up and left her and the kids. The weren’t wealthy and they had virtually nothing for Christmas. She told me on the Friday night- I was going to the races on the Saturday. Instead of going to the races I went and bought some gifts for her and the family and airmailed them over.
I guess it is not so much random, as spontaneous.
And I have had no contact with her for years.
I suppose it can be interpreted in that manner. I considered it a gift-- and buying gifts using your discount card is encouraged. shrug I don’t feel bad about it-- every year I get a list of “employer-provided benefits” that shows they budget $350 or so for each employee’s discount card. I’ve never broken $150 a year in discounts.
Works for me, then!
I think I mentioned it in another thread, but I recently walked up to an ATM and found that the previous person had walked away without their card. In fact, it was still all the way in and asking if they wanted another transaction. I got it out and walked it into the bank.
I’m from BC, but I worked in Alberta in the oil fields where I met tons of Newfys. I’m going to use the term because they used the term amongst themselves.
Anyway, they were always talking about how different thing were back home.
In the Alberta oil fields, everyone is “go, go, go!!”, head down, make money, every man for himself, F the rest… But in Newfoundland, everyone is a friend until proven otherwise. People walking down the street will stop and help you move furniture into your apartment and then someone will run to the store for some beer and everyone makes a night of it. Or hitchhikers getting picked up by the first car 95% of the time.
I found myself yearning to live in such a socially positive environment.
I often feel guilty that I don’t do more, but I try to at least do little things when I can. Like getting something off a tall shelf for a shorter person, or telling that guy that he’s about to drive off with a large cup of soft drink perched on his car roof. They’re just little things, but I like to think they help.