Tuesday, August 23, 2005
That reminds me...
My good old friend, John from Pennsyltuckey, left a comment on my July 22 posting here on Fetafilter. Part of that comment read:

"Amazing how un-mannered people have become. I'm just like you I know all the folks at the local WaWa and the local diner by name and always say thank you.

Interesting story from days past. Christine held the door at the King of Prussia mall for a black gentleman, probably in his 50's - maybe older. The man stopped dead in his tracks and just looked at my wife. Christine could see his eyes wet as he said to her, "Nobody has ever held a door open for me before." She offered to be the first then and, through he went."

It's amazing how such a small act of kindness, or even just good manners, can dramatically affect the recipient."

That reminded me of a similar story a friend of mine told me.

He was working in New Orleans on a construction job. One of the laborers on his crew was a older black guy. This guy always showed up early for work dressed like he was going to church. He would then go into the trailer, change into a workshirt and overalls, work all day, then wash up and change back into his dress clothes for the ride home. One day this guy was saying that his car, an always impeccably clean old Cadillac, was making a funny noise. My friend, Larry, offered to take a look at it with him after work. At the end of the day, they took a ride around the block, Larry (who can fix anything) looked under the car and told him that it was just the U-joint, and not hard to fix at all. The guy told him he did not know how to fix that, so Larry told him to bring it by his place over the weekend, and he would help him fix it. That Saturday he came by, larry took the u-joint out , replaced it and reinstalled the new one, good as new. When the guy went to leave, he pulled out his wallet and started to count some bills out. Larry stopped him and (in his thick "I-put-a 'tater-in-tha-oven-fer-ya" accent) said "I don't want your money, just trying to help a guy out." Larry told me that the guy looked stunned, and all he could choke out was "Thank you, Mr. Larry" which was how he always addressed him, in spite of Larry telling him repeatedly that just "Larry" was fine. He said the guy then turned and sobbed, out loud, all the way back to his car, and drove off.

I asked Larry why he thought the guy reacted like that. He said, "I don't know, but I suppose no white person ever done nothing nice for him before."
thus voiced The A, Mistah @ 6:40 PM
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