The other day, I was chatting with a fellow behind me in line at the grocery store. The conversation started when I placed the divider bar behind my groceries and he said something like, “Darn! I was kinda hoping you’d forget to put that there and accidentally pay for my groceries. wink-wink”
I chuckled and we talked briefly. He had a few different types of meat from the butcher-block and explained to me that he was eager to try out his new smoker. Noting that I had a box of spring greens and various produce items, he told me how his wife had already decided that his New Year’s resolution would be to eat more salad. It was a pleasant conversation all round.
As the checker finished scanning my items, I readied my debit card. Just as I was about to swipe my card, I hear the familiar cha-ching! of the register. The coin change came tumbling out of the little machine to my right, and the checker took a $10 bill out of her register and handed it to the man I had been talking to! I turned to him, realizing that he had just purchased my groceries. I was overwhelmed and thanked him profusely adding that he didn’t have to do that. He smiled and said, “Just giving out a little Christmas spirit…I have plenty!”
He really brightened my day, and I didn’t want his kindness to go unsung.
Hmmmmm, the nicest thing someone has done for me was when I was in elementary school and my moms usually picks me up after school and one day she didn’t b/c something came up and I was left all alone crying on the school steps b/c I thought she had forgotten me. Then this older girl and her bf say me crying and decided to walk me home(my rents apartment was about 30 blocks from my school). That was really sweet and thoughtful of her she really didn’t have to do that.
Another nice thing was when I was in h.s and me and my friend had skipped school one day and ended up at the wrong place at the wrong time and this kind woman gave us a ride to my friends house. It was so random but sweet. It’s nice to know good ppl still exist in this world:).
Close to 20 years ago now, my crappy car at the time was having radiator trouble. I was sitting in it, alongside a Chicago highway, when a man approached my car. He’d stopped his own car and came up to help. I stayed in the car because I was young and nervous, and figured I couldn’t help anyway. He popped the hot radiator cap and filled it with water and coolant, and I thanked him gratefully. Whoever you are, thanks for what you did. I hope you had good karma come your way.
Back when I was in college, I ran a 5k…well, I ran a bunch of them, but I remember something about this one. I was walking back to my dorm, and was really thirsty. I stopped into some fast food place and asked for a cup of water. They weren’t giving out water then, because of the number of people who had just done the race. They wanted $0.10 for it. No problem, except I didn’t have any money on me.
Some rough looking guy…most likely homeless, dug into his pocket, produced a dime, and bought me the cup of water. I thanked him, but I wish I had thought to do more somehow.
I think about that guy occasionally when I’m working with the homeless now, as an example of someone who cares about others even when he’s down.
-D/a
I was driving from BC back to Ontario and my pickup started to overheat near Merit, BC. I pulled into the Husky station and parked at the far end of the huge lot. I had no idea what to do, but I popped the hood and stared at the engine, hoping some solution would magically reveal itself to me.
An older man ambled over to me from camper parked nearby, told me he that he used to restore Cadillacs and asked if I would like some help. So he looked under the hood, did a few tests and told me I might have blown the head gasket. He helped me get some water from the station store and we topped up the coolant, and then, because it was Sunday evening and nothing was open, I resigned myself to spend the night there sleeping in the pickup with the dogs near Charlie and Vee’s camper. Charlie was one of those guys with a wealth of stories and he kept me entertained until it got dark.
In the morning, Charlie went into town and found a garage that would work on my truck that day. His wife cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast for all of us and then they left to continue their way home and I waited for a tow truck to come get me and haul my pickup into town to get fixed.
Random strangers that I met on the road that went out of their way to be kind and helpful to me - unforgettable.
In late November of 2010 my dog was run over. It was my fault, I let her off the leash to chase a squirrel and she ran all the way across the park into the street.
Had my first ever case of hysterics when I saw her body. But people stopped to help. The driver came up to apologize and I told him it wasn’t his fault, but he still felt bad. And a woman named Sandy found a plastic bag and a box and got my doggie covered up, then drove me home so I wouldn’t have to carry the box several blocks. My dad came and helped me dig the grave in my back yard.
I felt so bad, but all the kind help I got made it easier.
And about a month later I adopted a shelter dog, and we just celebrated our first anniversary!
Lackland AFB, TX, circa 1988. Thanksgiving. Basic training. The San Antonio community had an “Adopt an Airman” program for the holiday. Local families signed up to get two airmen for the day. The other option for us was hanging around the barracks cleaning up, etc, so pretty much everyone opted for the program. I got assigned with a buddy to a great family. Mom, dad, two teenaged girls. They took us into their homes, fed us a fine holiday meal, and then took us to Seaworld for the afternoon before delivering us back to base in time for curfew.
Being in basic sucks. Being in basic during a holiday blows goats. This random family of strangers gave two guys they’d never met before and would likely never see again a great day, just to be nice to us.
I live in Mississippi, but weirdly we have a really great place that serves Chicago style pizza here. For election night in '08, we ordered pizza and stuff from there, and went to go pick it up, and I was wearing my Obama shirt (get it? Chicago pizza?). We ended up waiting a bit (the place is really good and always busy) and we were watching the election coverage on tv and talking about Obama, wanting him to win, etc. An older couple was next to us, and they began talking with us since they were also supporters. As you can guess, there aren’t a lot of Dems down here.
Anyway, they got their food, and left, and we said goodbye, and when we got called up to get our food, we found out they had already paid for our meal, which was pretty expensive (we had guests over to watch the results come in, and had gotten several pizzas). I was really touched that they would do that for us.
A few years ago due to an inept banker, I ended up with a bank account $1300 in the hole. The bank agreed to cover any and all checks so that I wouldn’t be stuck with bounced checks, and that I could pay it back as I could. This was all well and good, but it left me without money to pay my bills, leaving my family on the verge of losing everything.
I was telling my best friend about it via yahoo messenger when she got quiet. A few hours later, she told me to check my email and 2 message boards we frequent. People I had chatted with, joked with, and argued with were all asking for my address to send money to help. Even people I had never gotten along with at all.
If it hadn’t been for those kind folks, my family would’ve lost power, heat, water, and our home. I kept track of who sent what, vowing to pay them back. None of them would accept a dime of it.
Another time recently, and like a lot of families, we were struggling. One day my sister opened the door, and an envelope fell onto the porch. She took it to my mom, who opened it and found $150 inside, along with a note. I don’t remember it word for word, but the gist of it was the whole pay it forward concept.
The first one to come to mind: I left for work one morning, coming out of my house to walk to the train station at the bottom of my street. A woman walking up the street said “The train isn’t running” (I don’t remember why), and I thanked her for saving me the walk down the hill. I paused for a second to think which bus I’d go catch instead, and she continued, “You work in the Graham Bldg., right?” (I did.) “I do too. We’re [she was with her husband] going to drive in – would you like a ride?”
That was so nice of her! Although we’d been taking the same morning train for about a year, I never noticed her particularly – but we always said hi in the elevator after that.
30 years ago, I was driving from the town I lived in, to the town Typo Knig lived in, with my cat in the car. I needed to stop for something just before arriving at his apartment, and the cat managed to escape. As I started after her, I yelled Help sort of into the ether - and a pair of total strangers helped me look for her in the woods for a half hour.
No luck :(. She bolted any time any of us got near her.
Happy ending though, I went back later that night and called out, and she came running - obviously terrified and realized she’d done a dumb thing.
As had I - I never took her in the car after that without her being restrained in some way.
A total stranger changed my car tire for me a couple years back; I’d phoned AAA and was trying to get the jack set up while waiting for them, and he stopped and helped me.
Last summer, we managed to get our rental car stuck in the sand dunes at a beach on Lake Powell - trying to figure out where we were supposed to park it, gave up on one area, tried to turn around, and got stuck. I was pushing, Typo Knig was driving (lest anyone thing that unchivalrous, I’m physically much more massive, both heightwise and girthwise and the laws of physics suggested I be the one pushing). We were making practically no progress, when a carload of teenagers came along and with their help, got the car moving. I remember yelling at Typo Knig that “if the car starts going, KEEP GOING, I’ll catch up!”.
It was a rental car, and we’d declined the collision damage waiver - whjch at that point I was really regretting. “Um, Dollar? we lost your car. Well, we know where it is… it’s stuck in the sand”.
To the two guys who pulled my car out of a field between Bowling Green and Toledo during a blizzard in December of 1983 - THANK YOU. You drove away before I could even get your names. I’ve learned a lot more about driving in snow since then, you’ll be glad to know
Ooh yeah. I guess I should mention the 5 guys who helped pull our SUV back on the road in Costa Rica. My friend didn’t realize just how close to the cliff we were, and when he turned the wheels…well, we were kinda balanced on two wheels after that. I had to get out the drivers side, because the other option involved flying.
Locals came out from everywhere, got some strong rope and another car. They tied it up to our SUV, and pulled it back.
We did have insurance on it, but really didn’t feel like using it. Plus, we would have dropped a vehicle on some poor unsuspecting family’s house.
They, too, vanished before I could thank most of them. I chased one down and gave him some money.
About 20 years ago, in medium-smallish CA town: At supermarket, suddenly noticed that my wallet wasn’t in my pocket. Re-traced my steps as best I could remember, looking for it. Not found. Went to customer service desk . . . could it be just possible that someone found it and turned it in?
Climactic drum-roll . . .
Okay, anti-climactic. Yes, it was there. All of it. (But you knew that already. Otherwise, I wouldn’t even have started this post, would I have?)
And I’ve had a few occasions in the years since to return the favor forward, too.
Does anyone have an opinion (or, Og help us, facts even) about whether this kind of thing is more likely to happen in small-town or rural areas, vs. big city places? In the rural outskirts of above-mentioned smallish town, I’ve also had a few incidents of helping neighbors or strangers, or being helped, regarding such things as helping round up loose livestock, pushing stuck cars into gas stations, stuff like that.
It just seems so fashionable to assume that these kinds of things happen in small-town places, but if you trip and fall on your face in a Big City, the pedestrians will just step over your bleeding corpse. Any pro or con thoughts on that?
Senegoid, good people are everywhere. A friend’s teenage daughter in Seattle is recovering from cervical cancer. The family has insurance but money’s been tight. Her friends from school organized a food drive at a QFC and delivered three van loads of food last week.
Also in Seattle, a couple of teenage girls walked my daughter home from a park where some boys had been harassing her, and a guy chased off a man who tried to grab my purse.
We’ve given and received help in the city and here in the boonies.
It was six days after I had broken my wrist. I was wear a cast from fingers to halfway up my upper arm. I dressed in my usual “I don’t give a shit about how I look” clothes and went out.
I went to the groery and noticed whole wheat bread was on sale. I loves me some whole wheat bread with butter. For the first time since the accident, I was really hungry. I got a little cup of coffee from the machine, bought the bread and butter and went to the little park down the street. I sat at a table in the cold March weather, spreading butter on bread and stuffing it into my mouth, alternating it with tiny sips of coffee.
Suddenly someone put avery large 7-11 cup of coffee and 7-11 bag on the picnic table, said “This is for you” and walked away. I said “Thank you” automatically, while going into shock. The bag had two big hero sandwiches, a big bag of chips, and a twenty dollar bill in it.
I can see it from the guy’s end–this poorly dressed, gravely injured person is forced to quell her hunger with bread and coffee. Poor thing.
Several years ago, my then-roommate and I went to the grocery; at the check out, we were watching the total carefully, being very tight on cash. We were casually chatting with the cashier about how we sometimes had to make cut-backs or decide if we wanted to pay the heating bill or buy food. We got our purchases and went to my van.
The man who had bewen in line behind us followed us out and gave us $20, saying that a stranger had helped him out like this before and he was just paying it forward.
