When I was little my mother always told me not to talk to strangers. She was – at least some of the time – wrong.
FKGuy and I are nicely settling in to our new house but have been missing the deck must-have: the grill. I had seen a reasonably priced Kenmore version at KMart and decided that would be the one. We could easily fit the boxes in my car, then come home and assemble it. Not exactly.
We get to the store and find that they do not have any grills in boxes. Woohoo! We can buy one already assembled. This will make our afternoon much easier, I think to myself. No arguing about what goes where, or fighting over extra parts… Until we pay and get it out to the car. A fully assembled grill will not fit in a Honda Element, I learn the hard way.
We are trying every angle imaginable to get this thing in the car, but it was simply not working. As we were going through the list of people we know who (a) own a pickup truck, (b) might be available today and (c) we could find and con into helping us, a woman on a scooter drives by. Noticing our issues she says “I have a pickup truck at home. Do you want me to go get it and help you?” Yes, please. Who was this woman? I have no idea. I had never seen her before. She just saw us having a problem, she had a solution and came to our rescue. If only she also had a solution to our iguana problem…
Less than five minutes later Karen (I eventually learned her first name) comes back with her truck, we stick the grill on the back and I hop in to give her directions. She tells me on the drive to our house that her husband helps people move stuff all the time and he will be so proud of her for offering up her help. Plus, I learned about their charter fishing business. (So, if you are looking for a fishing charter, call Pat Moran at Fish Pain Charters.)
We realized something in the few minutes that it took Karen to get her truck. Yes, it is very nice for her to come help us, but it is also very typically Key West. The nice guy working at KMart (and helping to load the grill) was not surprised by any of this. People here do this kind of stuff all the time.
And that is why I love Key West.
6 thoughts on “The Kindness of Strangers”
Excellent! I love to hear stories like this.
Great story! I’ve lived in the mid-west, TX, and Southern CA. I’ve been fortunate enough to encounter great generous people like this all over to help me….some area’s more prevalent. Unfortunately, us Californians have a less than stellar reputation for these kinds of things. The area is very different in many ways, and every one is in a hurry. When I’ve made attempts to offer similar type assistance, people are genuinely surprised and I can almost see in their expression an element of “what’s your motivation” or hidden agenda; a mistrust really because they don’t know me. They seem to get over it pretty quickly and become very appreciative. Always good to stop and help others and always a great blessing when others are able to help me.
That is awesome. I will tell you that if this happened in Miami, I would be running in the other direction, totally afraid of someone’s ulterior motive. Somehow in Key West it all seems so normal.
Love that and love Key West!
Excellent! I love to hear stories like this.