My chance to pay it forward came today! Some of you heard me on the air a few weeks ago, talking about how Corn was trying to buy a coffee in a depanneur the day after his knee surgery and was 10 cents short. On crutches, and in quite a bit of pain, he asked the clerk if he could come back later with the money (seeing as how he couldn't run home and come right back). She gave him a "yeah right" look (even though he goes there and sees the same girl on a frequent basis). She wasn't looking too into the idea when the guy behind him in line stepped up and said, "Hey, how much do you need? You look like you're in pain, there". And this nice stranger paid the difference.
This morning, I was in line at a coffee shop. The kid in front of me (he looked maybe 14..but he was a little fellah) was buying a coffee and came up short. He was counting a handful of coins in his pocket when I immediately thought of Corn's coffee incident and stepped in to offer a toonie. He said, "Thank you so much ma'am" ('ma'am!' WAY TO MAKE ME FEEL OLD, YA SNOTNOSED..er, I mean...) then tried to give me change back. I refused and said, "Naw, save it for the next time". Then he thanked me AGAIN. He was all shy about it and could barely look at me. I wanted to punch him in the face, he was so adorable. But I punched the cashier out instead. Cold. Flat out. I think she's still on the floor actually.
Neat eh? And now, despite the thunderstorms outside....my day is starting just great.
*part of that story was a lie*
7 comments:
Great story, Nat. (I hope the part about punching the cashier was the true part and helping the cute kid was the lie, but I have a feeling it was the other way around.)
I did something similar to that a couple months back. I had just finished a Tim Hortons French Vanilla and rolled up the rim to see if I won anything. Sure enough I did. But my prize was "a free coffee."
Now, I don't drink Tim Hortons normal coffee and I didn't feel like trying to talk the cashier into giving me something else, so on my way out I walked past the line up and asked the first guy waiting if he was going to have a coffee. He said "yes" so I handed him my winning cup. He was very pleased.
I'm not sure if that was 'paying it forward' or not, but it felt nice to give something to someone you don't even know.
-Zoey
..just wanted you to know that you can replace the coffee win with any hot drink of any size ..but , hey , you did a nice thing and I have always believed that the more you give ,the more you receive in life .
One time -
I gave someone I didn't know a cold.
That count?
;-)
Nice story.
Giving younger people faith in human nature is bigger than one might first realize. It might have been that kid's first-ever experience with that kind of kindness. How cool is THAT?
Happy Canada Day!
JB
Not to blow my own horn (if that was physically possible, nyuk nyuk), but I did something similar the other day.
On the bus after work, with the rain pouring down, a kid of 13 or 14 put his two tickets in the fare box. But it was an express bus, and the driver demanded another ticket or a dollar. The poor kid had neither, and the smallest I had was a toonie, but I gave it to him anyway.
This kid was very polite, and thanked me. "It's okay," I said, "I'd hate to see you walking in this rain."
I should have punched out the bus driver, the way N@ did to the clerk. Would it really have killed him to let this nice looking kid (no spikes, piercings, colours or anything) ride an express bus for the regular fare?
My mom and dad always taught us manners and courtesy, with the idea that if you do something like that (paying it forward, as it has aptly come to be known), someone might help you when you need it.
Bonne fete du Canada, vous N@landers.
What a great story! What comes around, goes around!
Happy Canada Day!
Okay, okay, I give!
I've entered blogspace, and actually created my own blog! You're welcome to check it out at bigbroboblog.blogspot.com . Make sure you get the whole addy in there, or you'll end up on bigbro.blogspot.com, which belongs to some dude named Afro. Trust me, there's no way no how that I can be be described as Afro. I work with a couple young black people who help me be hip and cool, but usually throw up their hands and say "too old and too white, Bob!". I wanna ax you why my peeps diss me!
Anyway, I digress. Scoot on over to my blog and fire away!
Nat, I’m back
I’m glad to here ( or read ) that human kindness isn’t something stuck at the bottom of my shoe, A tidbit of info…My new years resolution for 06 is to help out 6 people, the rule is It has to be something significant and can’t serve my own agenda.. ( so the helping rich old ladies across the street is out of the question)
PS hope you can sign my guest book on my site with out your PC going “Kablooie”. But if it does …have no fear computers is ma specialty
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