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What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

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121–130 of 353 posts

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#121
post #96
post #39

I live in Minnesota and do not own a snowblower. Probably my mistake, but I always joke that I get most of my exercise in the winter. Snow is really heavy for those without context. A couple years ago we had a particularly bad snowfall. The plow has a nasty hate filled habit of dumping all its snow in my driveway. I had a drift at the end of my driveway about 4 feet high and 6 feet deep. Literally up to my chest. I h…

Just be wary as you get older. The number of old men who die from heart attacks while shoveling snow is nonzero

The number of old men who die from doing no exercize is also quite high.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#122
Similar to the author’s story, I crashed on my bike going pretty quickly on a busy road. No serious injuries but I ended up with scrapes and a softball-sized bruise which lasted over a month. But after I fell and got off the road a man sitting on his porch eating dinner asked me if I was ok. I told him what happened and he quickly grabbed some tools to fix my bike and alcohol and bandages for the wound. His roommate came home and assumed we knew each other but nope he was just my guardian angel. I hadn’t thought about this in a while… now I’ll be sure to remember it again.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#123
First thing that comes to mind is a young man in Tokyo taking me and my then-gf to our ryokan after we asked him for directions. He walked over 20 minutes with us, clearly using up his entire lunch-break at work, to get us right to the door, going completely out of his way. We were just asking for general directions, but he took us all the way. We couldn't believe how gracious he was, and luckily we were able to gift him some chocolates from our home countries. Not a good lunch, but I hope he enjoyed them.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#124
post #104

Not the nicest thing, but when I was grocery shopping for Thanksgiving a few weeks ago, a stranger shared their “secret” for picking out good sweet potatoes (she was making sweet potato pie). She picked out a few for me. Just one of those warm fuzzy moments that we never get enough of.

This is nice

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#125
post #113

A friend of mine and I (we are both Aussies) had been staying at my Grandma's house in a rural village in UK and were trying to make our way back to London on Boxing Day. The fact that it was Boxing Day meant that no buses were running, so we started sticking our thumbs out to try and hitch a lift to the nearest town's train station. As you would expect, picking up two 19 year old blokes in the middle of nowhere was…

That's absolutely amazing.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#126

My best friend, his girlfriend, brother, sister and I piled into a minivan in July of 2018 and drove from Boston to SF. Best friend and I both took jobs there out of school and decided to make a trip of the life move. We painted BOS > SF on the back window. At a gas station in Memphis a random guy walked up to us and said "Make sure you go to Graceland. Can't miss it." We sort of smile and nod politely and then walk…

Was he an older guy with a curl in his upper lip?

Saw the ghost of Elvis on Union Avenue,

Followed him up to the gates of Graceland, and I watched him pass right through.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#127
post #113

A friend of mine and I (we are both Aussies) had been staying at my Grandma's house in a rural village in UK and were trying to make our way back to London on Boxing Day. The fact that it was Boxing Day meant that no buses were running, so we started sticking our thumbs out to try and hitch a lift to the nearest town's train station. As you would expect, picking up two 19 year old blokes in the middle of nowhere was…

Wonderful story!

As a Brit, I feel Xmas meal is the one time when you might see new faces around the table as we make an effort to ensure nobody is eating alone.

Growing up it was not unusual for members of the local community to join us if they faced Xmas alone.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#128
I was at a waterpark as a young teen and ended up trying the wave pool, but even being tall for my age I was shorter than a typical adult. When I first went out the waves weren't turned on/going yet, but once the waves started everyone moved forward and the crowded pool compressed even more, plus I got pushed even deeper into the deep end, and basically I sank down because I couldn't really get any space to swim and everyone else was standing. It was so packed with people that eventually (without my realizing at the time) it became impossible to move arms and legs enough to stay up, kinda like a crowd surge but in the water.

I must have been too shy to think of climbing onto the person next to me. My best guess is that I was "jumping" up off the bottom to get brief bits of air while hoping it wasn't in the middle of a wave. After doing this for a bit, could be just seconds, I started to panic (I really couldn't tell you how long, felt like forever). I heard a whistle and somehow this lifeguard was there through the crowd within seconds (they had been standing along the wall of the pool but I was more in the middle).

The people all around me shoulder to shoulder hadn't even noticed what was going on, I still feel amazed the lifeguard could pick me out from thousands of heads and get to me.

(I don't know if this can be considered "nice" cause it was their job, but it's something that has always stuck with me).

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#129
There's a corelation between how nice people are in general and how well laws are enforced. More consistent enforcement means people trust that other's are not getting away with stuff and so they can settle into assuming the best most often, instead of having to worry.

I feel like many places have forgotten that. Maybe law enforcement got too expensive or there were too many corrupt police but so much now is no longer enforced and so the selfish "it's okay if I can get away with it" types are winning.

Re: What is the nicest thing a stranger has ever done for you?

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't "number of old men who die from heart attacks while doing anything is non zero"?

Shoveling snow is a well-established high risk factor for older adults.

For fat people, getting over heated when doing things is generally the limiting factor on how strenuous one can push the body. In the cold you can exercise a lot harder before you get too hot, so the person can stress the body more than they usually would.
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