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#132; The Kindness of Strangers
On my way to my first SoVA interview – a temp agency, this morning – my new, temperamental, 21-year-old convertible decided to stall in the center lane of a highway at a stop light. After stalling, it simply would not start again. I tried turning it fully off, pumping the gas a bit, and restarting. Nothing. It turned over, but there no gas getting wherever gas needs to go in the engine (I know cars, but not their insides).
So there I am, in my lovely, angry, yellow Cavalier Convertible Z24, in the center lane of a high way with absolutely nowhere to go. A large truck behind me started honking its horn despite the two empty lanes on either side of me (seems like most people would just go around the offending car in such an instance, but not this morning!), a State Trooper saw me and drove right by. I began to panic – my car may be little, but I am much, much smaller and not capable of doing a danged thing about a car that won’t move of its own accord.
Without my even noticing him stop, a man was then at my passenger side window – on the highway, in morning rush hour – instructing my panic-addled self how to put the car in neutral and get it to the side of the road. Turns out, this kind, patient person worked at a Chevy dealership about two minutes down the road. He offered me a ride once we settled my car on the side of the road and said that we could have it towed to his dealership (where he’s a mechanic) for cheaper than it would take to get it all the way back to my house (roughly half an hour away). He said it’d be a bit pricey, but the garage there could also look at it, my car being a Chevy.
I reluctantly agreed through my haze and called my roommate to let him know what was going on. I called the lady I had an appointment with and rescheduled (thankfully!).
The guys at the dealership were so understanding of my intensely tight budget, my roommate came to get me, and my car was pampered by geniuses all day. I got a phone call this evening to pick it up, and word that because they couldn’t figure out what had caused the stall – even with all the time and testing they put into it today – they were only going to charge me for the tow and a ‘check in’ fee, rather the hundreds of dollars worth of labor that it would have been.
Seriously!? I kept feeling all day – all week, I have felt like this, to be honest – like I just couldn’t get a break. And then here are some random people who just went out of their way to make my day much easier than it should have been. I cannot thank them enough (though am totally planning on sending an adorable, cheesy thank you card to the dealership!), and I just wanted to take a moment to show my gratitude to the universe.
Have you had times in your life that strangers have gone the extra mile to make a great difference? Let’s use this moment, this space, to let the great unknown how much that means.
and here's the offending darling himself...
Cool beans!!
That them kind folks helped you out of course, not cool beans that the car was having troubles and thusly caused you some troubles. But, in the end, sounds like everything worked out purdy dern good 
- El Rojo
It was almost exactly five years ago, July 4th weekend of 2005. I was driving up from New Jersey, where I lived at the time, to Albany for a Scrabble tournament on Friday afternoon. I had to be there for the first round by 8 PM, but my car had other ideas. I had sensed a problem a few days before, but had been too crazy busy and too stupid to do anything about it. The car stalled out right on the New York State Thruway. Of course, with the holiday weekend, there wasn’t any way I could get the car worked on quickly, but worse than that I needed to get to the tourney!
The tow truck driver not only brought us to the nearest garage, but found out where there was an open rental car place and got me the number. It was still a ways north, but the driver also called up a taxicab to get me from the garage to the rental car. He did this all so efficiently that the taxi was already waiting when we got to the garage. Somehow, everything worked out and I made it to the tournament on time.
Of course, not only did I give the tow truck driver a nice tip, I also made sure to call up his boss and tell him what an awesome job this guy had done.
Are you me? Let’s see: Cavalier, check. GOP, check. VA girl, check. Music lover, check. Movie lover, check. Road tripper, check. If I was only about 15 years younger maybe! Don’t suppose you’re into hockey or Def Leppard, too?! That would be way weird!
Well, I’m a new VA girl, but I suppose I count, and YES HOCKEY AND DEF LEPPARD! I love all things 80′s and there is nothing like sitting in the stands for a hockey game (of any level, and I suppose I’m a Caps fan in the NHL but I prefer smaller leagues). Glad you stopped by!
David – YAY! It’s a little thing like that – calling ahead of time and making sure a stranger gets where they need to be – that blows my mind. I’m glad you shared that with us
Alex, Now let’s just hope nothing else goes wrong with the car!
Atlimbo – well, it is a car after all, there’s ALWAYS something else that WILL go wrong with it, unfortunately, it’s the nature of the beast, them cars are most certainly in the category of “luxury items” and it is one of the luxuries that needs constant maintenance and up keep, sadly, and quite expensively!! Urgh, owning your own car is a blessing and curse, like the saying goes, but brings such great freedom and independence!!
- El Rojo
http://www.reverbnation.com/alexparez