| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 8:49:09 PM | wow! That was a great story! What a nice person you are to do that for someone you didn't even know. Hopefully the girl will get some sense and dump the creep who did that to her. If that was done to me, I would be giving that person their walking papers. I mean something could have happened to her and he didn't even care. You did a nice thing for her and hopefully she will realize there are nice guys out there like you and she deserves better!
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 9:00:14 PM | | Now you know why I'm in the military. It's not the reward- it's the people that are thankful that somebody is ok. Ok, so maby being a little more attractive to females is a bonus- I won't lie there, but it feels good to make shure people are safe at the end of the day. That and I get to shoot the big guns. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 9:06:37 PM | Anybody else notice the sharp divide between respondents here? There are the traditional Americans (or "regular people," if you're furrin) who welcome and applaud OPie's spirit of generosity, his readiness to lend a hand, to be a neighbor and a citizen.
Then there are the modern Americans (or "paranoid a55holes," if you're furrin) who expect to be robbed and assaulted and otherwise turned out. Nothing is less traditional than for Americans to fear and dread one another, but there they are, in larger numbers even than the scofflaws they imagine all around them. Fear, fear, fear.
Sure, shit happens. But, even though violent crime is on a long decline in America, more and more of us are more and more tightly wound around the fearstick. We see fear marketed to us every day, and not only in the dreary advertainments for the War On Terra. Fear is big business, and it's doing fine if so many of us are so frightened of giving a stranger a hand.
Cheers!
Vulf | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 9:10:16 PM | what goes around comes around. that's often used as a negative, but not in your case
i just hope the lady noted the difference in your kind of man and the man who drove off without her | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 10:00:42 PM | | Good story, although I would have thought a lot about whether or not it was set up. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/17/2008 11:42:41 PM | What an amazing story..You were in the right spot at the right time. Such a wonderful thing you did for her...Remember that all angels come in white gowns, they are everywhere. that night you were her's.
Melissa | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 5:27:12 AM | Thank you!
I'm in the process of writing a book about what average guys like us can do to make the world a better place. We don't have to be superheroes. All we have to do is step up and get involved. We can push cars out of the road and call for help. We can change tires. (If we know how, why not change alternators, batteries, etc.) We can change lightbulbs (water heaters, ceiling fans, roofing) for the elderly. We can buy Christmas presents for lower income families.
My step-father called me home right before he died and asked me to make a promise that I'd never pass anyone I could help. I've dived into flood waters, run into burning buildings, and recently gotten stabbed breaking up a rape. I've kept that promise, and I intend to do so until I die. I don't ask anyone else to risk their lives like I do, because I've got special training and lots of experience.
What I would ask of others is simply to do what you can when you can. If your neighbor is sick, make chicken soup. If you have an extra coat, give it to the guy on the street corner. On Thanksgiving day, take a plate down to the guys under the bridge. Maybe you have the means to do more. GREAT! If not, do what you can. Grab a hammer and go help Habitat for Humanity. Grab a paintbrush and volunteer to paint the house of that widow lady down the lane, or just sit with her and listen. There are people out there who are lonely and starving for someone to talk with them.
We average people CAN make a difference. If we work together making a conscious effort to make a lifestyle of helping others, we can make miracles. I loved the movie Pay It Forward, and I do believe that if enough of us commit ourselves to going beyond three people and making it a lifestyle, it will change the world.
I'm working on putting together a group of Houston area folks who are interested in making themselves and their world better. If you're interested, let me know and I'll figure out how to post publicly available information.
Tony
Tony | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 10:53:12 AM | what a great story.
kudos to you, OP. don't ever change.
turtle: good words of wisdom. i live by the same philosophy, and you're absolutely right: being a hero doesn't always take effort of mammoth proportion, it doesn't have to cost you much in terms of time or cash. all it takes is eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart willing to respond.
what i find sad is that OP's story is *not* the norm, when it ought to be.
(i also viewed your profile and think it rocks. except i think that your fourth pic should be your main image. *cackle*
and btw....why are you even here??!)
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 11:43:18 AM | Just because you can be trusted, doesn't mean SHE can be. No apologies. You have no idea who she was. How do you know if she's gonna try some junk on you once she gets you in the car?
Nothing wrong helping people OP, but calling her a taxi...or offering to call the police and waiting around until help arrived, would have been just as helpful...and safer.
...for both of you.
There's a lot of women in this thread saying what a good thing you did by helping her. How many of those women, if some guy was at a gas station late at night and asked for a ride home, because his g/f left him there...would offer the guy a ride home?
None, if any. Why? It's not safe.
She thanked me, but then she asked if I had been drinking cause it was a Friday. She asked me for ID. Good thing too, I didn't want to tell her my name.
If she looked at your ID, she's got your name. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 12:32:59 PM |
There's a lot of women in this thread saying what a good thing you did by helping her. How many of those women, if some guy was at a gas station late at night and asked for a ride home, because his g/f left him there...would offer the guy a ride home?
that's a no-brainer.
you're comparing apples to oranges, imo... | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 12:43:25 PM |
There's a lot of women in this thread saying what a good thing you did by helping her. How many of those women, if some guy was at a gas station late at night and asked for a ride home, because his g/f left him there...would offer the guy a ride home? that's a no-brainer. you're comparing apples to oranges, imo...
No, I'm not.
He had no idea who this woman was and neither do any of you.
Did he search her for weapons? Did he pat her down?
What if the "a$$hole" in the SUV who drove off...and the woman were setting him up?
Oh wait, no...You're right.
Because God knows, no woman would ever commit a violent crime.
The woman can be trusted in the same situation...more than a man? BS.
He could have been just as helpful...and they both would not have risked anything...by waiting with her, and arranging for transportation otherwise. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 12:56:48 PM | My friends have been telling me about how men and women work in teams.
As for the joke about how... I didn't want to tell her my name, I just showed her my liscense. That was humor.
Come to think of it, I had a male friend at some point in my life that met a girl from online after talking to her for 2 years. He flew to Florida for her, and she ditched him at a gas station. He's a male model that is genuinely nice.
He had no problem getting a ride, but it was daytime at a busy gas station and he was only going 5 miles back to his hotel. Oh and he's a gorgeous male model. It was a woman that picked him up too.
Then 5 years later he found her online, or she found him, just to appologize and tell him that she freaked out over how great he looked. Like out of her league, she pannicked and drove off. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 1:11:17 PM | OP, what an awesome story. You were her angel, and don't ever change!
Vulf, you are so correct....fear is big business! Thanks for your service ex-navy.
Turtle, you're a good man...keep up the good work!
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:02:16 PM | Then there are the modern Americans (or "paranoid a55holes," if you're furrin) who expect to be robbed and assaulted and otherwise turned out.
Oh honestly Vulf. Try traveling through the Bronx. If you stop to help out a stranger, you're pretty much an idiot, not an a*shole.
Sure, shit happens. But, even though violent crime is on a long decline in America, more and more of us are more and more tightly wound around the fearstick. We see fear marketed to us every day, and not only in the dreary advertainments for the War On Terra. Fear is big business, and it's doing fine if so many of us are so frightened of giving a stranger a hand.
It's not a "fearstick," it's using your brain. Not to demean the OP. But someone said - "How great would the world be if it was made up of people like the OP?" It would be wonderful, but it isn't, so until then you need to be cautious. Do you pick up hitchhikers too? According to you, in some alternate universe it is somehow logical to pick up strangers without heeding the immediate, tangible consequences and instead fear some abstract concept about the "man."
And does anyone else think if the woman got stranded, it was the result of her own stupidity? Waiting a night at the gas station is not the worst punishment in the world for your own mistakes. Obviously she was used to that kind of treatment, and it was beyond ridiculous of her, if she is a normal person, to risk her own safety by asking a stranger for a ride.
that's a no-brainer.
you're comparing apples to oranges, imo...
Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she couldn't be carrying a knife or a gun or have had someone at her house waiting for him. And judging from her risky lifestyle, if she had committed a crime of any sort that night and he was pulled over, he would be an accomplice. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:14:20 PM |
Just because she's a woman doesn't mean she couldn't be carrying a knife or a gun or have had someone at her house waiting for him.
FINALLY some common sense.
Thank you.
OP, kudos to you...for wanting to do the right thing. There's never a bad time to do the right thing or lend a hand to a stranger. With that, I agree.
My point is that you can lend a hand to a stranger and help out, without sacrificing your personal safety...which is what you did.
There were other options that would have enabled you to assist the woman, without jeopardizing yourself. Instead, you let a stranger into your car, at 10:30 at night, on a road with nothing else in sight, but the gas station.
You may be helpful, but you're also naive.
It won't do you any good to be helpful, if you're not smart about it. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:20:28 PM | I absolutely agree with the above post. It's wonderful that you are so kind, OP, but being kind doesn't do you any good if you're dead. And saying that isn't paranoia, it does happen, and you don't want to be one of the figures compromising a statistic.
Your safety always comes first. If nothing else, you guys could have called 911 and they would have picked her up, and she could have found her parent's or a friend's contact info from there. And it is just beyond weird that she asked you for your ID, I don't like that one bit... | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:35:08 PM | Dear lostintheshuffle....it is said that people are placed in our lives for a reason, and/or a season. You came along when she needed you, and my hope is that she will remember your unselfish act the next time someone asks her for help.
Good job!!!  | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:43:43 PM | | you did do alright kid. just ignore the smart asses who posted to your thread. those are the ones who wont lift a finger to help themselves muchless a stranger. sounds like u have a good heart and some little sweety going to see that. | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 2:56:39 PM | | If you had a phone why didnt you just call her parents to come pick her up? You were very fortunate that nothing serious came of this. Sad to say but, I would not have been so generous as to have given someone a ride. And then you took her for something to eat? | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:02:07 PM | | I went out with this woman.near Christmas Eve I was over her house.I promised to put together a race track for her son.Out of the box it had about 1000 pieces to it,so I tried.And tried,for hours.So after deducing it had some missing parts,she insisted we take it back to exchange it.We did,after more hours tring to put this one together,we deduced it also had missing parts.Back to the store again.It's midnight,still haven't gotten far on the track of 1000 pieces.Didn't really have room for it in the living room either.By one in the morning,gave up and decided never to put a track together again with 1000 pieces.Will stick to figure 8 race tracks from now on.Broke up with woman when she told me about the guy at the bar she would have liked to have boffed.Hope she hooks up with him,maybe he,when he sobered up,could put the race track of 1000 pieces together.LMAO!Thus the old,wise saying;No good deed goes unpunnished!LOL! | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:13:42 PM | OK After rereading your story..and it surely is inspiring....I have some questions
You pulled into the gas station at 10:30. And although it was in an islosted area there were others there getting gas who refused her a ride. Then you had a conversation.......made 3 phone calls....took her to her parents who she said were 45 minutes away.....stopped at taco bell for food..........and her father came to your car at 11:20. You just happend to check your watch or car clock. So from the time you pulled into the gas station ..till her father came to thank you it was 50 minutes........I dont mean to be suspicious..it is a nice story...but the time line doesnt add up........... | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:17:25 PM | ^^^ wow, aren't we all just a cynical bunch.....? let's analyze this story and pick it apart, it's just too damn nice to be real right?
sheesh....
I like the story, it made me smile....thanks for sharing:) | |
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| he left her at a gas station
Posted: 5/18/2008 3:23:29 PM | Wow I'm impressed, I honestly would not have gotten involved. Her dad was right and you did a good, and honorable deed. Thanks for coming here and telling us about it.
Perhaps you taught her a thing or two about chivalry and what a real man is. | |
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