Paying it forward: The BMW

This past Monday, I spent part of my afternoon at the place that we have any mechanical or maintenance work done on my brother's vehicle. On that day, I was there while the mechanic did an oil change and fixed the muffler bracket which had broke a couple of weeks before. While sitting there, the roll-back truck came in with a black car on it, and out of the cab of the truck climbed three younger men, all three were close-to or in their early 30s. The car: a BMW.

As I sat their listening, the car which they had borrowed to make the trip from New York City to upstate (Rochester, perhaps) to attend a friend's funeral, had (on their return trip that day) gotten a flat tire. Since the car was registered with AAA...the service station had been called to 'rescue' the car.

The owner and the gal that works there, began doing a search to find a tire to replace the one on the BMW since they did not have a tire of that size...sounds easy enough. But each and every phone call came up empty...no one carries that size tire "in stock"...not even in the BMW dealership an hour and twenty minutes away! However, one could be ordered and it would get to the shop as early as noon the next day. That is the best that could be done.

This left Dave, Bruce and Brian scratching their collective heads as to what to do. One mentioned hitch-hiking back to NYC, while another asked about motels. Those of us who live in the area kind of giggled...no chain motels within a good 15+ miles. There is an inn in Cohocton, but it was advised that they'd be better off going to Dansville (which is on the other side of where I live) to find anything "decent".

A privately owned motel was found just off the expressway, and they decided they would go there, but the next question was: how were they going to get there...as we don't even have a taxi cab service within 15+ miles of here!  (Giggling again! Welcome to rural New York!!!)

Feeling bad for these guys, who I had a chance to converse with over about an hour's time, I offered to take them to the motel. It is only about 8 minutes from my home...and it wasn't any bother. Plus, this way, I could show them the bars that Dansville has on its main street...they wanted to go to one to watch the play-offs.

They were all kind of surprised that I would do that...offer a ride to complete strangers. I assured them, that I do not normally do this, but I sensed these fellows were 'safe', listening to their conversations and how polite they all were. Had any of them displayed a smidgen of arrogance...or something that gave me the tiniest sense of unease...I would have not offered at all.

One of the guys spoke up and told me on the ride to the motel that had they been broke down in NYC and needed a ride, everyone would have acted like they didn't exist. There is no sense of trust or friendliness on the streets there, to which I replied: "So I have heard. We aren't like that here."

A few quick stories by them, and a couple of good laughs, and I was depositing them at the front of the motel. They all thanked me, and it made me feel good that I had done something to help others out. They offered to send me a box of chocolates in return...but I declined...they know me only as Deb...and that's the way I left it.

(To give you a sense of what kind of guys these three were, if you have ever watched the movie: "Without a Paddle" then you get the idea! I added a clip below.)