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Row Jimmy
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Default Nov 16, 2019 at 11:25 PM
  #1
Have you ever met a stranger that you will remember forever?

I have two - I live in a city and I was sitting on a bench one day in a park. This guy comes up to me and he can't speak or so he claimed. He basically "asks" me to help him fill out a job application. I'm thinking is this guy going to shank me or what but I kept my faith and I help him finish it. To this day, I wonder if I was on some sort of hidden camera or if it was some sort of test of humanity run by some college students for a sociology class. The second was a guy that used to beg for change on my way to work (same area). He was very pleasant and I got to know him because I'd walk by him every day. I'd give him a buck here and there but I figure one day, I'd buy him some food, so I buy him a corn muffin. I bring it to him and he yells "I don't want no corn muffin man, I want MONEY!" I never took that route again on my way to work. I wonder where those guys are today, 20 years later.
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Default Nov 16, 2019 at 11:39 PM
  #2
I was sitting on a bench at Kmart as an 8 year old kid and an older later in her 60’s made me get up and leave so she could sit down.

Also one time at the grocery store when I was 5 I really wanted something from one of those 25 cent toy machines. My mom was checking out but could see me and my sister. We didn’t have any money and I was getting upset. A women In her 30’s came over to me and got down to my level and said “do you want a quarter?” I shook my head yes and she gave me one. The incident upset my mom so badly because you know, stranger danger and not taking anythilng from them. She said “you better not tell your father about this!”

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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 05:44 AM
  #3
yes.

I have 2

first: when I was in hospital, I met a guy called john, he was a war veteran and one of the nicest, sweetest people ever. I wish I knew what happened to him. all I know is that he had to spend christmas in hospital

second: a woman a few years ago who baught a christmas dinner from her pub directly to my house, because she understood the whole thing about being afraid of crowds
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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 05:45 AM
  #4
I've tried emailing the second one since, but no response.

oh well I guess
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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 09:04 AM
  #5
What a great thread!

One involved a whole bunch of people. The horse trailer I was towing flipped, trapping the horses inside. People who lived nearby brought buckets of ice to help cool the horses (their body temps were dangerously high from being trapped). People offered to let me keep the horses at their farms until I found a way to get them home. The vet that treated them on site gave me a break on his bill. I can't say enough good about the first responders who made sure I was not hurt and busted their butts to save the horses. (I sent a letter commending them to their boss.) Then there were all the people who stopped to offer help. On one of the worst days of my life so many people offered kindness and help.

Then there were the people at the hospital my husband was taken to after his accident (he later died from his jnjuries). The chaplin, the nurses, the doctors, everyone involved was caring and compassionate.

RowJimmy, thanks for starting this thread. When I first read your post I drew a blank. Now memories are flooding in.
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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 09:52 AM
  #6
Many over the years actually.
Strangers who helped me (eg: when my car broke down...a few times)
Ones who were just spontaneously generous (a cab driver who shared his sandwich and refused to charge for the ride from Penn Station to way uptown in nyc, another cabbie who found and returned my mother who was lost and had dementia, also refused pay, a guy behind the counter in a convenience store who gave me ten bucks for gas when I was on empty and had no money on me (yes I paid him back)---more like this
I had my lost wallet returned, more than once, with all the money still in it.
(I seem to have this crazy luck with lost items, it used to drive my ex a bit nuts)
....and just remembering faces that were kind and gestures helpful...

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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 03:12 PM
  #7
Many, but here is the first one that comes to mind. I was grocery shopping with 2 little ones in tow. Everything got rung up and I realized I didn't have my wallet. The woman behind me said insisted on paying. As a very tired mom, I nearly cried. A completely random act of kindness.
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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 06:15 PM
  #8
I dropped my phone (iPhone 7) at the women’s clothes section at Walmart a few weeks ago. A lady found me all the way in the electronics department and said “did you drop your phone?”’ I am so thankful she found it instead of someone who would steal it. The day had been awful already.

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Default Nov 17, 2019 at 06:30 PM
  #9
I had this job in retail and I approached a customer to see if he'd like some help. And while we were talking, out of the blue he started recounting a near death experience, an out of body experience he had when as a 12 year old boy, he was hospitalised after becoming very ill. I'm thoroughly interested in that subject so, yes, a very interesting person.
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Default Nov 30, 2019 at 11:01 PM
  #10
Not exactly a stranger but kind of. Back in the 80’s at an airport Richard Simmons came up to my aunt and yelled at her for giving my cousins Twinkies. It sounds made up but it seriously happened. My family’s hated him ever since.

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Default Dec 01, 2019 at 06:24 PM
  #11
^^^^ Twinkies - hilarious!

Like most people I've met many strangers who made an imprint. The first one who comes to mind is a woman I met in Manhattan, in Little Italy. I was walking along the sidewalk and you know how sometimes you're walking near somebody, then you either have to slow down or walk faster or else it will be kind of like you're walking with them,. which would be awkward?

Well, that's what was happening with this lady and I. It was on the verge of awkward when she slowed down to walk next to me. She introduced herself as "Ann" and we shook hands. I told her that I absolutely loved Little Italy and she told me that she'd lived there all of her life. She was a small Italian lady with short, thick, pure-white hair and large, brown eyes. During our few blocks conversation she said, "I live right next door to Robert Di Niro's mother, she's been my neighbor for years. He comes to visit her every now and then; real nice guy."

We talked about a few things, then we came to a corner, she said, "Well, this is my street. Enjoy your visit here and take care!"

I still think about Ann and wonder how she's doing.

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Default Dec 02, 2019 at 02:24 PM
  #12
In my city there are quite a few homeless people. Once, coming back from a dinner in the downtown area, I saw a homeless man animatedly telling an older teenage boy about a book he had just finished reading, and then as the boy asked for the name so that he could read it too, the homeless man gave the boy the book and told him that he could just bring it back next time he ran into him. I still think about the generosity of this man who had nearly nothing.
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Default Dec 02, 2019 at 09:20 PM
  #13
Hmmm.....not that I can recall.

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Default Dec 06, 2019 at 08:00 AM
  #14
A friend and I went off a rural road into the mud with my big old Dodge Coronet 440 (a 1968)---a few minutes later four big men going by on a farm truck stopped and, saying nothing, they actually lifted that car back onto to road & left, silently---shrugging off thanks.

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Default Dec 07, 2019 at 02:53 AM
  #15
I was at a hostel in Dublin in the summer of 1986 with my best friend, Dave. We met a guy from Italy. Most of the hostelers were in our age group, late teens to early twenties. This guy was clearly in his late twenties. He was nice and interesting, as he had been traveling for three years--all over the world. Not sure what his job was before that, but he knew a lot about travel.

Anyhoo, we were telling him we were headed to southern Italy next. A big smile came over his face. We asked what that was all about and he just said: "Corfu. You guys HAVE to go to Corfu. Take the ferry from Brindisi. It will be awesome!"

We were not planning on Greece. But we went to Corfu, cuz the Travel Guy said to. It was spectacular. Breathtaking. I still to this day have a vivid memory of maybe a hundred young people all lying down, right next to each other, on their sleeping bags under the stars and moon on the top deck of the massive ferry taking us across the water to Greece. It was and is one of those very few moments in life that is truly magical. I'll never forget it.

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Default Dec 09, 2019 at 02:58 PM
  #16
Before my health worsened, I was a makeup artist. One day, I was doing a model's makeup in a public but quiet and low-traffic area (she wanted to do it near the highway so she could drive to the shoot location immediately after). An older blond woman came up and began looking curiously at what I was doing. At first, I thought she was surprised to see someone doing makeup in public, but she explained that she used to be a makeup artist as well. I gave her a business card. I didn't expect to hear from her at any point.

I was surprised when she called me two months later. She told me she needed help getting a job. I didn't get a bad vibe from her, so I visited her at her apartment. I helped her create a new resume and we talked. She told me she was originally from Lebanon, and she had a daughter and 3 grandchildren. She was estranged from her family. It's no wonder she asked a stranger for help. it seems like she was all alone. I heard from her just once more after that day. Then my phone broke and I lost her number. I hope she's doing fine now.
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Default Dec 14, 2019 at 09:14 PM
  #17
When I was a kid, around 11 or so, a group of teenagers we had never seen knocked on our door. They said they used to live at my house and asked my mom if they could look around inside. My mom said they couldn’t come in the house but could go in the backyard. 16 years later we still wonder what their intentions were but my mom swears they never lived in the house.

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