A guy down the street from me has been having a garage sale pretty much every weekend. I think he was probably charging too much before and has eased up a bit. He’s almost gotten rid of everything I usually see. I stopped in last weekend and he had a random assortment of old screwdrivers that said “free”. I got to chatting with him and mentioned that I’m trying to get a shop together so I can build toys (my sister was complaining about how everything is plastic for her kids). He was like “wait right there”. He ran into his garage and came out with armloads of tools and just said “there you go young man”. I’m not sure what made me feel better, the tools or that fact I was called “young man” at 36.

A woman saw me struggling to carry my heavy, unwieldy duffel bag (the shoulder strap had broken). She gave me a ride to the train station. I might have missed the train had she not helped!

In between my junior and senior in high school, my mom, and I and my brother were told that the house we were renting was being sold.

We had no place to go nobody would rent to us. That meant we were homeless. One of the neighbors let my mom sleep on her couch another neighbor let me sleep on their couch, a third neighbor let my brother sleep on their couch.

After about a month or so that my mom was able to get an old beat up trailer house from a relative. No cost we just had to figure out how to move it. It wasn’t gonna last for much longer than a year, but at least it would be something.

About a year later, Habitat for Humanity was able to get us a house. For those who think that means a free house. No that is not a free house. It’s a mortgage for the house at 0% interest. You repay the mortgage.

I’ll give my story which is small but had a huge impact on me.

On my honeymoon. It’s myself, my wife and a Chinese dude in a suit on our way to Indonesia on the last leg of the flight in the 3 seats.

We get chatting. Newlyweds, congratulations, yada yada. Back and forth. Lasts a decent amount of time. He laughs because we ask him if he’s Indonesian (we’ve never been there before and Indonesian folks do not look Chinese lol).

Before he goes he gives us his business card and says we can call him 24/7 if we have any emergencies or difficulties of any kind on our trip. It was such a seemingly insignificant gesture but just took a bunch of hidden pressure off that we hadn’t even thought was there.

It left a huge impression on me though we never needed it. Ever since I have liberally given my phone number to folks traveling to Ireland (including a nice chap on Lemmy that I nearly met up with). Nobody has ever called me but I would jump in the car on a moments notice if they did.

A friend and I tried to hitch from Calais to Paris in 1980 or so. Scruffy punks don’t get lifts, turns out. We got the train and arrived in Paris late at night. Hotels by the station were either full or too expensive. We were staring at our map in despair when a young man asked if we needed help. Long story short, he walked us to his mother’s flat and made up a bed for us on the sofa. She cheerfully made us breakfast in the morning - I got the impression her son often brought home waifs and strays. Really nice people.

One time when I was much younger, I borrowed a trailer from a buddy to haul around some stuff that wouldn’t fit in my Jeep.

When I initially borrowed it, my friend set up the hitch and locked it in place. I figured I’d be able to do the same when it came time to return it.

Well, I didn’t do it right. I got on the road to return the trailer to my friend, and about 1000ft down the road, the trailer popped right off the hitch and started barreling down the road behind me toward a car.

The car stopped before the trailer hit it. A guy got out, grabbed the trailer, pulled it up to my Jeep before I could even say anything, and hitched it properly while I was apologizing.

He just said, “No worries” and went on his way. What a cool guy.

I’m in Canada so being kind to strangers is an everyday thing.