Black Friday
I went down to Dayton this past week to spend Thanksgiving with my family and brought my friend Chelsea with me since she couldn't make it home to California. My car, AKA The Beast, was fine going down there and we had a great time eating insane amounts of food with the family. On Black Friday, my friend Joe was working at Best Buy and asked us to come visit him and witness the carnage of hundreds of people storming the doors for cheap electronics. On the way there, we stopped and had lunch with some friends of mine. After lunch, my car battery was dead. I asked someone to jump it and it started right up, so we drove off. 3 blocks later, the car stalls out in motion and we push it into the nearest parking lot, which just happened to be at The Greene. For those not familiar with the greater Dayton area, The Greene is one of those pretentious, although entertaining, outdoor shopping malls that resembles a small downtown completely made up of the best retail has to offer. And now, on Black Friday, Chelsea and I are stuck blocking traffic into and out of the center's main parking lot. Let the fun begin!
I had the hood popped and my hazard lights on. I was pretty sure it was the battery again, but since the car had stalled out while I was driving it, I wasn't confident that just getting another jump and driving away was the answer. Papaw was called and on his way, but it would take him at least half an hour to get to us.
So we waited.
And waited.
And then we started to get frustrated. See, in the other parking lot where the car had failed us, it had taken less than a minute for someone to come and ask if we were alright or needed help. That parking lot was small and in a rather shabby shopping center. Here we were in one of the largest shopping centers in the tri-state area with hundreds of people streaming by us on foot and in cars and all people did was stare. All of them. Old men, little kids, middle aged house wives, college kids, all of them. I was sure that eventually someone, at least a security guard, would come to ask us to move or see if we were alright, but no. All they did was stare. We did see a security guard on a bike riding around the parking lot. He stopped and stared for a second, watching us block traffic for everyone trying to come in and out of the lot, before he biked away down one of the aisles.
It was 40 minutes before a group of middle aged men came and helped us maneuver the car into a space.
40 minutes.
I thanked them profusely and made sure they knew that they were better than any of the hundreds of people that had walked by before them. I mean seriously, even if you have a bad back or are juggling three kids, how hard is it to ask if the people in the broken down car are alright? Or need help? What if Papaw hadn't been on his way? We would probably still be sitting there while the upper class of the area went around us, staring as they hauled their holiday shopping to the car.
I know it's corny and cheesy, and it's been said in every Christmas special since the dawn of time, but really what's the use in spending hundreds of dollars on gifts for everyone you know when you can't spend 5 minutes helping out a stranger? Why do we gorge ourselves on food over the holidays to the point of being uncomfortable when there are people down the street hoping the food pantry doesn't run out of turkeys this year?
I'm not saying we can end world hunger, because that's just foolish. What I am saying is that if you see some clueless college kids in a broken down car on the side of the highway, please stop and say hey because it might be me.
Note: The car is all fixed now. The battery bolt/cable thingies were corroded. Papaw cleaned them. We made it back to Kent with no problems what so ever.
I had the hood popped and my hazard lights on. I was pretty sure it was the battery again, but since the car had stalled out while I was driving it, I wasn't confident that just getting another jump and driving away was the answer. Papaw was called and on his way, but it would take him at least half an hour to get to us.
So we waited.
And waited.
And then we started to get frustrated. See, in the other parking lot where the car had failed us, it had taken less than a minute for someone to come and ask if we were alright or needed help. That parking lot was small and in a rather shabby shopping center. Here we were in one of the largest shopping centers in the tri-state area with hundreds of people streaming by us on foot and in cars and all people did was stare. All of them. Old men, little kids, middle aged house wives, college kids, all of them. I was sure that eventually someone, at least a security guard, would come to ask us to move or see if we were alright, but no. All they did was stare. We did see a security guard on a bike riding around the parking lot. He stopped and stared for a second, watching us block traffic for everyone trying to come in and out of the lot, before he biked away down one of the aisles.
It was 40 minutes before a group of middle aged men came and helped us maneuver the car into a space.
40 minutes.
I thanked them profusely and made sure they knew that they were better than any of the hundreds of people that had walked by before them. I mean seriously, even if you have a bad back or are juggling three kids, how hard is it to ask if the people in the broken down car are alright? Or need help? What if Papaw hadn't been on his way? We would probably still be sitting there while the upper class of the area went around us, staring as they hauled their holiday shopping to the car.
I know it's corny and cheesy, and it's been said in every Christmas special since the dawn of time, but really what's the use in spending hundreds of dollars on gifts for everyone you know when you can't spend 5 minutes helping out a stranger? Why do we gorge ourselves on food over the holidays to the point of being uncomfortable when there are people down the street hoping the food pantry doesn't run out of turkeys this year?
I'm not saying we can end world hunger, because that's just foolish. What I am saying is that if you see some clueless college kids in a broken down car on the side of the highway, please stop and say hey because it might be me.
Note: The car is all fixed now. The battery bolt/cable thingies were corroded. Papaw cleaned them. We made it back to Kent with no problems what so ever.