Road Trip grief Pay it Forward

Last week, I took 2 of my grandson's (age 6 & 13) and went to Paducah, Ky for the River Tin Rod Run. They had a ball checking out the cars. I always enjoy the drive more than sitting around in the heat, but overall, it was a chance to get the car out and have some quality time with the boys.

On the way home Sunday afternoon, I had just merged onto I-57 from I-24 and the right front tire blew out. Scuffed up the bottom of the fender and tore off the fender brace, but we were okay. A few guys stopped, who had also been to the run, but there not much they could do. I needed a tire. After a bit, I was getting ready to start calling around Marion for a tire, and a local guy pulled over to ***ist. He knew the towing guy we were about to call, and said the guy most likely would not answer on Sunday. My guardian angel drove to Marion to try and find the tow guy. He came back with cold drinks for us, and after not being able to find his buddy, offered to take the wheel in and get a tire mounted. He came back shortly with a new tire on my Halibrand rim. He was actually reluctant to take money for the tire, because he thought I should "save" my cash for the trip home! Money wasn't the issue though, and I paid him for the tire and had to insist he take an additional $100.00 for his trouble. He said he was just "payin it forward" and asked that I do the same. Kind of gives you faith in humankind. He was a car guy (well 1978 Corvette that he bought new), but it didn't matter to him what kind of car we had.

Just had to share. And anybody in Marion, Il who knows Scott Hanson, buy him a beer. He's a great guy to know. Bill

 

Nice! I do that a LOT in the winters here in Minnesota. I drive a HUMMER in the winter and if I see a car in the ditch I often stop and pull them out free of charge.

 

Man thats cool. I have really been digging these threads lately about good hearted folks. It should be a lesson to us all about how to conduct ourselves.

 

A reminder to many of us that we need to pay forward for the good deed someone did for us in the past.

My guradian angel was a dapper gent in 80 something Ford product who asked the lady in the lane next to me if I needed a jump when my truck and sailboat were stalled on Mercer street in Seattle in rush hour traffic a couple of years ago. He looped around the block and helped me jump the truck and saved my bacon and saved me a big tow bill and got me on the way. He wouldn't accept any cash and said he was paying forward after he had been helped in a similar situation and that if I paid it forward that was all that was needed.

 

Awesome story!

 

Years ago...many years ago (I'm talking late '50's/early '60s') , some "new" car clubs in Iowa used to hand out a card stating: You have just been helped by a member of (whatever) car club after they'd stopped to change a flat tire, or to add fuel to an empty tank out on a lonely two lane.

One such group of guys stopped to help us get Dad's car out of a ditch when he tried to p*** a car and the guy in front of us did the same thing...forced Dad into the ditch...luckily Dad was able to control the car andwe got stuck in the bottom of the ditch and couldn't get back out. It took five guys pushing to get the '49 Merc out...and not one of them would take money.

Dad kept that card for years, stuck in his sun visor, reminding him there were decent "kids" out there helping people...

It's nice to help someone and PAY IT FORWARD next time you see someone along side the road, makes you feel good.

R-

 

Maybe we should carry a "Helpin Hamb" card for these situations?

 

Great story, I would be glad to design a card and post it here saying something to the effect "you have been helped by a HAMBer and to pay it forward", others could submit designs as well and then have a vote on the best design, then we all could just print them out and laminate them. Just a thought.
MrC.

 

I was driving home from my cabin last week and saw a guy and his wife on the side of the road with a Harley that wouldn't shift. I grabbed my tool box and was lucky enough to fix it, we exchanged names and the guy reached for his wallet, I told him not to worry about it. About an hour later my friend Glen calls me and says "Thanks for helping my Mom and Dad"!

 

do it!

 

That is RAD! That should make sleeping at night real easy after finding out how close to home your good deed hit.

 

x2^

 

In the last 20 years I have found three wallets, a cell phone, and a pager (remember those?) and managed to get them all returned to their rightful owners. Sometime in the late 90's I was in a hurry and had stopped to use a cash machine. When I left, I tossed my wallet on the dash, drove about three blocks, and when I made a left-hand turn my wallet slid off the dash and out the p***enger's window. I pulled into the next parking lot, looked everywhere, but it was gone.
A few days later, a gentleman in blue coveralls driving a restored model T drove 25 miles out to the dead-end road I lived on, and delivered me my wallet with everything in it. As we were discussing the events, I found out he worked at the Antique Auto Ranch in Spokane, they were right behind me and his wife ran out into traffic to pick it up. He wouldn't accept any $$, and wanted an excuse to get the T out for some drive time.

Yes, there are good people out there, pay it forward.

 

Always good when someone does the right thing isn't it. A lesson to be learned from folks like that. Good for him.

 

over the years i have gone way out of my way to help people on the road.ive taken them places, fixed the cars and even gave a few money for gas, because they were out of gas and money and sittin on the side of the road.and when im down, i either call someone or i walk. ive had about 5 people stop to help me in over 35 yrs.thats in cars. now if im on my bike i havent had a brother p*** me.they all have stopped to see if they can help.

 

awesome story

 

I always stop, it's just something that's ingrained into me. My favorite was when I was about 21 or so. My wife and I were driving to The Dalles, Or. on the freeway. There's a spot near the railroad bridge that crosses over to Wishram, very tight, no shoulder, and it's kinda high up, then drops down closer to the water. A lady and her very young daughter were stranded there in her wagon.

Truck traffic was blasting past them, but the woman had been smart and placed her daughter and herself on the opposite side of the concrete barrier away from traffic. I stopped as close as I could to where she was broke down, but it still ended up being about a half a mile away. I grabbed my pathetic tool bag I had at the time and headed back up the freeway, keeping my eyes on the damn trucks blasting by.

When I got to the broke down car, the lady was protectively holding her daughter in front of her, and I could tell that she wasn't impressed by my appearance. At 21 I was still doing odd jobs and working wherever I could find them. My clothes were stained and well worn, albeit clean. My hair was fairly long at the time and I probably looked like a cross between a hobo and a grunge rocker.

I finally convinced the lady that I wasn't there to kill them and defile their corpses... come to find out she had stopped because the car had started to make a loud squealing sound, and the smell of smoke and burning rubber had filled the car. She popped the hood and I found that the air conditioner pump had froze up. I cut the belt off and rigged another one out of a piece of rope I had in my bag. I got the car going and I don't think I've ever seen anyone so thoroughly happy and relieved in all my life, before or since. We followed them all the way to a service station just to make sure they made it, then we just kept going, my part in their adventure was done.

It's funny, here it is twenty years later and I still remember her. That's some pretty good payback in my book.

 

In 1990 I was out in California on the "40 Ford Is 50" tour with my first 40 ford coupe. We just had a group photo in the Donner P*** rest area. (I lived on LI at the time and drove my car out there to participate, BTW, with my 10 yr old daughter and a friend and his wife in thier 40 coupe - I also still have that group picture, framed).

Anyway, we were heading back on the tour when I spotted an older couple off on the side of the road with steam/smoke coming from their motor. I stopped and helped them out, patching up their broken hose along w/2 gallons of my "spare" 50/50 antifreeze mix. When asked why I did it by other tour members I said that when I saw them along the side of the road, all I could think of was seeing my parents being stuck in the same way and I would hope someone would stop and help them as I had for those folks.

I've stopped several other times since then and would not hesitate to do it again, anytime.

 

its good to see these threads, to offset the negative ones.
"lend a helping hamb" cards sounds pretty good.

 

Great story! The world needs more kindness and you can only hope the goodness Mr Hanson shared comes back to him ten-fold.

 

A few years back, I was coming back to my car from surfing and there were 2 nuns staring through the window of their car. I asked if everything was ok and they pointed to their keys locked inside. Found a wire hanger in the back of my car, and got them in. One nun reached for her purse and I said "No way" (was really thinking "not a chance in hell am I taking money from a nun")

 

I've had similar experiences, a funny one was when the wife and I drove our 56 F100 to Death Valley in 94. At about dusk we saw a guy pulled to the side of the road and slowed down to see if we could help. He kept moving around his car to keep it between him and us when I realized he didn't need help, just relief. We kept going and I guess he did too.

 

Cool Story, glad to hear that Paducah has survived the flooding, It's a cool little city.

 

Very nice area. 2 weeks before the run, they said the area we were in (on the Ohio River) was under 6-8 feet of water. The old downtown section is pretty neat. Stu

 

Actually, Mr. Hanson has already started to get Karma. Sunday afternoon he made a comment that our Cubs were beating his favorite Cardinals. Ended up the Cardinals won.

I phoned him Monday to thank him again and to let him know we made it home okay. I also mentioned that his team had won, so he should be very happy about that. Stu

 

A long time ago in the small town of Penobscot, Maine my mother was returning home from shopping when she had a flat tire. She was on a road that didn't have much traffic and so she got pretty excited when she heard a car coming. She said that as the car approached it slowed as she waved to try and get the driver to stop, but he just kept rolling past as she stood beside her car and waved as he headed of down the road towards town.
My mom said that as the car drove away she noticed it had New Jersey plates. As she waited for another car she became more and more angry that that damn NJ tourist wouldn't stop to help . She had a few choice words about tourists. After a while she heard a car approaching , this time coming from the other direction, the direction the NJ car went in. Up roll two teenage boys from town, Wayne and Charlie.
Being pretty upset about the NJ tourist my mom immediately started ranting to the boys about the damn NJ tourist and tourists in general. Wayne stopped her and said" Sophie,we were in our yard and the NJ tourist stopped and gave us each $5.00 to come here and change your flat". I know she felt bad about what she tought about the guy from NJ and more than once after that I heard he come to the defense of tourists, especially those from the Garden State.

 

Another "Mom" story. Many years back, my Mother who was 74 at the time, had some trouble with her Comet. Now she'd been on her own for many years, and knew enough that when the car made a noise she wasn't familiar with, she tried to find somebody that could help. So she's out wandering around in Milwaukee, looking for some hard to find but "they have the cheapest holiday cards" place. As she turns some corner, the squealing starts coming from under the hood. She pulls over to the curb, and sees a group of "big woolley gentlemen"(her words) standing outside some kind of repair shop. She gets out, goes over, and asks for help. Now this is where it gets good. These guys kinda ignore her, but if you knew my Mother, ignore was not something she understood. So... she grabs one of these "gentlemen" by his ear and starts telling him what her car was doing, all the while dragging him over to it. Well it turned out her alternator had slipped a bit, and that set the belt to squealing. The "woolley gentleman" fixes it, won't take the money she tries to give him, and holds the door open for her to get back in her car.
Now, as I'm listening to her story, I'm starting to get a handle on just where she had been. I asked her if the repair place was full of motorcycles, and she said she thought so. Then I asked if she had made a left turn when she went over the bridge. She nods. Then I asked the big question... "these guys all wearing the same jackets?"... She nods again. I just started grinning.
My Mother, bless her heart, had just had a outlaw biker fix her car. I asked her if she hadn't been a bit worried, given where she was, and most of all, how the guys looked.
With that, I recieved the "look", her hands went to her hips, and she answered, "Why should I have been worried? They all looked like you, and you've helped people."

 

I have stopped and helped or at least offered to help quite a few times, but the ones I remember are the ones I didn't stop to offer any help to, those ones make you feel like **** looking back. Not on a cold rainy two lane or anything like that, you know the ones where you think someone else will stop.

Great story

 

Stu D Baker, thanks for the thread, indeed a good story. In today's times not many god stories are told. Each of us I am sure find ourselves saying this: "Car people are great people" a different breed of people.

Great idea for the "Helping Hamb" Card also .. or "H.A.M.B - VA. Helper" using what ever state you are from after HAMB.

RJP, your post is hysterical, I love it, big bad azz bikers Go Mom.

 

Thanks for sharing that story with all of us.

I find in general most people are willing to offer help when you car trouble.

I have broken down in more states then I care to remember and one of the coolest parts is the nice people you meet.

Thanks for sharing that. Jimbo