Random Acts of Kindness
I’ve been back from my roadtrip for just over a week now, but one thing that stays with me are small acts of kindness from random people.
Like when we were driving through Kansas and our beat-up old Subaru Forrester started making some very strange noises. We pulled off the freeway at one of those junctions without a shop in sight, just long rolling plains as far as the eye can see. The car coasted on down the road and the only building was a run-down old garage.

A mechanic came out and briskly looked over the car. He told us that all we needed was a bolt and he probably had one inside. When he came out again, he had a box of tools and the bolt and he proceded to fix our car for the price of the bolt: 10 cents.
We filled up on gas and glass bottles of coke from a rusty freezer in the dusty shop. I said thank you many times, but the mechanic never looked at me or acknowledged what I said. I wondered whether he was used to being thanked.
We drove all the way to California from there and then back again to Pennsylvania. The 10 cent bolt held all that time.
Frozen
That’s awesome! I love hearing stories like that and the more mundane the favour (a bolt, a warning, a free sandwich because “they made too many”). I wish i could get away with helping people when I was at work (I sell fridge freezers) but I think my boss might object.
04 Aug 2010, 14:39
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