I once got a token for a shopping cart when I just wanted the shopping cart and give the other guy the 50 cents I suspected in there. He told me that he had gotten the token as a gift himself and that I should pass it on when the time has come.
A few years later I gave it to someone who didn’t have any coins with them.
And now I remember a story that should be more important. A complete stranger paid for our engagement rings.
I wanted to propose to my girlfriend with a very special ring. One from a gumball machine. Gumball machines have become rare enough. One with rings was almost impossible to find. I’d always take different routes to and from work and stuff to watch out for one.
So one day I finally found one. With rings besides other toys. It took 20 cent coins but I didn’t have a single one on me. But I spied a woman walking along on the other side of the road. I sprinted to her end explained my conundrum. She had three coins. I offered a euro in return but she refused.
The three coins netted me five balls from the machine. I think it was broken and I could have gotten them without any coins. Anyways, in the five balls were three rings. I chose the one with the most beautiful stone for her and one without a stone for myself. I posed the question as soon as I arrived home.
When my neighbors said my family could sleep on their couches. I slept on the couch of one neighbor. My brother went to a different neighbor and my mom to a third place. It was either that or the car in a parking lot. This between my junior and senior year in high school
Once saw some people giving a big box of food, dog food, and supplies to a man with dogs that looked homeless and he laughed and turned it down because he wasn’t homeless, he was just on a camping trip, had taken a fall, and was currently waiting for someone in the store to get a first aid kit to clean some cuts he got.
I had something similar where I had been bouldering all day and fell, so I was sitting outside, filthy and sweaty, while my friend ran inside for first aid stuff. Two gentlemen walked up to me and tried to hand me a $20 and some fast food. Very kind of them, but I turned them down.
Once I picked up a hitchhiker and gave him some weed.
Halfway to Barstow?
Nah. Just a dude trying to make the train.
I picked up another dude who was brimming with hope for a job interview he was walking three miles to in the 100 degree heat.
I hope it worked out.
You’re a true hero.
I thought the hitchhikers are supposed to supply the weed. He must have thought he’d won the lottery.
Not really big or anything, but almost 20 years ago it was my first time visiting Vegas from across the world to attend a conference. I had a very limited travel budget and was carrying three $100 bills as my allowance provided by my employer. Took a taxi from the airport to the hotel and it didn’t cross my mind that most taxis won’t really have change for $100 for a $12 ride. The driver was kind enough to just let me go without paying, probably because she could tell I was a tourist and was panicking because I had nothing else to pay with.
The office manager of the hvac repair company we use, came over Wednesday morning before work to loan us a window unit so we could stay cool while we waited for a part to come in for our central air. She’s an angel.
