Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got up early today to do a Random Act of Kindness, Good Samaritan, Thousand Points of Light thingie. Most mornings on the way to work, on the 1/2 mile windy stretch from my house (residential area) to the main thoroughfare thru this part of town, I see one or two women, no connection to eachother, walking to work. Both are older and not walking very fast. I figure they have to be walking a mile or two to a bus stop or to one of the restaurants, grocery store, businesses, on this end of town. Normally, when I see them, I am in the dangerous curve part of the road with no pull off. I can't stop to offer them a ride further on down the line on my way to work without causing a major collision with people whipping round the bend and rear-ending the car.

It was cold this morning and I decided to leave early to catch one or both of them. Sure enough, one of the women was still in the residential area near a safe pull-off. I pulled over rolled down my window and offered her a ride to the end of the 1/2 mile lane. She got in the car and we discussed I was on my way to Frederick, but could take her the mile or so into town to where she was going. She was in her 60s and had a heavy Jamaican accent. She said the end of the lane was perfect. We got there and she said she was a little further up. I drove to the next pull off and she said a little further. I asked where, and she said at the grocery store (one turn off up). So I get to the turn off outside the store, which is perfect for me to drop her and not get into heavy traffic, but she wanted me to take her to the store parking lot itself a little further up. We get to the store and I pull between the bus stop and front door (close to each other) I wish her a good day and all that and she doesn't move. Just stares at me.

Physically, I am not scared. I am thinking she is not understanding me (heavy accent and all). I ask if I took her to the right spot, and she said yes, she catches the bus here, but she really works at WalMart (about 20-25 minutes across town) and wants me to drive her to work. LOL. I say I am running late for work, which I am by then, and ask if she could take the bus... She said, "I suppose I could take it..." and leaves in a huff. LOL.

It was funny and perplexing. I just saved her a mile or two of walking to the bus stop in the cold on my way to work and she is upset I won't drive 40 minutes round trip out of my way to her job... when she rides the bus every day... I expected a pleasant thank you and good bye. Not a huff.

When she didn't budge from the car, I almost called my boss to take an hour of leave to take her to work and tell him if I wasn't in in two hours, to call my parents because I was dead...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

That goes to show you, no good deed goes unpunished. Now drive straight to work, only stop for kitties!

Yep. Unfortunately sounds way too typical in today's world.
I am a little concerned that you picked up a stranger, notwithstanding age and gender. Don't think that's wise.
Perhaps you could think of some safer (and less frustrating)
ways. I've done a few but they're things that just crop up
unexpectedly.

I really am sorry to hear of this experience, though.

Good luck (and take care of yourself!) Katc

Wow, I can't believe that woman....well on second thought I do. People seem to think that someone somewhere owes them something just for being. You still get your thousand points of light thingy though.
-----
Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo,(We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts//Fly free Penny 12/12/07
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

Yep, I have seen the "light" and will certainly "drive on"... LOL

This is the first time picking someone up on the road, don't worry that I am a danger monger. She was 60 something and it was random (she was not expecting it).

I did do something random for a stranger a few years ago (involving driving someone in my car I didn't know). I was heading into the grocery store and a lady next to me had a full car of groceries and was having problems starting her older model car. She was trying to start it next to me when I pulled in the lot. She going to use the store pay phone and call for a mechanic/tow and I thought of all her groceries (very hot day). I offered to drive her and her groceries home before she lost all of them (didn't live far). She had a female neighbor that had gotten her car started before and I drove both of them back to the grocery store. The neighbor was able to get it started pretty quickly...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

>>She was 60 something and it was random (she was not expecting it). >>
Don't discount sixty-somethings nor the random opportunity that some people would take to do harm.

The grocery saving trip was a great random kindness!!!! Good thinking and I'm sure she was really appreciative!

Can't wait to hear some of the others' comments about your story.

I did a random act a few years ago. It was late at night as I worked 3-11 at the time. I witnessed a car accident, no one was injured but the two cars sure were not going anywhere. In one of the cars was 5 teen boys. I left the driver with his car and took the 4 other boys in my car to a nearby gas station to call the police and their Mother's. Then waited with them until one of the Mom's got there to retrieve them. I did almost have a stroke when I saw a gun sticking out of one kids back pack, until he showed me that they were paint guns, they were on their way home from a game.
-----
Tessa Onyx, Foudini, Charlee, Spottie, ShyRaven, Buddy, Tuxie, Widdle Attila Sipowitz, Lizzie, Minnie, ET, Mylo,(We be house cats at last), and Salem, Wicca and Marmalade (We iz also house cats, we guess)and the 5 porch kits also Riley da goggie and Buddha da baby hamster too
Tabitha and Samantha..always in our hearts//Fly free Penny 12/12/07
A house without cats is like a garden without flowers

sheesh, hoomans! Well ya get points for trying but you just can't satisfy some people...I used to try doing nice things for people, but I learned not to...these days I only do favors for people I know..
-----
PHTessie

I did almost have a stroke when I saw a gun sticking out of one kids back pack, until he showed me that they were paint guns, they were on their way home from a game.

====

Good Lord! LOL. Whew!
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

I did almost have a stroke when I saw a gun sticking out of one kids back pack, until he showed me that they were paint guns
*****************

Frickin' poop, Batman! I can taste my heart in my throat!

Frickin' poop, Batman!

====

Boy, am I glad the writer's strike is over and we can stop watching re-runs of movies like Batman, Spiderman, Godzilla, and King Kong on USA...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

I gave someone a jump at the grocery once several years back - blew out my alternator. Didn't discover it until my way home from work later. 1 a.m. I drifted into a repair shop just blocks from my house with zero power and had to hoof it home.

A few months ago some guy nearly in tears asked me to buy his coat so he could get some gas. He was really upset I would think he was a bum. I had no cash on me, nor my cell phone when he asked to borrow it. But I did manage to find about $4.50 in quarters between my purse, coat and diaper bag. We were so close to the gas pump he could push his car there. The look of relief on his face....

Reminded me of two stories: One, a couple of years back, I asked a black guy in his thirties, obviously with a dead battery outside a store, if he needed a jump. Poor guy looked like I'd asked him if he wanted a ticket to Mars. Guess not that many older white women strike up conversations. Anyway, it went well and I hope gave him a new outlook on the old "don't judge a book" adage.

The second: Last fall I was getting gas about 10:30 at night outside an Albertson's. Knew there was a car on the opposite side of the pump but there were also several others around so
didn't think anything of it. After I got the nozzle into my tank and the gas going, guy about my age gets out of his car and wants some money to buy gas to get home to a town about seventy miles from here. I told him I don't carry cash but did happen to have a couple of ones in my jeans' pocket so gave him those, making sure I kept the tanks between us. He looked rather disgusted (but pocketed them) and then asked if I couldn't just fill his tank on my credit card, too. I declined and cut my tank short so I could leave. As I was putting the cap back on, he was cleaning out his car of several big gulp type cups, etc.
Shared this story with a group of people at a meeting and they gave me his story almost verbatim. Seems's he works several stations around town that have all night unattended pumps. He shows up after the stores close and clerks leave.

Guess there are some who need help and always some who are jerks.
Trick is to not be taken advantage of.
And, I'm still horrified about picking up a stranger in this day!

I asked a black guy in his thirties, obviously with a dead battery outside a store, if he needed a jump.

====

I stand corrected. I went to the wrong source.
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

Seems's he works several stations around town that have all night unattended pumps. He shows up after the stores close and clerks leave.

====

That is disgusting. We had something similar happen to a group of us once. It was around the holidays and we were in Washington D.C. for a work social event and went to dinner after. Outside the restaurant, two mothers with babies in strollers asked us for some money, they needed food for their babies, the babies were starving and hadn't had food in a long time. Just a little money for formula, please...

I sized them up pretty quickly, new jogging suits, new high-dollar Nikes, kids clean and very well dressed, etc... My friends came up with about $50 between them to give them. As we walked away, they hit up the next group of people with the exact same story. My friends were shocked. I stopped them from turning back around and saying something. We were strangers in a busy part of D.C., but it was night, etc...
-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

I gave someone a jump at the grocery once several years back

====

I hope you were single at the time...

Three Calicos, tell her how dangerous it is to jump people at grocery stores...

-----
Tammy and Pookey
(Stanley 8/91 - 8/07)

I gave someone a jump at the grocery once several years back

====

I hope you were single at the time...
*********************

*GROAN!* that's terrible! (and I did a wonderful job of setting myself up for that didn't I?)

>>I gave someone a jump at the grocery once several years back
>>
>>====
>>
>>I hope you were single at the time...
>>*********************
>>
>>*GROAN!* that's terrible! (and I did a wonderful job of setting myself up for that didn't I?)
=

Yes, you did! And, we definitely need to get more topics going so certain ones won't be finding groaners in what we'ver written ever so seriously!

BTW, I wouldn't have offered if it had been evening but it was afternoon with his car nosed in, facing the Petsmart store and I happened to be parked next to him. So, would have felt like a
jerk just getting in and driving off when I had a heavy-duty set of cables in my trunk. Still, the look on his face was priceless.