It’s a nice day, and I felt like a drive in the MG. I turn along the beach and I see a girl walking in my direction, wearing a green pullover-type vest that I recognised as the type worn at the convenience store that was my destination. It’s two miles to the convenience store/gas station, so I offered her a lift. (It’s also pretty warm for up here, being in the 80s.) We got out at the store, and I got my Monster and a hot dog. The woman at the counter (not the one to whom I gave a lift) told me the hot dog was on the house, and that I could pick out a burrito too if I wanted one, because she said it was nice of me to give her coworker a lift.
I didn’t want a burrito, so Karma got off with letting me have a $1.29 All Beef Frank.
There is a young girl who works at a local market about a mile from where I live. I see her walking to and from work regularly. I don’t offer her a ride because: I’m a 47 year old single male and she is a 16 or 17 year old girl. I don’t want to be the creepy old guy offering rides to young women. Yes, I know I’m a good guy, but in today’s world I’m guessing everyone is wary.
And also, she may be walking for the exercise.
I do always think about it though when I pass her.
I thought of it too. I’d passed her, and there are few places to turn around on the road; so I approached her from the front and stopped well in front of her. Then I asked her if she was going to the store before offering her a lift. It’s not like I crept up from behind. I didn’t recognise her (just the vest-thing), but I was wearing my coconut straw porkpie and she probably knew that I go to the store very frequently since I wear that hat a lot.
There’s not a lot of crime up here. Most of it seems to be domestic situations and juvenile delinquency, and that seems to occur in Blaine (of which we’re technically a part) rather in the little seaside village. There’s also a bit of drunk driving and drug smuggling; but again, that’s mostly right at the border. Still, I’m from L.A. I often see young girls walking alone or in pairs. Being from L.A., I don’t offer them rides. As with Khadaji, they’d be perfectly safe with me. But it would be creepy.
I think it’s easier to do in a convertible. In my totally unscientific opinion, Unknown Guy In Enclosed Vehicle = less scary than Unknown Guy in Open-Topped Vehicle.
There’s a girl who works at my office who walks a mile and a half or so down to the mall nearby after work and hangs out there until her boyfriend swings by to pick her up after his workday ends.
I saw her walking while taking a short cut one day (she’s got really long blonde hair, so easy to recognize from behind) and pulled over to offer her a ride… she was about a second and a half from pulling out a can of Mace before realizing I was “the guy from the work comp department”. Nowadays we’re practically best friends.
