Ah yes, the third snowiest winter—gotta love here in Minnesota.
Anyway, coming home from work, I rounded the bend to find two cars facing each other—not good when traffic is suppose to be facing the same way. A skinny white guy was walking to the wrong-way sedan. My first thought was an accident, but then I saw the sedan’s front driver-side wheel was stuck in the snow bank and heard the all too familiar squeal of a spinning wheel with no traction whatsoever.
I pulled over immediately in case they needed my shovel. After some brief and all too familiar hand signals exchanged in such situations, Mr Skinny started pushing on the car. My second thought was there was no way he was going to move that sedan with the big black guy behind the wheel. If anything, they should switch places. But sure enough, they got into a rhythm of rocking the car and pushing until all of a sudden, the sedan popped off the snow bank on the second try.
Wow. To say the least, I was impressed. Obviously, it was all muscle under that skin and bones. Grateful Driver pounded on the wheel, gave a whoop and clapped like the Vikings has just won the Super Bowl. Mr Skinny gave him a thumbs up and turned to head back to his SUV, when the driver jumped out of his car. He ran over and grabbed Mr Skinny’s hand, shaking it vigorously and giving him a manly clout on the shoulder. Mr Skinny actually seemed embarrassed and you could just see the “aw shucks” expression on his face.
Then Grateful Driver reached for his wallet, but Mr Skinny waved it off. Grateful Driver insisted, but then Mr Skinny actually backed away from him, hands up in protest. Grateful Driver shrugged, exchanged another round of hand shakes and clouts and off they went their separate ways. My final thought? Oh man, it sure does the heart good to see people still care and willing to help someone else without expecting a reward.
We need more of them in this world...
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(No snow, spinning wheels, or skinny guys were harmed during the production of this post.)