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(Fark)   CSB Sunday Morning: "So shines a good deed in a weary world"   (fark.com) divider line
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1860 clicks; posted to Main » and Discussion » on 29 Jan 2023 at 9:00 AM (8 weeks ago)   |   Favorite    |   share:  Share on Twitter share via Email Share on Facebook



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Miss Stein
2023-01-29 6:26:16 AM  
A cobbler on the outskirts of Springfield, MO was just opening his shop when I stopped in to buy some polish for my black leather shoes that were showing some wear.  He took the shoes, spent about fifteen minutes polishing and restoring them till they looked nearly new, and handed them back, refusing to take any payment at all.

I took the shoes to my rental car, on the way to my shift at my dad's bedside at the hospital.  For the next eight hours I would sit by my dad, hitting the morphine pump every twenty minutes as my comatose dad was in his last days of his cancer battle.  This was during my impoverished retail employee days, and I had taken unpaid leave to fly across the country, a trip paid for by my dad's sister as I could not afford it on my own.  The shoes were my only good pair, and they were for the upcoming funeral.

I would not have been able to explain this to the cobbler without falling apart, the grief was just under the surface, and I was barely holding it together.  But perhaps he sensed something, and he was an angel to me that Tuesday morning in Missouri.
 
Unobtanium [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 7:08:29 AM  
I was traveling for work over a Father's Day weekend. I went to an Aldi to get some snacks and cheap wine for the hotel room. A mom and her teenage daughter are trying to come up with a quarter (to unchain the shopping cart) and have a penny and two dimes.
I stop and offer them a quarter. Mom thanks me, puts the $0.21 in my hand, closes it, holds my hand in both of hers, looks into my eyes, and says "Happy Father's Day."
 
August11 [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 7:49:01 AM  
In the 80s, I worked my arse off at a little company with five employees. I was the factotum. Warehouse, sales, errands. I made so much my first year that I was disqualified for financial aid, so I decided to work through undergrad, summers and every free hour. Every July, my bank account was lacking and my university would threaten my seat for lack of tuition. My boss forwarded me all of my August salary, every July, so I could make tuition. Took me six years. He was generous in other ways, but that's the chief example.
 
TheHighlandHowler [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 8:57:50 AM  
I was dropping off a rental car and picking up my pick-up after a funeral.  (I had needed a bigger vehicle for guests.)  While leaving, I noticed about six dejected travelers sitting in front of the (now-closed) office.
I didn't need to inquire as to their dilemma.   I wheeled to the curb and announced to the group, "I can take two!" and displaying two fingers for emphasis.  They conferred briefly and proceeded to throw all their bags in the back of the truck.  Two volunteers hopped in.  "So where ya goin?" I asked, even though I thought I knew.

"Train station."  The station was about six miles away but there was no mass transit from rental office to train.  Off we went and they followed our progress on their phones.  As we pulled up to the train station they noticed the line of taxis waiting.

"But we called these cab companies.  They didn't answer."

I explained that they preferred to camp out at the station where they were known to collect more than one fare at the same time.

I dropped them and the pile of luggage and was prepared to go back for two more, but no need.  Someone else took pity on the rest and they were on their way.
 
Creoena [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 9:07:40 AM  
In high school, my town was doing this giant toys for tots drive, but no one was setting anything up at the high school, so I grabbed the largest box I could find (a fridge box I believe), opened up the top, wrapped the rest in Christmas paper, and put it in the main hallway in this open area that was something of the unofficial hangout if you weren't in the cafeteria.  I was expecting kids to throw mostly trash in it (like actual trash), but by delivery day, they had completely filled it up with real gifts, plus overflow.  I was amazed.  The toys for tots people were quite happy.

/that was probably the last time I had any faith in humanity
 
Omnivorous [BareFark]
2023-01-29 9:13:17 AM  
In 1973 I was working in Washington, DC but would make the six-hour drive home to Cleveland occasionally.  On one weekend, I Iearned that a former high school classmate and someone who'd been a next-door neighbor had lost his father -- and the funeral was the next day, Saturday.  I was tired, didn't have a suit and didn't go to the funeral.

Skip forward 15 years to the 20th class reunion.  I still felt guilty about not going to the funeral and was prepared to be embarrassed about missing the funeral when I ran into Howard.  His first words were, "I'll never forget how you came from Washington to see me two weeks after my father died."
 
Someone Else's Alt [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 9:33:24 AM  
I am the VP for a citizens support organization in Florida that helps take care of five local state parks. These are springs parks, they are small only have one or sometimes part time rangers and never get enough budget from the state to keep up the parks the way the rangers want. We help with labor to clear trails, we fund raise to buy nature trail signs etc. But the big thing we do is build/repair/replace wood decks, walkways and stairs so that cave divers, birders, hikers, swimmers and tubers can access the springs and rivers safely.

The big deck and stairs projects are no joke, these are huge staircases we sometimes build 12' wide 25' long and they go 3'-5' into the water so it often requires pouring concrete foundations underwater and doing deck building underwater. With 8-10 volunteers' demo of the old decks and building the new decks can take 4-8 weekends in a row with a couple of weekdays tossed in to complete. Some of the volunteers that help us give up their entire weekend for almost two months to come out in the Florida heat and haul lumber through the woods down narrow dirt trails and help build decks/stairs. We would never be able to do any of this without their generosity of time and willingness to make their local parks a better place for locals and visitors.

Every time I manage one of these projects that typically run $20,000 in materials I am amazed at the generosity of time and money to get it done.

Fark user imageView Full Size
Fark user imageView Full Size
 
jimjays
2023-01-29 9:39:27 AM  
I've posted of this before, but it guided my mindset that I recall its significance every winter. Mother and tween Jim were driving somewhere in mid-state Illinois coming home from a family Christmas visit when our car broke down in a blizzard. We got a lift from a Black family in an already crowded beat up car that wasn't running much better than ours had been. We'd only hoped for a ride to the next town with a garage and a hotel we could stay in while the car was repaired. The father insisted on taking us further, saying we wouldn't be safe at their exit. It was so cold, with no heat in the car and him frequently leaning out the window to wipe off what snow and ice he could from the windshield. We learned in town that he was absolutely right, that we would not have been safe at the family's exit.

The older I get, the more I learn about how my forebears are responsible for the conditions in that man's town. (And my demographic's attitudes not much improved today.) He could have been bitter, just driven by or dropped us in his town to get a taste of our own medicine, so to speak. But his family was of stronger conscience than most of the people in mine.
 
Deathbymeteor
2023-01-29 9:42:33 AM  
Just under 4 weeks ago, flying back from Michigan for the first Xmas after the old man passed on Halloween, having played a big part in a huge fight, I'm sitting in Detroit airport and see four folks looking and discussing something in a different language, and it seems serious.  We're already delayed leaving, so I figure it's connection related, which is my issue too.  One lady comes up, asks my flight plans.  Turns out not only does she have the same flight plan as me, but she's broken her reading glasses, and only has sunglasses to see with.  So, I offer to make sure she's updated on any more flight changes since the speaker system at our gate is terrible.

I ended up walking her through Montreal's airport, since we were so late there were no more flights left going to Alberta, then walked them through Air Canada rebooking us on the same flight the next morning, getting our taxi vouchers, getting our hotel vouchers, getting meal vouchers, getting into the taxi, checked into hotel, then back out the next morning, back to the airport, back through check in, right up through landing at Calgary airport, and down to the baggage claim, where she had family waiting.

I'd like to hope that made up for setting off the firestorm at my mother's house, at least in the old man's eyes.
 
benelane [BareFark]
2023-01-29 9:44:43 AM  
I will sometimes delve into the seedy underbelly of the internet in search of pretty celebrities that have had their phones hacked. For justice.
 
Bondith
2023-01-29 9:45:31 AM  
I saved a life without realising it.

I befriended someone through community theatre who'd had a rough life.  Useless mother, largely absent father, asshole family, abuse and resulting mental illness, brief homelessness.  She'd made it this far largely on her own, and the strain was starting to tell.  She had no plans to actively do herself in, but the struggle to keep holding on was becoming too much for her.

I showed her kindness and support, and with the help of the support network she built for herself here, she found the strength to keep going and dig herself out of the hole life had thrown her in.  This fall, she's going back to university to study physics.  I'm proud of her, and how far she's come.
 
Exhume me for National Pop Goes the Weasel Day
2023-01-29 9:47:35 AM  
Getting dusty in this thread
 
i.r.id10t
2023-01-29 9:50:53 AM  

Someone Else's Alt: I am the VP for a citizens support organization in Florida that helps take care of five local state parks.


Hey neighbor EIP if you can please send me some info on your group

/ it is pronounced "High Sprangs"
// and of course Nude Berry
 
gamergirl23
2023-01-29 9:51:08 AM  
I've helped people and been helped in return, but what everyone should remember is what you do doesn't have to be huge or dramatic or even particularly noteworthy to you.

I was waiting at a bus stop after picking up my daughter from school and standing a few feet away from this maybe third or fourth grade boy and his grandmother. He was playing on her phone, let out a fairly muted "YESSSS!" and threw up his arm, looked up at me, and immediately apologized. I laughed and said something like "Never apologize for being happy. When you're happy, people are supposed to be happy for you, not mad at you."

His grandmother saw me almost a year later and told me that throwaway comment meant a huge deal to him. In retrospect, apologizing while doing nothing wrong isn't exactly the best sign of a supportive home life.
 
baronbloodbath [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 9:52:46 AM  

Someone Else's Alt: I am the VP for a citizens support organization in Florida that helps take care of five local state parks. These are springs parks, they are small only have one or sometimes part time rangers and never get enough budget from the state to keep up the parks the way the rangers want. We help with labor to clear trails, we fund raise to buy nature trail signs etc. But the big thing we do is build/repair/replace wood decks, walkways and stairs so that cave divers, birders, hikers, swimmers and tubers can access the springs and rivers safely.

The big deck and stairs projects are no joke, these are huge staircases we sometimes build 12' wide 25' long and they go 3'-5' into the water so it often requires pouring concrete foundations underwater and doing deck building underwater. With 8-10 volunteers' demo of the old decks and building the new decks can take 4-8 weekends in a row with a couple of weekdays tossed in to complete. Some of the volunteers that help us give up their entire weekend for almost two months to come out in the Florida heat and haul lumber through the woods down narrow dirt trails and help build decks/stairs. We would never be able to do any of this without their generosity of time and willingness to make their local parks a better place for locals and visitors.

Every time I manage one of these projects that typically run $20,000 in materials I am amazed at the generosity of time and money to get it done.

[Fark user image image 850x637][Fark user image image 850x637]


If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was Alexander Springs.
 
farkitallletitend
2023-01-29 9:55:09 AM  
I had a teenager open a door for me for the first time ever and call me sir. Mixed blessings.
 
Someone Else's Alt [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 9:56:05 AM  

i.r.id10t: Someone Else's Alt: I am the VP for a citizens support organization in Florida that helps take care of five local state parks.

Hey neighbor EIP if you can please send me some info on your group

/ it is pronounced "High Sprangs"
// and of course Nude Berry


I will, and we have a stairs project coming up in May. I get people apologizing all the time that they could only help a day here and there, but every little bit helps get it done.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-01-29 9:58:51 AM  
I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. It turned out he was wanted for child sex trafficking in six states. My parole office and I had a good laugh over that one. Phew!
 
chirpy [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:01:48 AM  
A small act of kindness, but it made a large difference to many of us:  Back in the late 80's / early 90's I'd ride Amtrak overnight two to four times a year.  There was always someone who brought an instrument and played for those of us in the bar car.  Many of us could not sleep on the train and spent the evening listening to very good live music.  It was so soothing.
 
The Brains
2023-01-29 10:01:51 AM  
Fall of '14. My second "homeless semester". Couch surfing and occasionally crash in my car, not sleeping under the bridge or anything as brutal as that.

There were times when I would go into a place and offer to take the trash out in exchange for an old sandwich or something. Usually they would serve me up something fresh and ask nothing. Those were people had been down before. They knew what it was about.
 
Someone Else's Alt [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:02:16 AM  

baronbloodbath: Someone Else's Alt: I am the VP for a citizens support organization in Florida that helps take care of five local state parks. These are springs parks, they are small only have one or sometimes part time rangers and never get enough budget from the state to keep up the parks the way the rangers want. We help with labor to clear trails, we fund raise to buy nature trail signs etc. But the big thing we do is build/repair/replace wood decks, walkways and stairs so that cave divers, birders, hikers, swimmers and tubers can access the springs and rivers safely.

The big deck and stairs projects are no joke, these are huge staircases we sometimes build 12' wide 25' long and they go 3'-5' into the water so it often requires pouring concrete foundations underwater and doing deck building underwater. With 8-10 volunteers' demo of the old decks and building the new decks can take 4-8 weekends in a row with a couple of weekdays tossed in to complete. Some of the volunteers that help us give up their entire weekend for almost two months to come out in the Florida heat and haul lumber through the woods down narrow dirt trails and help build decks/stairs. We would never be able to do any of this without their generosity of time and willingness to make their local parks a better place for locals and visitors.

Every time I manage one of these projects that typically run $20,000 in materials I am amazed at the generosity of time and money to get it done.

[Fark user image image 850x637][Fark user image image 850x637]

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that was Alexander Springs.


Madison Blue, on the Withlacoochee River. Voted best swimming hole in the US by USA Today.
Swimming and Diving at Madison Blue | Florida State Parks
 
i.r.id10t
2023-01-29 10:05:55 AM  
Someone Else's Alt:

Madison Blue, on the Withlacoochee River. Voted best swimming hole in the US by USA Today.
Swimming and Diving at Madison Blue | Florida State Parks

Always gives me a giggle that we have multiple Blue Springs in the state so we gotta reference them by county name as well...
 
Someone Else's Alt [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:08:43 AM  

i.r.id10t: Someone Else's Alt:

Madison Blue, on the Withlacoochee River. Voted best swimming hole in the US by USA Today.
Swimming and Diving at Madison Blue | Florida State Parks

Always gives me a giggle that we have multiple Blue Springs in the state so we gotta reference them by county name as well...


Haha, yep.
 
barefoot2008
2023-01-29 10:10:10 AM  
I was feeding an outdoor cat that I had vetted and had fixed and he was tested FIV+. I was moving out of state and could not bring him and an internet friend found the cat a place at a no kill shelter where he lived out his life off the streets.
 
cherryl taggart [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 10:11:20 AM  
By virtue of the fact that at least on of my kids are Special Olympians, over the years, SO has taken over our lives.  Our schedules have morphed into looking at openings for trainings, classes, events, etc. to keep athletes moving forward in whatever sport or capacity possible.  I've been a spectator, driver, chaperone, conditioning coach, keeper and dispenser of first aid til the real responders show up, and buddy to athletes, some of which were actually my own.

I've just signed up to be a scrimmage player on a practice team for this next year cycle, mainly because the regular athletes in the area that are much closer in age to our SO athletes are busy with their own lives and competitions to give an hour or so a week.  They also don't understand the job of scrimmage team is to get the SO athletes working together, and improving.  So, all of us old codgers are going to be risking our various bones and joints, trying to get our athletes ready for things like tennis, softball, and basketball.

It's not like any of this matters in the grand scheme of things, but it gives the care givers 2 hours a week to recharge and the athletes get a chance to shine.

If an obituary shows up about a little old lady that dropped dead playing point guard or charging the net, speak kindly of me.  And I don't even like sports.
 
The Pope of Manwich Village
2023-01-29 10:12:45 AM  
To the kind Uber driver who helped me get to the airport safe and sound on a tricky snow day, with friendly conversation along the route

To the kind and professional TSA agents who were just doing their job when I didn't know some small plant food samples would cause a big fuss and, after an efficient check and interview, let me keep my samples and be on my way to my first lawn and garden trade show.

To the kind young man who turned my wallet into airport lost & found after I ended up, distracted, in the bag inspection line and left it behind on the belt - and the kind airport police officer who came to find me, as I was repacking my bag, to hand me my wallet before I even realized it was missing.

To the kind flight attendant who helped find a spot for my bag without a gate-check after, due to the security delay, late boarding a full flight.

I want to say thanks again and may the road rise up to meet you all. Some days are just exceptional karma days, I will try to pay it forward.
 
bighairyguy [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:22:33 AM  
Big birthday parties were a thing when son was young, so we did a bowling alley party for him, age 8 I think it was.  Working on the guest list, he said to invite everyone in his class because some kids never got invited to these things.

We told the bowling alley we invited 20 kids and they said to expect half that at best.  The RSVPs came in quickly. Contacted the alley when it hit 12, they were yeah, right.  Called again at 16 and they obviously didn't take us seriously because when 19 kids showed up, boy did they have to scramble!  The kids who weren't usually invited to these things had a ball and we were thanked us profusely by their parents.  A great day for all.
 
Halfabee64 [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:32:01 AM  
When I was a kid and we were shopping at Caldors, my brothers and I went to check the payphone slot for change to use in the gumball machines while mom as checking out.  Jackpot!  There was a little vinyl girls change purse sitting in the phone book slot underneath and it had a few bills and some change in it.  Then I noticed a name and address card under the plastic window.  I couldn't keep it with a faceless name attached to it.

When we got home, my dad looked her up and called her.  She was an elderly woman.  She came to the house to retrieve it and gave me a $20 bill for being so honest.

Years later, I was at a Cinema Draft House:  a second run movie theater with bad food and bad beer.  We came out into the dark to find it raining and as I was unlocking my car, I saw a wallet glistening on the ground.  It was bulging with over $400 cash and credit cards.  It was Friday night, so I figured this guy just cashed his paycheck.  I turned it in at the box office as they were closing up and we drove back to campus.  I immediately regretted it.  I thought, what's to stop them from keeping it or taking all the cash and telling the guy I turned it in that way.
 
a_room_with_a_moose
2023-01-29 10:33:12 AM  
When I was in elementary and middle school, there was a girl whose parents were poor and she had clothes that smelled a bit. Her parents were a little neglectful. Those years are hard. The flock always pecks at the oddball. She got the nickname "Little Witchy", because she was mousy and her hair was scraggly.

Being the target of some cruelty, myself, I always called her by her proper name, sat with her at lunch, even invited her to play D&D with us (her parents wouldn't let her). In ninth grade she moved a few towns away.

Fast forward five years, I'm a sophomore at SUNY Oswego it's April and I'm headed to Old City Hall for happy hour. From behind me I hear, "a_room_with_a_moose? Is that you?"

It was the same girl from middle school, and she did not look mousy anymore, not by a long shot. She was visiting a friend in town, and just happened to recognize me walking by. We ended up having drinks, and she told me that she had never forgotten how nice I was to her when everyone else tormented her. You don't get to hear how the evening ended, because I'm a gentleman.

Last I heard, she was on the board of directors for a charity health clinic outside of Boston. She not only picked herself up out of poverty, she ended up doing something good for the world, and I like to think I played a small part in that.
 
Lamberts Ho Man
2023-01-29 10:35:47 AM  
January 1999.  My daughter, our first child, had spent nearly a week in the NICU.  Nothing that serious in hindsight, or relative to some of the other infants there.  But still scary and exhausting for new, first time parents.

We learned early afternoon that we were being discharged that day.  Somewhat unexpected - we thought it would be at least another day.  So suddenly there is all this stuff to get done before we can go - various consults, nurses teaching us how to set up and use the O2 and monitoring equipment.  It was frankly, a blur - we were exhausted already from the birth and following several day incubator vigil and I tried to explain to the nurse that we hadn't made arrangements for this equipment, and how would we get it on short notice, etc.  She assured me that it was taken care of but I didn't see how.

And then the newborn first aid/cpr class we were required to take as parents of "high risk" infants that had my wife in tears and me seeing red as some asshole retired paramedic interspersed the material with his career's worth of graphic dead baby anecdotes to drive home the point of what was at stake.

All of this  took forever - hurry up and wait - but we're finally leaving, with this tiny, fragile baby that we felt totally incompetent to take care of by this point.  We had a small, travel size O2 bottle, and I asked again, how we were going to get this stuff - it was well into the evening at this point.  I was again assured again that it was taken care of, despite the hour -  think it was about 9 when we left.

It's a 40 minute drive on a cold, dark January night to our home in the forest, outside of town.  We relatively new in town, and had no family in the area, so it was just us.  My wife rode in the back, because it felt terrible to leave her alone in the car seat all the way back there.

And then, I see a van in the driveway with a medical equipment company logo on it, waiting for us.  An older guy.  He brought in the equipment, and quietly, competently, patiently showed us how to set everything up.  But mostly he convinced us that we had this, that it was going to be ok.  More then an afternoon's worth of consults and classes at the hospital did. I don't remember exactly what he said or did now, but it was exactly what we needed.

It was probably just another day for this guy, a late night call outside of town.  But 24 years later and I still tear up a little remembering this.
 
TheHighlandHowler [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 10:40:04 AM  
I've told this story on fark before.  My Dad lived with his girlfriend 800 miles from me.  He was losing his mind and since they never married, she had no legal oversight over him.

The plan was to move him to a place near me, but the target date was moved up considerably.  I looked at nursing homes, but knew he would not be a good fit.  Fortunately, I had an alternative.  I paid my tenant to move out of the cottage behind my house and hired "The Goddesses."

I had shared my problems with an old friend at a party.  She advised me to call her Mom to get the details on the group that looked after her dad.  I did and made the whole thing happen.
 
SumoJeb [OhFark]
2023-01-29 10:46:57 AM  
When I go to the dump I always take a second to go through the swap shed to see if there is anything useful that I can fix up and give away.  I found a skookum set of kid's skis the other day so I cleaned and waxed them and put them in the office.  One of my special olympic athletes wants to get back into skiing and they fit the youth skis perfectly so now they have the skis and mom and dad built a little ski track on their acreage for them to shred.
I get so much satisfaction from putting smiles on faces with dump presents.
 
Halfabee64 [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 10:49:18 AM  
Sorry if you read this before.  My wife and I were visiting Montreal and wanted to take the metro to Old Montreal.  Montreal is a bi-lingual city but unfortunately most of the signs are not.  We were standing on a metro platform in the central station where the two main lines crossed, looking lost.  A man in his late 40s sees us and asks us in French where we wanted to go.  We said, "Old Montreal".  He raises a finger and says, "Ah!" followed by something in French and then he gestured with a wave for us to follow him.  He led us up and down escalators and through corridors to get to a different platform on another level. 

To our surprise, he got on the train with us and when we got to our stop, he gestured to us to exit and said something like, "Bonjour".  We turned around and the doors closed with him still on the train as he waved goodbye.
 
Yellow Beard
2023-01-29 10:51:34 AM  
As some have mentioned Blue Springs in Floriduh, please allow me to tell you a not very cool story from a long time ago. Blue Springs in Orange City Fl is a common place to get your Deep Diver Certification. I was the dive master for a class that was waiting our turn to dive to the boil at the bottom. A large amount of bubbles erupted and a diver literally popped out of the water. She had hit the emergency inflate on her buoyancy compensator at the bottom. She was drowned, suffered an embolism, and was dead. We instructed the class to swim down to the extraction point. The instructor of the class (CH) began doing breaths and I did compressions of CPR (we did this while swimming. Try it sometime if you want a good workout). One of the first things you learn is do dump as much gear off the victim as possible to facilitate the swim and the CPR. To make a very long story short, we resuscitated the woman and brought her back to life. She was life flighted to a hospital for continued treatment. About 6 months later, that instructor was served with papers listing him, the dive shop, and an unknown John Doe (me) as defendants. She was actually suing for the value of her gear. I lost just about all faith in humanity after that.
 
thealgorerhythm
2023-01-29 10:54:20 AM  

Halfabee64: When I was a kid and we were shopping at Caldors, my brothers and I went to check the payphone slot for change to use in the gumball machines while mom as checking out.  Jackpot!  There was a little vinyl girls change purse sitting in the phone book slot underneath and it had a few bills and some change in it.  Then I noticed a name and address card under the plastic window.  I couldn't keep it with a faceless name attached to it.

When we got home, my dad looked her up and called her.  She was an elderly woman.  She came to the house to retrieve it and gave me a $20 bill for being so honest.

Years later, I was at a Cinema Draft House:  a second run movie theater with bad food and bad beer.  We came out into the dark to find it raining and as I was unlocking my car, I saw a wallet glistening on the ground.  It was bulging with over $400 cash and credit cards.  It was Friday night, so I figured this guy just cashed his paycheck.  I turned it in at the box office as they were closing up and we drove back to campus.  I immediately regretted it.  I thought, what's to stop them from keeping it or taking all the cash and telling the guy I turned it in that way.


One time I was playing disc golf with some buddies and I found a wallet with over $1000 in it. When we finished playing I recognized the guy from his license and returned it to him. He didn't even thank me and his drunk old lady yelled at me.

Another time, visiting another city, I found a woman's purse in the street a block from a police station. I thought, this is easy I'll just give it to the cops and they can track her down. A half hour later after dealing with a cycle of know-nothing people at their front desk they started grilling me about what I was doing with this woman's purse and what else have I stolen lately. I was still at their front desk and I said, "I don't have to take this shiat" and walked out. In retrospect I'm surprised I didn't get shot in the back or a good beating.

Those were both a long time ago. I still try to return things I find.
 
NoGods
2023-01-29 10:57:42 AM  
I was a young engineer working at a downtown consulting firm. I usually dressed casually but would wear a tie if I knew I had a meeting with a client. It was mid-December and I was walking to meet with a client a few blocks from my office. It was cold and sunny but I had a long wool overcoat and gloves. I felt great. Walking past the courthouse, I saw a woman and a teenage girl who were not having a good day. The city had recently changed all their parking meters to quarters only. The woman was very frustrated and cursing loudly as she dug through her purse. I had eight quarters in my pocket left over from doing laundry. I held them in my hand and smiled as I approached them. The woman made eye contact with me and angrily said, "What?!" assuming I was going to be one more obstacle in her already bad day. I kept smiling and said, "Merry Christmas!" as I handed her all the quarters. She was stunned. I kept walking and later heard her shout, "Thank you!"
 
Petey4335
2023-01-29 11:01:07 AM  
Become a foster parent. Adopt some kids out of the system. Its awesome.

/down to 1 out of 3 kids becoming more than the hand they were dealt instead of ending up just like their bio mom.

//sigh.
 
edmo [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 11:04:13 AM  
Saw a gal with flat tire. SUV with kids, super hot Arizona day. I said, "I'll change, it hang on. I live around the corner, I'm going to get my floor jack." Fifteen minutes later she's good to go and trying to give me money, which I refuse.

Another time, a cold late winter's day in Illinois, I'm at a cemetery to pay some respects and a little old lady is stuck in the mud. She was fairly distressed. I got got her out. She tried to give me money and succeeded because well, I think she need to feel empowered somehow. The $20 ended up in the next donation thingy I saw in a  store.

A few years ago, I saw this guy walking along the road and having seen his car a couple of miles back, I give him a ride. He doesn't say much of anything. He looks like trouble. Maybe he thinks I'm trouble. I dunno. I drop him at the gas station and he's good.

I've got a lot of these. I may end up dead.
 
Someone Else's Alt [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 11:09:51 AM  

Yellow Beard: As some have mentioned Blue Springs in Floriduh, please allow me to tell you a not very cool story from a long time ago. Blue Springs in Orange City Fl is a common place to get your Deep Diver Certification. I was the dive master for a class that was waiting our turn to dive to the boil at the bottom. A large amount of bubbles erupted and a diver literally popped out of the water. She had hit the emergency inflate on her buoyancy compensator at the bottom. She was drowned, suffered an embolism, and was dead. We instructed the class to swim down to the extraction point. The instructor of the class (CH) began doing breaths and I did compressions of CPR (we did this while swimming. Try it sometime if you want a good workout). One of the first things you learn is do dump as much gear off the victim as possible to facilitate the swim and the CPR. To make a very long story short, we resuscitated the woman and brought her back to life. She was life flighted to a hospital for continued treatment. About 6 months later, that instructor was served with papers listing him, the dive shop, and an unknown John Doe (me) as defendants. She was actually suing for the value of her gear. I lost just about all faith in humanity after that.


Sorry about your experience. Just some helpful advice to anyone that may find themselves in a similar dive accident in the future;

Small thread jack folks.
I always recommend new divers take a Diver Rescue course (sounds like you took one or new about surface resuscitation anyway) once they are Open Wate certified. This course teaches you how to self rescue, do search and rescue sweeps, CPR, O2 administration, accident scene management etc. While all of them will recommend 'ditching' the victims dive gear to make rescue and recovery faster and easier, one of the critical things they some times forget to teach in these courses is to make sure someone recovers the dive gear, epically a dive computer if they were wearing one. If they had a depth related injury, embolism, over expansion, narcosis etc, the dive computer can give invaluable information to a hyperbaric doctor on how to proceed with treatment. Also, if the injury or accident was caused by an out of air, or bad/wrong gas issue, recovery of the gear will help the local sheriff dive investigators get to the bottom of what happened. In your case it sounds like just diver panic. But you never know, was she supposed to be diving Nitrox 32 and was instead given air and had narcosis hiat that caused her to go loopy and do something stupid like inflate her BC at depth? etc.

A cave diving organization down here in Florida got sued a few years ago. They privately owned a popular cave diving sink here in Florida. To get a key to the gate you have to go to the dive shop down the road, prove you have cave diving certs, prove you have dive accident insurance, and sign a waiver. Two chucklefarks come in, don't have full cave certs, just cavern, they get told they can't dive the sink. So what do they do? jump the fence and do the dive anyway. And of course they farking drown in a deep out of air accident. Their family's sued the not for profit that own the land/sink for, and I am not kidding here, NOT STOPING THEM FROM DIVING in the sink, and they were forced to sell the property to pay for the legal defense fees in the civil suit.

Anyway, good for you for doing the right thing, sometimes people are just selfish, dumb, ungrateful mother farkers.
 
AlphaG33k
2023-01-29 11:14:06 AM  
Received a free battery boost from a tow truck, simply because it was owned by someone with the same first name.

Many years later in MA, a frantic lady trying to get to an appt asked for a boost and offered money. Kindness and karma should be repaid and I was happy to do so.

I always carry a battery booster/cables and a decent first aid kit in my car, never know when you could literally make someone's or your day.
 
i.r.id10t
2023-01-29 11:14:31 AM  

Petey4335: Become a foster parent. Adopt some kids out of the system. Its awesome.

/down to 1 out of 3 kids becoming more than the hand they were dealt instead of ending up just like their bio mom.

//sigh.


I was adopted at 4 days old so I got nothin on any of the older kids, all I can say is Good Job That Man!
 
Petey4335
2023-01-29 11:20:51 AM  
i.r.id10t: Petey4335: Become a foster parent. Adopt some kids out of the system. Its awesome.

/down to 1 out of 3 kids becoming more than the hand they were dealt instead of ending up just like their bio mom.

//sigh.

I was adopted at 4 days old so I got nothin on any of the older kids, all I can say is Good Job That Man!

That helps. It really does. Thank you
 
TheHighlandHowler [TotalFark] [OhFark]
2023-01-29 11:21:04 AM  
My Godparents/cousins were in a home.  I'd flop at their empty house occasionally (Astoria, NY), check the boiler, collect the mail (slot in the door) and the menus.  One Christmas there were two envelopes that seemed to contain holiday cards.  The penmanship was impeccable.  The addressees were married or siblings. Unfortunately, they were people who did not live there.

Instead of just assuming the USPS would return them, I put both envelopes  in a bigger one, and sent it back to them.  'The godparents were here for many years.,' I explained in a note..

They sent me five dollars.

/my bet is grandparents losing track of their grandkids.
 
Yellow Beard
2023-01-29 11:22:06 AM  

Someone Else's Alt: Yellow Beard: As some have mentioned Blue Springs in Floriduh, please allow me to tell you a not very cool story from a long time ago. Blue Springs in Orange City Fl is a common place to get your Deep Diver Certification. I was the dive master for a class that was waiting our turn to dive to the boil at the bottom. A large amount of bubbles erupted and a diver literally popped out of the water. She had hit the emergency inflate on her buoyancy compensator at the bottom. She was drowned, suffered an embolism, and was dead. We instructed the class to swim down to the extraction point. The instructor of the class (CH) began doing breaths and I did compressions of CPR (we did this while swimming. Try it sometime if you want a good workout). One of the first things you learn is do dump as much gear off the victim as possible to facilitate the swim and the CPR. To make a very long story short, we resuscitated the woman and brought her back to life. She was life flighted to a hospital for continued treatment. About 6 months later, that instructor was served with papers listing him, the dive shop, and an unknown John Doe (me) as defendants. She was actually suing for the value of her gear. I lost just about all faith in humanity after that.

Sorry about your experience. Just some helpful advice to anyone that may find themselves in a similar dive accident in the future;

Small thread jack folks.
I always recommend new divers take a Diver Rescue course (sounds like you took one or new about surface resuscitation anyway) once they are Open Wate certified. This course teaches you how to self rescue, do search and rescue sweeps, CPR, O2 administration, accident scene management etc. While all of them will recommend 'ditching' the victims dive gear to make rescue and recovery faster and easier, one of the critical things they some times forget to teach in these courses is to make sure someone recovers the dive gear, epically a dive computer if they were wearing one. If they had ...


My experience was in 87 or 88. Dive computers were very rare back then. Before becoming a dive master, you had to get your rescue diver cert. We dumped her weight belt and bc with tanks and regulators (main and octopus). Even back then, that was only $1,500ish worth of gear. Apparently, her life wasn't worth that much. She lost btw but we did have to appear.
 
Halfabee64 [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 11:25:29 AM  
We were on our way to Sunken Meadow State Park to go to the beach and we got a flat tire on the parkway.  Two Catholic priests pulled over and changed the tire for my mother.  As we got back on the road to the beach, my mom says, What good Samaritans!  For years, I thought Samaritans were were a Catholic sect, like the Jesuits.
 
Yellow Beard
2023-01-29 11:25:46 AM  

Someone Else's Alt: A cave diving organization


Cave diving with a very experienced instructor was the only time I was genuinely scared diving and I did the shark cave dive off West Palm (not a real cave just a deep drift dive through a tunnel filled with sharks). Cave diving will kill you if you don't know exactly what you are doing.
 
SumoJeb [OhFark]
2023-01-29 11:27:47 AM  

cherryl taggart: By virtue of the fact that at least on of my kids are Special Olympians, over the years, SO has taken over our lives.


Special Olympics is a great program. I'm hoping to get more involved with that org this summer.
I was hoping to start a fly fishing team, but there isn't organized competition for fly fishing in Special O.
 
brigid_fitch [BareFark]
2023-01-29 11:32:47 AM  
I was starting a new job after nearly a year of unemployment (thanks, Great Recession). The position was VP-level and I didn't have a lot of business wear (previous jobs were mostly inside sales) and was too broke to get more. I'm also 6' tall, so thrift shops are out of the question. I owned 2 blazers and 1 pair of dress slacks. After seeing me try to re-accessorize the same basic outfit for two weeks, owner gave me $2000 cash to spend on new clothes. Not an advance, not a loan--$2K of her own money. We'd only met on my first day and I never really interacted w/her. I'd only been there for 2 weeks--i could have just skipped out w/the cash, for all she knew. I'll never forget that gesture of  kindness and trust. I still have a lot of those clothes.
 
CrazyUncle
2023-01-29 11:34:03 AM  
Some good stories here.  My small gift to the world is I give away musical instruments to any kid or adult who wants one.  If I overhear my co workers talking about their kid needing an instrument for band class, lol and behold, here I am with one to give.  I like to learn and play a lot of different instruments but I don't always want to keep playing something after I learn the basics.  Sooooo....I have alot of gently used instruments in my home.  I recently learned that a guitar I gave away to someone several years ago was the spark that kid needed to join the school band and do well in.  Conversely, I tried to give a whole bunch of instruments to my niece and her kids as they like to play music as a family but was refused.  Why? Because I wasn't willing to part with a guitar I was given by my brother.  Stupid family.
 
Tyrone Slothrop [TotalFark]
2023-01-29 11:37:04 AM  

AlphaG33k: Received a free battery boost from a tow truck, simply because it was owned by someone with the same first name.


Martha?
 
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