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Some Faith in Humanity Restored! (stories of humanity remembering to not be dicks)

24

Posts

  • Oniros25Oniros25 Registered User regular
    But I try.

    If it was easy, everybody'd be doing it. If everybody was doing it, we wouldn't need this thread...

    Nintendo Network ID: Oniros
    3DS Friend Code: 1461-7489-3097
  • VestyVesty Registered User regular
    Back in November I was pulling into a shopping center late at night and a woman flagged me down looking for help. She accidentally took a corner too sharp, hit the curb, and popped her front tire. No one else was around, she didn't have AAA, and couldn't get her son to drive out and help (sounded like he's a dick). I told her if she has a spare tire I'll put it on. Had to empty her trunk full of things she bought, but we got the tire out and onto her car. She offered to run to an ATM to get me a couple bucks for my effort but I declined. I didnt' think it was a big deal and didn't take long. I have bad luck with flats and I'm getting pretty good at changing a tire.

    Nothing major, but it felt good.

  • MuzzmuzzMuzzmuzz Registered User regular
    So, while biking home from work, I stopped at the grocery store to pick up a bag of cat food. Biking home, I notice this distraught girl trying desperately to capture her Chihuahua who had escaped from his cage. Unfortunately, the dog was in a playful mood, and kept running away from the girl and her mother, thinking it was a game. As I pulled up, the dog ran into the middle of a busy 4 lane road, which just so happened to be on the top of a hill, making it extra dangerous for both the dog and the girl. The girl is considering bolting into the road, but I know that's gonna make it worse. So I pull out my bag of cat food, and shake it with all my might.

    The dog comes zooming from the middle of the road, straight into my arms. After calming the feller down, I hand him to the girl, who's rather thankful. I guess it's the closest I've ever been to saving someone's life.


    Another story, when I was a child, I had to cross a less dangerous road (but still busy) to get to school. There were no crossing lights, just a sign, and if the person felt like it, there would be a child crossing guard. Across from it, a group of elementary school students always stood there, waiting for a bus to either the local Catholic school, or the private Christian school. I never really associated with them. One day, when I was seven, I stupidly misjudged and ran across the road, getting hit by a car going at a fast clip. The impact sent me flying, then rolling, until I hit a curb. This happened right in front of these kids, who if they were average kids, would have just watched, pointed, and laughed.

    Not these kids. Within moments, the 4 strongest ones were grabbing me from the road, picked me up, and set me down on the grass, another grabbed my backpack, and brought it to me. Another kid asked me for my name and address, and after reluctantly giving it to them (I was terrified I was going to be in trouble with my mom) one of the other kids sped off to my house, which was two blocks away. I never got to thank those kids. Sure, later on, first aid told me that you're not suppose to move a person due to neck and back injuries, but hell, these were kids, none of them older than 13.

  • SammyFSammyF Registered User regular
    Okay, thought of another one.

    Me and some friends regularly go bowling about every other week. We're at a pretty wide variety of skill levels: at one end of the spectrum, I have one friend who owns his own ball and shoes and might bowl a 130 on a really bad night, and at the other end of the spectrum, we have my friend Nate, who has broken a score of 90 maybe one time in six months. The point is to make sure that everyone is having fun regardless of how well he bowls, though, or else people will stop coming. And then we'll have to take up golf because one does a lot less damage throwing a golf club into a lake out of doors in frustration than one does throwing a bowling ball into a refreshment stand out of frustration. And that's no good; I hate playing golf.

    Anyway, the first time we got Nate to come out bowling with us, he seemed to be feeling pretty low. Not only is he objectively terrible as a bowler, he's been having some problems at home, it looked like he was on the verge of divorce, and so whenever he missed, he'd just kind of shuffle back to the benches while muttering to himself with his shoulders slumped. And we'd do the polite thing and say, "Aw, hey, good try, Nate," and stuff like that, but it didn't really do anything to cheer him up.

    I guess everyone else in the bowling alley seemed to notice that Nate was having a pretty horrible night for reasons that probably had nothing to do with bowling because once he got a couple of frames under his belt, he stopped throwing gutter balls. By the sixth frame, he picked up a spare, and not only did all of his friends in our lane stand up to clap for him -- the total strangers in the lanes on either side clapped for him, too. On the very last frame, he picked up a spare off an 8-10 split (which was pretty impressive in its own right) and knocked down nine on the extra frame. About ten people mobbed him to give him high fives and slap him on the back, and he didn't know half of them.

    I think it was the first time I'd seen him smile in a non-ironic way in a month.

  • saint2esaint2e Registered User regular
    Onion-cutting Ninjas were around when I read the bottom part of this article:

    http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=414132
    Here's a must-share story I witnessed firsthand at the game which demonstrates the true heart of a hockey fan. At the end of the first period, a 32-year-old unemployed iron worker from the Atlantic City Union exited the complimentary seat he was given and was about to enter the concourse area.

    Wearing the "Giroux" captain's jersey the fan purchased that very morning in hopes of getting it signed by his favourite player someday was a dead giveaway as to his team loyalty. This hockey fan was about to walk past a mother and her little girl (age 5) when he noticed that the child was wearing a surgical mask over her mouth.

    The absence of hair on her little head along with her look was an indication that the child was a cancer patient. The blue collar fan then paused and asked the little girl if she was a Claude Giroux fan? As the child nodded he removed the brand new Giroux jersey, handed it to the little girl and said, "You are an angel and I would like to give this jersey to you."

    The little girl beamed with excitement and commented to her mother that the jersey had the new "C" on the front. The good Samaritan Flyers fan simply walked away with a tear in his eye. The name of the fan is being withheld at his request because like most acts of kindness, he did not want to bring attention to himself. I felt the need to bring attention to the act of one terrific hockey fan and human being.

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  • Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    SammyF wrote: »
    Okay, thought of another one.

    Me and some friends regularly go bowling about every other week. We're at a pretty wide variety of skill levels: at one end of the spectrum, I have one friend who owns his own ball and shoes and might bowl a 130 on a really bad night, and at the other end of the spectrum, we have my friend Nate, who has broken a score of 90 maybe one time in six months. The point is to make sure that everyone is having fun regardless of how well he bowls, though, or else people will stop coming. And then we'll have to take up golf because one does a lot less damage throwing a golf club into a lake out of doors in frustration than one does throwing a bowling ball into a refreshment stand out of frustration. And that's no good; I hate playing golf.

    Anyway, the first time we got Nate to come out bowling with us, he seemed to be feeling pretty low. Not only is he objectively terrible as a bowler, he's been having some problems at home, it looked like he was on the verge of divorce, and so whenever he missed, he'd just kind of shuffle back to the benches while muttering to himself with his shoulders slumped. And we'd do the polite thing and say, "Aw, hey, good try, Nate," and stuff like that, but it didn't really do anything to cheer him up.

    I guess everyone else in the bowling alley seemed to notice that Nate was having a pretty horrible night for reasons that probably had nothing to do with bowling because once he got a couple of frames under his belt, he stopped throwing gutter balls. By the sixth frame, he picked up a spare, and not only did all of his friends in our lane stand up to clap for him -- the total strangers in the lanes on either side clapped for him, too. On the very last frame, he picked up a spare off an 8-10 split (which was pretty impressive in its own right) and knocked down nine on the extra frame. About ten people mobbed him to give him high fives and slap him on the back, and he didn't know half of them.

    I think it was the first time I'd seen him smile in a non-ironic way in a month.

    You sure his personal problems weren't related to a group of persistent stalkers?

    (In all seriousness, great story.)

    PEUsig_zps56da03ec.jpg
  • DelmainDelmain Registered User regular
    I know it's looked down upon in some places, but I found a comment on Reddit a couple years ago that was relevant and that I've kept in mind since then.

    Since then, I always assume people are having the shittiest day when I see something bad happen and I try to help out. Most recently, on my way back into my apartment on the campus shuttle, I saw a car sitting in the turn lane on a big (3 lanes each direction) road with the door open. I thought it was weird, but hey, it's Florida, maybe his AC is broke and it's a million degrees outside.

    About 15 minutes later, I'm heading out of my apartment myself towards my girlfriend's place when I realize the same car is in the same spot I saw earlier. I pull a U, stop behind him, and get out to see what's going on. Turns out his radiator was shot and he'd been stuck there for 30 minutes because no one else would help. I went back and pulled my car up onto the median and got ready to push his car out across traffic and into the parking lot of a Walgreens that was right there. A crossing guard for the local high school helped out when it took longer than the length of the turn signal to push the car out of the way, but I pushed this guy's old mustang the 60 yards or so in the Orlando summer heat and then took him into work so he wouldn't get fired. I left him my cell number and told him to give me a call if he needed a lift back home, but I assume he managed to find someone.

    Farther back than that, it's just little things that, like @MalReynolds was saying, could have been someone trying to scam me, but I just have to assume they weren't. Helping people out with some groceries, putting a few bucks in gas in someone's car so they can get back home, helping replace tires. I like to thing that if I, someone who is, by all rights, an ass, can manage to help out people occasionally, that we're not in as shitty a spot as it seems.

  • intropintrop Registered User regular
    The little bakery / coffee shop I frequent is a cash-only joint. (They're really little.) Even though this is a small town and all the townies know the cash-only rule, we get a lot of visitors due to the university which starts literally right across the street from the place. It's a rare week that I don't see someone come in for a danish and some coffee, get everything all ready on the counter, then pull out their credit card and have the person behind the counter politely point to one of the two large CASH AND CHECK ONLY signs. Sometimes the person will be visibly uncomfortable, maybe muttering about not having cash on them, etc. Wouldn't it suck to have to walk out without your challah or sweetbread or caffeine?

    So, it's also a rare week when some other customer sitting in the place doesn't stand up and pay for their bread/muffin/coffee/whatever. A couple times it's almost been a race to the counter to see who wins the honor of buying stuff for strangers. It's usually a very small gesture, just a couplefew dollars, but the whole thing never fails to make me smile.

    Steam ID: highentropy
  • JurgJurg In a TeacupRegistered User regular
    I love that fire chief story.

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  • silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    So I actually remembered something I did that might merit being in this thread.

    My sister and I went to Johnny Rockets for lunch, and we sat at the counter. For those of you who do not know Johnny Rockets, it styles itself as a 50s style restaurant, and all the serving staff wear outfits out of the 50s. The lady who was going to wait on us comes over, and we get to chatting, and I ask how her day is. She replies that someone left cash on the counter to pay for their bill, and that when she went to collect it, someone else had taken the cash and disappeared with it. This money was going to come out of the waitress's tips for the day. My sister and I express our sympathies, and lunch continues from there. As we go to pay, I leave a tip large enough to more than cover the money the waitress lost, and tell the waitress "I hope your day gets better from here on out." The waitress looks a little puzzled, and looks in the check and then sees how much I left. She then runs around the counter and gives me a giant hug, and starts to cry as she thanks me. She says it's too much and she can't possibly accept it. I say I don't know what you're talking about, and wish her a nice day again and leave.

  • ShadowfireShadowfire Vermont, in the middle of nowhereRegistered User regular
    Any business that forces employees to pay for shortages is both incredibly scummy and breaking the law. Glad you are an awesome person!

    WiiU: Windrunner ; Guild Wars 2: Shadowfire.3940 ; PSN: Bradcopter
  • silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Any business that forces employees to pay for shortages is both incredibly scummy and breaking the law. Glad you are an awesome person!

    Now that you say this, I think more likely is that just the tip portion of the bill was cash (the rest was charged or whatever), and that is what disappeared. You're right in thinking that business can't force employees to pay for things like that. Either way, the waitress was robbed.

  • Jubal77Jubal77 Registered User regular
    edited January 2013
    I know this is pretty common but I love it when it happens. I was flying back from New Mexico this weekend and while boarding the plane from Denver to Spokane there were several military personnel boarding with us. After the plane landed one of the stewardess' stated over the intercom that "I know this is late but I would like to point out that we have some military personnel on the plane and if we could, we should thank them for their service". At that pretty much the whole plane started to clap and cheer. I saw several of the kids flush and look around wide eyed looking clearly humbled.

    Edit: Just thought of another simple one. About two weeks ago on the way to work I came upon a van that was on the side of the road with a guy of African-American descent tryng to catch a ride. I live in a very small population community and I have to drive 35 miles every day to get to work. It has been 20s or below for the last few months and so I stopped when the other 5 cars in front of me didnt. The guy was very grateful and stated he had been up since 3AM trying to get back home as he work 90+ miles away from his wife and family and his wife was late to work. He was an immigrant from Jamaica and stated that he was having a hard time with life because of his horrible van and the fact that he has to work so hard to try and make money. After I dropped him off he tried to give me some gas money but I stated "I was heading this way anyway and I couldnt take him all the way to his destination" he insisted that as a man it would help him feel better and that he was very grateful and left the money on the seat. I still have his money and intend to pay it forward.

    Jubal77 on
  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    So here's a very simple gesture that always stuck with me:

    Over the past couple of years I lost over a 100lbs, mainly through working out. At first I used the threadmill at my house, but eventually I decided I needed to start hitting the gym. Now this terrified me, as I was always self consious about my lack of physical activity and felt everyone was going to judge me. None the less I signed up for a gym, one that had a small indoor running track, and did my best to run around it.

    After a couple of days, some random in shape gym person came up to me and told me that I was busting my ass out there and to keep it up. Just such a small gesture but it really motivated me.

  • AiouaAioua Ora Occidens Ora OptimaRegistered User regular
    Shadowfire wrote: »
    Any business that forces employees to pay for shortages is both incredibly scummy and breaking the law. Glad you are an awesome person!

    Sad part is this is pretty common practice for servers. Or if they make a mistake ringing up your bill and shortcharge you, they're usually paying the difference. Oh they could explain it to their boss and have the company cover it. Same way they could tell their boss if their wage+tips doesn't equal minimum wage to get paid the remainder. It's a great way to get fired, though.

    On the happy side, this is why I always tip 20%, unless it's the worst service ever. Then they only get 15%.
    Oh also in WA state they have to pay minimum wage before tips. So go Washington.

    life's a game that you're bound to lose / like using a hammer to pound in screws
    fuck up once and you break your thumb / if you're happy at all then you're god damn dumb
    that's right we're on a fucked up cruise / God is dead but at least we have booze
    bad things happen, no one knows why / the sun burns out and everyone dies
  • cncaudatacncaudata Registered User regular
    edited January 2013
    2 car stories and a boat story.

    Car story 1: When I was 16, 2 friends and I went out for some Black Friday shopping. They picked me up, and we were exiting the trailer park (...) and I said to my friend who was driving, "You know there's no way across the median..." and he responded, "Nope." as we headed straight into the large median of a 4 lane highway in 18 inches or so of snow. It wasn't but 2 minutes of our flailing attempts to push the car out before 2 people, a young guy in a pickup and a middle aged guy in a beat up sedan both stopped, and with a rope to the truck and 4 of us pushing we got the car out.

    10 miles into our trip, there was a car in the ditch, so of course we had to stop. Another fellow with a truck stopped a few minutes later and with one friend and I pushing, the truck pulling, and the my other friend standing in the middle of the highway to stop traffic for a moment, we got the woman's car out of the ditch as well.

    Car story 2: I went to my in-law's with my wife and kids, and left them there to visit a friend who lives nearby for a night of DnD, Flux, etc. The next morning, severely hungover, I headed back to my mother-in-law's. Halfway there, and this is out in the country on a Sunday in the middle of the day in August, there's a car stopped heading the other direction with it's truck open and an extremely befuddled looking woman staring into it. I really had no desire to stop at all (but probably also had no desire to see my wife and mother-in-law yet as hung over as I was), but I pulled a U-turn anyway and stopped behind them. Then I saw what looked to be an able bodied 30 year old guy sitting against the side of the car facing the ditch, and I didn't know if he was an asshole for making this older woman deal with their flat tire, or if he was hurt.

    It turns out that he was her son, and he had Downs. She was just totally at a loss for what to do. Her cell phone had no signal where we were (neither did mine), her son was confused and sad about what was going on, and she hadn't known if anyone was going to drive by any time soon. So I changed the tire and chatted with them a bit. She tried to give me $20 for helping but I somehow convinced her that it was ok.

    Boat story: I went sailing for the first time when I was 15 or so. A friend of mine, 17, and his younger brother, 13, had a couple of sailboats in their family and were relatively experienced, so we headed out alone to a lake in the area. The boat we had was a Flying Dutchman, this used to be the boat used in 2-man sailing in the Olympics (or so I was told, I don't think I've ever checked that...). Of course the people doing that were 6'4" 220 pound guys with years of experience. We probably weighed about 300 pounds all together, it was my first time sailing, and they were two arguing brothers. We sailed for a good 2 hours and were making our last tack to head to the boat landing, when the younger brother accidentally jibed (turned the boat across the wind with the boat heading downwind). Jibing can be a kind of fun, exciting, thing to do because it happens really fast, but it's very dangerous if you do it stupidly, which this was. Luckily, none of us was hit by the boom swinging across the boat at full force, but unluckily, this is because we'd both been, well, doing what they're doing in this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapeze_(sailing), leaning out to balance the boat. Of course once the boom swung, and the wind was coming from the other direction, we were not balancing anymore, and the boat almost instantly capsized.

    It took about 8-10 seconds for the boat to fully flip. We were all wearing lifejackets (I'm a terrible swimmer), and were uninjured, and were able to crawl up on top of the boat. We were not able to right it though, even with all three of us pulling on the centerboard. We learned later that it was because the mast was stuck in the bottom of the lake. It was late september, maybe early October, I think, in Minnesota. The water couldn't have been more than 55 degrees, it was very windy, and we were more than a quarter mile from shore. No one expected us back for a few hours, and we had no cell phone. There was no one else on the lake all day, and in fact it appeared that many of the cabins and homes had already pulled their boats out of the water for winter.

    I have no idea how long we sat on the boat. It was at least 15 minutes, and probably less than 30, but it felt like forever. We were shivering like crazy and debating the merits of sending the dumbass who capsized us to try to swim to shore when a boat left its dock and came and rescued us. They pulled the sail boat upright eventually, bending the mast in the process (because it was stuck), and got us to shore. Why friend was pretty incoherent when we got there, and I'm rather convinced that he was beginning to suffer from hypothermia.

    The dudes that saved us were as nice as could possibly be. They just happened to be looking out their window when we capsized and luckily hadn't winterized their boat yet. They didn't give us any shit or tell us how stupid we were, they just called my friend's parents for us, dried us off, gave us blankets, got our sailboat back on the trailer for us, and hung out with us until the parents got there.

    cncaudata on
    PSN: Broodax- battle.net: broodax#1163
  • spool32spool32 Contrary Library Registered User regular
    Many years ago, I was at the grocery store and they were handing out balloons for the little kids. I grabbed one for my son, age 2 at the time, and we went in. A little ways behind us, a woman came in with her daughter and there were no balloons left. She burst into tears and continued crying as they went down the aisle... so my son began demanding we go over to them. After a couple of minutes I relented, and apologizing to the woman I started to explain that my boy wanted to come over but I didn't know why.

    Then he handed his balloon to the girl, said "OK all done" to me and waved bye. The mother looked at me while her daughter laughed but I just shrugged... it was all his idea. :)

  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    Could everyone do me a favor and tomorrow, tell someone that the world is a better place because they're here?

    Sometimes it helps to hear it.

    It really does.

    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
    "Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
    My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
  • silence1186silence1186 Character shields down! As a wingmanRegistered User regular
    Could everyone do me a favor and tomorrow, tell someone that the world is a better place because they're here?

    Sometimes it helps to hear it.

    It really does.

    I'll make sure to tell someone tomorrow, and I have someone in mind for Saturday too.

    Also, @MalReynolds, you've posted quite a number of awesome stories yourself, so:
    MalReynolds, the world is a better place because you're here. I sincerely mean that, you've really impressed me in this thread.

  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    The world is a better place with the Penny Arcade forums.

    And especially those people who post here and make the community great.

    Seriously.

    You are all fantastic people and I love you all dearly.

  • Oniros25Oniros25 Registered User regular
    I'm going to post a link to this article I found on a website connected to something I found in PAR's The Cut:

    http://bygonebureau.com/2013/01/23/advice-for-boys/

    It's the story of a woman who answered the awkward questions of teenage gamers for years, helping them get through one of the harder parts of anyone's life. She didn't have to be decent and kind about it. She even comments that it would've been in lockstep with the site she was on not to. But she was decent, she was kind. The readership followed.

    Her last comment is how I feel about human culture as a whole, "I like to think it’s sort of like Web 1.0 — we built a good foundation. It’s still there."

    Nintendo Network ID: Oniros
    3DS Friend Code: 1461-7489-3097
  • MalReynoldsMalReynolds The Hunter S Thompson of incredibly mild medicines Registered User regular
    edited January 2013
    Thank you, Silence. I'd tag you proper, but I'm very, you know, 'gone' right now.

    My ex and I, we were a pair. There wasn't a single situation that she and I couldn't figure out together. And when she joined the Air Force, I told her - this is just a drop in the bucket for us.The rest of our lives won't measure a thing, because we, we're forever.

    I ended up breaking things off with her about six months in, because she was in a facility for self harm, 2000 miles away, and I thought everyone there would look after her.

    We met up a couple of times after those shenanigans; I remember talking to her a month before it happened, because I wanted to hear her voice.
    A year ago today, they found her dead. I want to help her so bad. I want to tell her one last time that I can hold her hand. I read the letters that she sent me from Basic every day. I just miss her so much. The idea that the eyes that looked over me won't look over me ever again. She bought me PAX passes three years ago, and we went, and she loved it. We spent most of the time playing DS (which I got her for Christmas) on the bean bags on the third floor, and we held hands the entire plane ride back because I hate flying and I'm so goddamn scared of it, and I just miss her so much. I have to go to sleep. I had too much to drink. Anyway. G'night, everyone.

    So please, just tell people how much they mean.

    Please.

    MalReynolds on
    "A new take on the epic fantasy genre... Darkly comic, relatable characters... twisted storyline."
    "Readers who prefer tension and romance, Maledictions: The Offering, delivers... As serious YA fiction, I’ll give it five stars out of five. As a novel? Four and a half." - Liz Ellor
    My new novel: Maledictions: The Offering. Now in Paperback!
  • SiskaSiska Shorty Registered User regular
    edited January 2013
    My husband talks the talk of a grouchy cynic at times. But when he sees someone having trouble he usually goes out of his way to help. If he sees a stranger struggling with loading their car, or stuck in a ditch, he will offer help. About a month ago, as he was driving home from work, he saw a car on the side of the road. A small sized woman was trying to push and steer it at the same time to get it completely off the road. A police officer was already there, but from what he could see, he was not helping her any. Hubby was unsure if it was a good idea to jump in and help with the police there, but he decided to anyway. So he stopped, walked up and asked the driver if she wanted help. She said yes, the car has stalled and I need to get it off the road and I just can't do it alone. Meanwhile the police officer just stood there and droned on about how illegal it was to leave the car where it was right now. Apparently that was the extent of his protect and serve duties. Hubby helped with pushing the car far enough off the road. Then he asked if she needed a lift, but she lived less than 5 minutes, walking distance, away.

    Siska on
  • TofystedethTofystedeth Registered User regular
    edited January 2013
    This summer my wife's car had some trouble with a couple of its sensors causing it to simply stop running abruptly at stop lights and not want to start up again for a bit. We thought we'd gotten it taken care of when we replaced one of them, but a few weeks later it happened again. I came to meet her and we got it started again, and were on our way to our car guys when it died once more. We got it pushed off into a little cul-de-sac thingy and we were waiting for the tow truck. It took over an hour and half because apparently due to the heat (it was like 105) tons of cars were breaking down. We took some advantage of my car's AC working, but not wanting to waste a bunch of gas, or not be visible when the tow truck came by we were waiting under a tree there.

    Eventually I left to go buy some bottled water, and just after I got back this car pulled up, and this lady got out. At first we thought she was going to yell at us for parking on a private drive or something (this was in one of those fancy city within a city areas) but instead, she handed us a couple of ice cream sundaes and some water. She'd driven by earlier a couple times on her way places and seeing us still there thought it was entirely too hot for folks to be out. We started chatting and it turned she'd just been hired for the hospital my wife and I both work for as well.

    Tofystedeth on
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  • KyouguKyougu Registered User regular
    Huh, I had an unexpected moment this weekend.

    I'm sure some of you are familiar with Meetup.com. It's a site where people create groups of similar interests in order to meet people and what not. I joined it 3 years ago when I moved to Dallas, found and group and made some really cool friends. The organizer of said group (and a good friend) moved out of Dallas, so I ended up taking over.

    Now until recently I would never categorize myself as outgoing or extrovert, but since I was the organizer of the group I took it upon myself to make sure to make everyone feel welcomed and part of the group at any events I ended up doing. Just being friendly, including people in conversations, if someone seemed out of place or by themselves talking to them. Nothing special really but sometimes that combined with the stress of organizing events gets to me/

    Well, last night a friend who I met a couple of months through one of the events I hosted thanked me for "changing her life." She was at a rough spot when she joined the group (Broken up with fiance months before her wedding, feeling like she didn't have any real friends ) and even when she tried meetup she was hesitant and had no idea what to expect. She told me how it was specifically me being so welcoming and friendly that made her want to continue to come to events and hang out with our group. She credits all the friends and awesome times we had to me.

    Made me feel kinda awesome really.

  • DelmainDelmain Registered User regular
    WTF Geth?

  • spacekungfumanspacekungfuman Poor and minority-filled Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    As a commuter, I can attest to the value of tiny kindnesses. Even something as simple as moving to the middle seat when someone asks to sit down (instead of getting up and letting the newcomer sit in the middle) or saying "of course" when someone asks if they can sit next to you instead of begrudgingly saying "yes" can make someone's day, as can getting up and moving seats or standing so that a couple or family that just got on the train can sit together. But the one thing I consistently do but can't even believe that needs to be stated is helping people with baby strollers. I always offer to help people carry their baby strollers up stairs, and it kind of blows me away that people are always so appreciative because it doesn't happen that often.

  • chamberlainchamberlain Registered User regular
    This thread gives me hope.

    It's a small thing, but I try it make eye contact and say thank you as directly as possible when buying something at the grocery story or a fast food place. I know those jobs for the most part suck and can be soul crushingly repetitive, so if I can express some personal appreciation perhaps it will make the day go a little better or faster.

  • lonelyahavalonelyahava Call me Ahava ~~She/Her~~ Move to New ZealandRegistered User regular
    It's small and probably not very helpful at all, but i really try to say thank you to the service people around me. Cashiers, servers, the gas station attendant. Anybody that is doing a one of the little, usually unnoticed jobs, that make the world and society run. We've been to a few weddings in the last year and I have been making a point to say thank you to the catering team, their servers, etc. because while they are supposed to just blend into the background, I can only imagine that it feels good to be recognized.

  • DevoutlyApatheticDevoutlyApathetic Registered User regular
    That is an important thing. The other thing I try and do for those kinds of jobs is when I run into one who does an exceptional job I try and make sure their manager is aware of it. The manager will always hear about screw ups but so rarely does anybody say when they do a good job.

    Nod. Get treat. PSN: Quippish
  • HonkHonk Honk is this poster. Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
    I was on the bus home one time and there was an older man in a wheelchair on there. As we reached my stop he asked for help to get off the bus, which being a rural bus lacked the fold-out wheelchair ramp the city buses have. He had been delayed in town and said because of this his help for the day had clocked off and wasn't going to meet him at the stop. So I ended up driving him home and helped him through the front door. He was very happy and it made me happy because I had had a bad day.

    PSN: Honkalot
  • Gandalf_the_CrazedGandalf_the_Crazed Vigilo ConfidoRegistered User regular
    (Context: My workplace mainly sells products to restaurant owners.)

    One of our customers has a reputation for having an extremely caustic personality. Not just among us, either -- years before I worked there, I volunteered at a special event where she was catering. She was rude to all of us, and constantly complained about the facilities. Hella good food though, so...you know. Whatever. At first I thought it was just me, that maybe I'd inadvertently offended her, or was imagining her attitude. Then one of the other volunteers (who I'd literally never heard say a negative word about anyone) just blurted out after the caterer left, in her perfect Southern Belle accent, "Yeah, she's a bitch." Some of the other volunteers chimed in, stating that they'd had similar experiences at her restaurant, or had friends who had worked with her and felt the same way.

    So flash forward several years, I'm at my new job, and I see the name of her restaurant come up on the caller ID. I pick up, take her order. She's very brusque the whole time. So, you know, not much unexpected there. After it's done, my coworker sees my expression and says, "Yeah, she's always like that. That's why I let you pick up first." (<---story of humanity forgetting to not be dicks)

    Over the next few weeks, she's calling in all the time. Placing orders sometimes, but often complaining about incredibly minor things. And you know, complaints are fair, obviously. But you'd think, from her attitude, that we'd delivered her 12 cases of panda shit. Just a wildly overblown aggressive attitude about even the smallest things.

    So I decided to experiment with the old wisdom about kindness drawing kindness out of people.

    It started small, with a sincere "have a nice day" at the end of each call. Then, I started preempting the business discussion by asking how her day was as soon as she identified herself. Of course, I already knew who she was because of caller ID, but people respond positively when you respond positively to their name.

    Before long, she was calling every day. Not complaining anymore. Just holding a brief discussion about our respective days, "how's business", "oh, did that really happen?" sorts of things. I considered it mission accomplished, wisdom confirmed: kindness really does breed kindness.

    One day, she calls in to place her order.

    Her: "Hey, this is _______ with ________."

    Me: "Oh hey! You doing OK today?"

    She started crying.

    Me: "I'm...are you OK?"

    Her: "No, but thank you so much."

    She hangs up. About 5 minutes later, she calls back, places her order quickly, and hangs up again.

    We still talk almost every day, just little nothings between mostly-strangers. But it taught me to believe that nobody is really just an incorrigible dick. Even the people that drive us crazy, who seem to be mean for no reason, are still people and that responding with genuine humanity can make life better for everyone involved.

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  • japanjapan Registered User regular
    I put this in the chat because I didn't know we had this thread. Anyway:

    http://www.facebook.com/Nolimitstrackdays/posts/572464006114448

    dPn3NZU.jpg
    As requested, we are reposting this email from a customers so it can be shared in its entirety, This is an amazing and heart warming read so please take a few minutes to read it. Feel free to SHARE.

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    First of all let me introduce myself, my name is Carl. I also wish to introduce my best friend Daryl. Daryl and I have been best friends for a long time and our biggest love, interest and passion is riding motorbikes.

    In the beginning of Dec 2012, I was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus; cancer of the spine - leading to spinal cord compression. I will lose the use of my legs first and was told this week I will lose the use of my legs in 4 to 6 weeks and will die within 3 to 6 months. Its terminal – not if, but when and my time is short. I am going to die. My final dream and last wish was that myself and Daryl get to have one last big ride out and/or track day together – doing what we love together in each others company – motorbikes!

    Being December – cold, wet and miserable, we thought well, if we have to a track day in England it is! With nothing available until March, I thought no more of it. However, while I was in hospital, Daryl found a 3 day track day in Cartagena, Spain. Drier, warmer and closer in time – doable! Excellent! Unbeknown to me, he booked it. I awoke Christmas day to find a Christmas card. Inside the card was a flight ticket and a track day ticket – booked and paid for to Spain – WOW what a friend!

    So with everything booked all we needed now are some motorbikes to ride. Not a problem – we’ll hire bikes. Uh-oh, maybe we won’t. He tried every avenue for bike hire: track day hire; and European hire but to no avail. Everyone was either fully booked; hired out or didn’t do European track day hire. Now we’re screwed and time is very short.

    What makes this story more remarkable is that back in November 2012 Daryls bike was stolen, but luckily recovered and was in the shop awaiting insurance repair. Daryl paid the shop – Fastlane Motorcycles, Tonbridge a visit hoping he at least would be able to get his bike repaired in time as we couldn’t hire.

    Daryl went and saw Justin at Fastlane to ask if they could repair his bike ASAP – what was the chance???! At least we would have 1 bike to take to Spain. The guys immediately stopped what they were doing and made Daryls bike a number 1 priority to be repaired. Whilst at Fastlane, Daryl told Jamie and Stuart my story – that I was terminally ill and our last wish was to have 1 last ride/track day together and that the track day was booked but we didn’t have 2 bikes to ride.

    Now, I will pause for just a second and tell you a little bit about Fastlane Motorcycles. Fastlane Motorcycles consists of 3 guys who work there: Jamie; Stuart and Justin. They are a friendly, cracking little motorcycle shop. They buy, sell and repair motorcycles; parts and clothing. They also race motorbikes in their spare time as well. It’s their passion too. They compete in the European Enduro No Budget Cup and finished 1st in their class in the Championship of 2012. This is a revelation as they do not boast and Daryl and I knew nothing of this!

    Daryl mentioned to Jamie and Stuart our predicament and how we were struggling to find hire bikes. Daryl asked if they might know someone or a company who hires out bikes/trackbikes for a track weekend in Spain. Stuarts first reply was “can he ride an R1?”……”Errrr, yes, but why is that?”.

    Now, being a team of 3 riders in endurance racing, Stuart said he’ll check with his team mates and if its OK with the lads, we can borrow their R1. They came back and said we can use their bike! This is not just any bike but a 2003 R1 with every toy and extra you could wish for: tuned engine; ohlins front and rear; power commander; quick shifter etc etc – the list of bits is endless!

    Now, I would like to point out, that these guys don’t know myself or Daryl from adam! Yet, they have lent us their race prepared, race ready championship bike – their pride and joy R1. They have fully serviced it and supplied it with new tyres; spare tyres on rims; wets on rims; sundries and spares – just in case anything happened or it got dropped in Spain. In which case, we could repair and carry on. Its unbelievable, I know – it still doesn’t seem real.

    We picked the bike up 10th Jan to take to Swindon. There it was, ready, complete with paddock stands; spares etc. WOW, WOW, WOW! How special are these guys??!

    They had only 1 request: If you smash the bike up, please bring back what’s left as we need the spares (ha ha sod the bike – we want the parts)….what guys…..

    Now for the reason I am writing this letter and telling you my story – I am asking for your help. After what they have done for me, I want to get these guys names and shop name – Fastlane Motorcycles – any help with business in general and any help with their racing outfit. More importantly to me, I want the story of their kindness and generosity be known to all. I would appreciate ANY publicity we could get for these guys – be it for their shop or their racing – any kind of sponsorship; parts; donation. Anything these guys receive I know would be appreciated - to enable them to be able to do the thing they love the most means all – that is, racing motorbikes.

    Jamie, Stuart and Justin have asked for nothing in return except that myself and Daryl have fun and enjoy our track day. They have entrusted 2 complete strangers with their ‘pride and joy’ race bike to go and have one last “Hoorah” and fun.

    The guys at Fastlane know nothing of this letter. I will be sending it out to as many papers and magazines that I can think of. This is in the hope that someone, somewhere will read this and will help these guys out in the future and give them the thanks and recognition they more than deserve. Personally, no amount of thanks or money could ever come close to the gratitude and thanks and heartfelt warmth that I feel for what these guys have done for myself and Daryl.

    This is the reality.

    They are dream makers! They have made a dying man and his best friends last wish come true! I cannot understate or overstate this enough!

    They are dream makers who have made a dying man and his best friends wish come true - from the bottom of my heart and the depths of my soul…..from myself and Daryl…

    Thank you,
    Thank you,
    Thank you,

    Yours sincerely,

    Carl Robson.

    Ps Someone, somewhere must tell the story of Jamie, Stuart and Justin of Fastlane Motorcycles, Tonbridge and their racing outfit Phased Out Racing. Top, top, top guys!

    Thank you!

  • KalkinoKalkino Buttons Londres Registered User regular
    As a commuter, I can attest to the value of tiny kindnesses. Even something as simple as moving to the middle seat when someone asks to sit down (instead of getting up and letting the newcomer sit in the middle) or saying "of course" when someone asks if they can sit next to you instead of begrudgingly saying "yes" can make someone's day, as can getting up and moving seats or standing so that a couple or family that just got on the train can sit together. But the one thing I consistently do but can't even believe that needs to be stated is helping people with baby strollers. I always offer to help people carry their baby strollers up stairs, and it kind of blows me away that people are always so appreciative because it doesn't happen that often.

    Yeah, small things like that help a lot. In London the etiquette is pretty clear about pregnant women, the ill and the elderly, but people ignore it enough that it is nice when it happens.

    I remember once half a dozen friends and I were entering a Tube carriage to head home after a night out. I saw a seat and sat down (I justified this to myself on the basis of my commute being 2x as long as theirs and drunk). Anyway, they were standing and talking while I was zoning out. Then I noticed they started giving me angry looks after a stop. It wasn't clear why and they refused to speak to me and tell me. So they then got off and so did some others and then I saw that one of the women who had entered at the previous stop was heavily pregnant. Before I could offer her my seat, someone else did. Then at the next stop an elderly person got on who looked like they needed a seat. So I gave up my seat, now being hyper conscious of such things. The next stop saw someone with a crutch getting on and so the pregnant woman gave up her seat, which we couldn't let stand and then without realising it, we had a game of musical chairs as people got up or swapped seats in an effort to be considerate.

    My friends didn't see any of this and of course wouldn't believe me!

    Freedom for the Northern Isles!
  • MaguanoMaguano Registered User regular
    not sure if this fits in here, but here it goes.
    So me, my wife and 2 sons (6 and 3 year old) have been temporarily displaced due to crapstorm Sandy. (couple trees fell on our house) so we've been staying with relatives in the northern part of the state while our house is repaired. my older son is in kindergarten, and has been having a semi rough couple months, being out of his element, so to speak (not at home, being in a new school...after only being his other new school for 2 months, before the storm hit). Well, anyways, today in the mail, he gets a package, and inside is about 20 letters from all of the kids in his kindergarten class back at home, with messages of we miss you, and adorable 5-6 year old drawings. i got a bit choked up watching hime reading them, saying "hey i remember this person etc". so yeah, perhaps there is hope for us all, yet...

    steam:maguano2
    gamertag:Maguano71
    Switch:SW-8428-8279-1687
  • Nova_CNova_C I have the need The need for speedRegistered User regular
    My best friend is the kind of person I wish I was more like. His dad is a pastor and they never had much money, but his mom was an amazing saver. She could stretch a dollar like you wouldn't believe. My friend is like that. He has a family now, single income home. He's a mechanic and does okay, but money can be tight.

    A few years ago just before Christmas I got into a major accident. Everything turned out okay in the end, but in the 3 weeks after it happened I was broke, and didn't know what was going to happen. My friend showed up one day and bought me groceries as well as a $200 gift card to the grocery store. Turns out, at Christmas time he'll find someone when he goes shopping who looks like they could use some good news and buys their groceries for them. He'd been doing it for years. I had no idea.

  • DiannaoChongDiannaoChong Registered User regular
    Had a random person at PAXEast pick up over 100$ that fell out of my pocket and hand it back to me while I was busy playing a demo. Felt like such a dumbass but I was very thankful. Paxians may just be a better breed of people though.

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  • fyastarterfyastarter Registered User regular
    Ok seriously, I 'm stuck at work and people keep asking me why I'm crying a little. So I tell them a couple of these stories. Everyone in this thread is awesome (yes even you).

  • The EnderThe Ender Registered User regular
    edited February 2013
    I don't have any heroes, but if I did, one of them would be Mike Holmes.

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    This man is the antithesis of a 'typical' contractor / blue collar construction worker.

    "Eh, just get 'er done."

    "No. Get it done right."

    Holmes has been a household name in Canada, and his show is the only 'reality tv' program I think is worth a damn. He & his team partner-up with various specialists & building supply retailers / warehouses, and they fix people's houses after they've been ruined by fraudster 'contractors' (Canada's regulations as regards home renovation companies are a sad affair; as Holmes himself has noted. just about anyone with a hammer and a truckload full of base boards can call themselves a home renovation contractor and go around scamming people out of money while damaging their home).

    Holmes does the repair work - some of it being weeks of back-breaking labor - for free, he does it with a smile on his face, he only talks to the owner to tell them that they'll be taken care of and he doesn't put on the whole egotistical macho attitude when dealing with his crew. He thinks that we'd have a much better construction labor force in the country if the 'be a REAL man!' attitude disappeared from the industry, it would be much stronger & involve far fewer accident / mistakes each year.



    The Ender on
    With Love and Courage
  • JaysonFourJaysonFour Classy Monster Kitteh Registered User regular
    These happened a couple of years ago, but they fit the thread.

    1) I used to live in one of the dorm complexes here at Western, and that year I had a position as president of the complex's hall council- generally we go around and make repairs, put on free events with catered food that residents can come to, all that kind of stuff. Part of my responsibility as president was to make sure that every shopping list was handed in to the complex director.

    It's a chilly January afternoon, and I'm heading out after getting the latest batch of lists in to the director. I look down as I'm coming out of Zimmerman and there is just an actual, honest-to-whatever pile of crumpled money blowing around. It takes me a bit, but I collect every bill I can see (had to chase a twenty across the street and damn near got hit by someone racing out of the rec center parking lot while they were chatting on a phone). I stop and count it- there's about a hundred bucks here.

    I know some people among my friends who would gladly pocket the money and walk away whistling, but... honestly, I wouldn't be able to live with myself. So I walk into the lobby and ask some of the people standing there if anyone had dropped some money.

    Turns out one of the people in the lobby remembers his friend fretting about having lost money, so he calls his friend and has him come down. He comes down and almost falls down the stairs, and when I hand him the money, he's almost crying in happiness. It turns out that he was on the lowest meal plan the university has, and well... that was his eating money for the next four days. His parents couldn't send him any more and he was thinking he was going to be living off a loaf of bread and some butter for the rest of the week.


    2) This story takes place at the NACURH (National Association of College and University Residence Halls) convention back in May a few years back. I had a close female friend back then, and when we got to the hotel, she made a pretty crappy discovery: it was apparently time for Mother Nature to give her the monthly gift, and well... she'd not packed enough in the way of napkins for the weekend.

    Saturday of the convention, we were in the middle of Muncie, Indiana, looking for a way that we could possibly go find these blasted things. The city buses are running, but our jag-off coordinator won't give us the hour it would take to go run to find these things. Instead, he tells us we can skip lunch to go get them, but we'd have to go, buy them, and be back in less than forty-five minutes... or risk getting charged for the entire cost that the school had paid to send us on this trip.

    There's one last hope before she has to start asking her friends if they have any extra pads- the university we're staying at has a small student store full of drinks, junk food, and minor toiletries. She's hoping they have them, I hope they have a decent amount of snacks, because I am jonesing for a quick chocolate fix.

    Lo and behold, there's a miracle: they have her brand. She grabs three of them and joyfully heads up to the counter ahead of me, and pulls out her card to pay for them. This story has a happy ending, right?

    Not just yet. Apparently the student store only takes cash, and she looks like someone just kicked her in the stomach and tasered her at the same time. She was on her was past distraught and heading up towards upset.

    A word of wisdom- satisfying a chocolate craving isn't worth seeing one of your best friends cry because they don't know what they're going to do.

    So I step forward and add the two packs of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups to the pads, and then toss down a twenty. "I got 'em." I say, and she looks up and starts protesting that I didn't have to do it. I keep insisting, and eventually she relents- especially when I just hand her the bag with the candy still in it (Reese's cups are her favorite).

    On our way back to the dormitory where we're staying, she stops and gives me a hug, and doesn't let go for a minute. Then she wipes her eyes and tells me "Jay, you're a true friend." Apparently, word spreads among the female members of our party, and I apparently gained a lot of respect for it. I just felt like I was doing what was right.

    steam_sig.png
    I can has cheezburger, yes?
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