On the ride home tonight I made a quick detour into the local Supermarket
to grab some stuff for dinner. I hate shopping and crowds but I do my best to
get through it. I made the rounds and had maybe 8-10 items
in the "little kid" cargo area. It was busy as I approached the checkout lines.
The three that were open had three patrons each.
I scanned the check out belts and loaded carts in front of me
to quickly assess which line would move faster, made my choice,
and took my six foot distancing spot out in the cross aisle.
As luck would have it, they had to change the register drawer on patron
one. So I stood and fucked around on my phone.
MORE>>>
A younger woman , late 20's early 30's showed up at the lines and was scanning
for a spot. She, had a full carriage. One of the young men must have seen her
and motioned for her that he would help her in the aisle on my left.
We exchanged glances and , to my surprise, she said " Go ahead, you were here
and you only have a few things".
And with that my brain farted.... "Uh, Uh, are you sure?"
"Yes, go ahead" she replied.
" Geez, thanks" still in shock at the kindness of a stranger.
Then I went for a laugh.
"My mother always taught me ladies before gentlemen" I smiled.
She laughed and said "go ahead."
I moved up to the check out and quickly loaded my stuff on the conveyor.
Turning back I smiled again and said "Thanks, that was very nice."
She started loading her stuff on the conveyor and the first two items were
kid's ice creams. I grabbed both boxes, handed them to the cashier and
said "I'll pay for those"
She spoke up and said "You don't have to do that".
"Yes I do" I replied, "You were very kind."
At that point she placed some huggies on that conveyor and said
"Well at least you didn't grab these!" laughing.
"My two year old is streaking around the house like a nut"
As we laughed I said "Tell him it ain't the seventies any more."
At that point, my subconscious quickly did math on his slide rule and whispered:
"Dude, she was probably born the 90's and has no idea what the fuck the 70's were.
I outta kick your stupid ass."
I wished her a Happy New Year and thanked both young men at the check out.
Have you ever left some situation with a bounce in your step, a warmth in
your heart and a smile on your face? I did just that, earlier tonight.
As I walked to the truck and loaded the bags I said to myself,
"She just renewed my faith in humanity". I hopped in, circled around the aisles
of cars and headed down the exit aisle.
As I neared the end, she was coming up the aisle on my drivers side.
No way.
I rolled down the window slowed to a stop next to her and said,
"I just want to let you know that you renewed my faith in humanity this evening."
She gasped and raised her hand to her mouth...
She said. "I can't believe you just said that. After you left and I was finishing up,
the young boy bagging my stuff said, "What I just witnessed renewed
my faith in humanity."" She went on, "Can you believe that a young kid like that
saw the simple interaction and felt the same way and said the same thing?"
"Maybe there IS hope." she finished.
I replied "After hearing that the kid said that to you, I think there just might be!"
I reached out with a fist bump wishing her, again, a happy new year.
She responded in kind.
"Have a great night." I smiled again....
It was then that I noticed the dust in her eyes through the dust in mine.........
I drove off as she started pushing her cart up the aisle....
Thank you kind soul. You made my night.
Yes, there are people like that out there.
ReplyDeleteThey're just not the ones getting the headlines.
Frank
Thanks for sharing that. Warms my shriveled heart!
ReplyDeleteMartyB
Thanks for warming up a cold, snowy night in Colorado, Irish!
ReplyDeleteYou can never be TOO kind to someone.
ReplyDeleteJust sayin'
Good onya.
ReplyDeletemy mom always talked about the kindness of strangers. she always said it was something to pass on and keep it going.
ReplyDeleteit does make the world a better place. shame too few people do it today. good for you sir !
The kindness olf strangers and the kindness TO strangers makes the world a better place.
DeleteDust in my eyes as well.
ReplyDeleteFANTASTIC!
THanks for the share...
good people everywhere, just not where we need them the most brother.
ReplyDelete:-)
ReplyDeleteI believe we ARE the silent majority still, but they TETB ( the evil that be ) have successfully hypnotized a big chunk of us. We used to interact like your story, in the aggregate, all the time in the past, before all this bullshit, now it's like you describe, so rare as to be worth noting. And it is absolutely worth noting. I think that truism that mankind goes mad all at once, and individuals recover one by one, is at play now in the world. So every time we re-establish our humanity, or give a normie a shove towards the light with some info, whatever these little victories are so important.
ReplyDeleteShitfire, dude, this is so unreal, so dystopian, we all need morale boosts-GREAT STORY!!
Nice story; I have trouble remembering a time when this type of action was common, sad to say.
ReplyDeleteTurn off the TV, don't click on that 'news' channel/station/webpage or 'social' media site, interact with the world using your eyes and your heart, and you see this every day.
ReplyDelete"We're" still out there, and we number in the billions.
(unfortunately, the Karen's and Karl's are the other few billion, but they've always been there. We just give them more attention than they deserve)
Thanks for sharing this. It's now been shared further.
ReplyDeleteAll it takes, is for 1 person to break the cycle of indifference, and reach out, with a smile, a courtesy, a goodwill gesture.
ReplyDeleteFrom there, you never know how far it will reach, and grow exponential.
Pay it forward.
And so, with your permission, can the text of your story be copied, and pasted to an email or text broadcast,
to people of like mind?
We need more of this type of thing to go viral, in this man's humble opinion.
You could allow it, even if requesting it be attributed to you or your blog, to maybe help increase traffic; recruit friends.
Thoughts?
Sincerely,
Long time reader & lurker whom you have influenced greatly
Please feel free to share how ever you see fit. Linking the blog would be great but I realize some of the content is rated R+. Either way. Copy and paste attribution to John the feral Irishman would work as well. Thanks for being a fan !!
DeleteMuch obliged, with gratitude, for the authorization to proceed, Irish.
DeleteThe Lord be with you.
~L
I've found over the years that doing something nice for someone comes back in huge rewards. Both from the feeling that I did something nice for someone and also when several someones do something nice and unexpected for me.
ReplyDeleteAmbushed by onions. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThe ugly media only broadcasts in kind.
ReplyDeleteAnd the question that everybody's thinking but nobody's asking: "Wuz she hawt?"
ReplyDeleteIt didn’t enter my mind at the time but yes she was. Great personality to go with being a cutie.
DeleteThere are MANY more people like this than we are led to believe.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing, Irish. I'm blessed to live in a very small village where these types of encounters are fairly common. I'm glad you got to experience this and hope for many more like it. This is how it's supposed to be. Ohio Guy
ReplyDeleteI little thing I find brings a bright smile to others in the grocery store, being a tall person, is coming across an older woman that needs that one item on their list all that way up on the top shelf. They usually give me their thanks but when I say it is my honor to help is when I get that smile of recognition. Payment in full.
ReplyDeleteI little thing I find brings a bright smile to others in the grocery store, being a tall person, is coming across an older woman that needs that one item on their list all that way up on the top shelf. They usually give me their thanks but when I say it is my honor to help is when I get that smile of recognition. Payment in full.
ReplyDeleteMade my night, John, thanks. Brought me back to my time in Manchester 30+ years ago, when such interactions occurred more often.
ReplyDeleteI was born in 1960, raised by good parents, who taught me to treat everyone I came across with kindness. They would invite perfect strangers to stay over on our couch, if they needed a place to stop for the night. It happened my entire life. So I was used to that sort of kindness and it just was a part of life.
ReplyDeleteWhen a cashier asks me how are you, I always say, " Fantastic!" because no matter how bad it might be, it can always be much worse. I am alive, my family loves me, and God let me live in the world another day. What I make of it is my choice. I choose to make it Fantastic! The older I get, the less days I have, and the greater the desire to make the most of them.
Thanks Irish for this blog. After all this 1/6 bullshit from the pols and media, I read the Pabst Beer run, then your experience at the supermarket, it does give me Hope for the future. Sometimes that's all that's needed.
ReplyDeleteGreat story! God, I needed that tonight!!!
ReplyDeleteOne should not be kind to strangers just they might get something out of it...
BUT...
23 years ago, a girl happened to be rollerblading past my apartment, hit a rough spot, fell and hit her head. I saw the whole thing happen.
I ran outside and helped her sit up. Her head was bleeding. She had a small contusion above her right eye. I told her I was driving her to the emergency room -- she'd clearly had her bell rung! As a young man, it did not escape my notice that she was a beautiful girl, but at that moment, I was genuinely concerned only for her well-being.
Turns out she had a concussion and needed a couple of stitches.
Last August, we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary with the 4 beautiful children she gave me.
She still rollerblades, BTW, but I make her wear a helmet ;-)
If you check Youtube for AutomatricsMtrack, its a small company in England that fit trackers to vehicles and industrial plant but with a difference.
ReplyDeleteIf a client reports a theft they actually go out, all over the country, to find whatever it was that was stolen.
Most recent video a young feller at Uni had his small motorbike stolen, sure enough they found it but it had been partly stripped.
Young feller hasn't got theft insurance, and no doubt like most in that position won't have piles of cash lying about.
Part of the package is £200 the company allow for recovery costs, so what they did was let the lad recover his own bike (probably a friend with a van) and if he sends them £200 worth of invoices for parts etc they'll pay him back that instead.
The tracking company need not have done that it wa s fairly local theft recpovery so could have saved probably £150 themslves by recovering the bike for him, but doing it this way will help that young chap get mobile again.
Decent people still are out there.