By Henry Passenger
Dayton Hamvention 2011 is now history and may be one of the most memorable for me.
As noted last week, I was without wheels for the weekend and was pleasantly surprised by the customer care provided by the Greater Dayton Regional Transit Authority.
However, on top of that came a couple of extremely thought-provoking humanitarian incidents that made me wonder how I might have reacted in similar circumstances (or how I might react in similar encounters in the future).
Thursday’s rain had diminished to an on-and-off depressing drizzle by the time Greyhound dropped me off at the Dayton terminal.
Ever self-sufficient, with maps in hand and bus schedules tightly gripped in my fist, I asked the ticket clerk for some specifics about how to get to my motel – or at least within walking distance.
It took him a couple of phone calls and some quick consultations with his computer to discover that I could take an eastbound bus from the terminal that would connect with a northbound bus that would get close to the motel.
“It’ll be about a five- or six-block walk,” he said. I thought I could detect a hint of reluctance in his pronouncement.
No problem, I told myself before hopping aboard the first bus.
It was to my credit that I managed to get off at the correct transfer point but, by then, the drizzle had come back in earnest. I had an umbrella – “Be Prepared” was the phrase for the day – but to open my bag and get it out would mean that all my packed clothes would get similarly soaked. I opted for status quo.
In the meantime, while I was struggling with the pedestrian crossing signals, trying to get to the bus stop on the opposite corner, a pickup truck sped into the restaurant parking lot behind me. A woman leaned out the passenger-side window and yelled, “We’re not stalking you, but would you like an umbrella?”
I had been subconsciously aware of someone yelling, but it never occurred that they would have been yelling at me.
I overcame my speechlessness at that kindness, but turned it down graciously. Keeping the packed stuff dry was my concern at the moment.
That was event No. 1 – an offer of an umbrella for a duffel-carrying senior citizen out of his element.
Once I was aboard the second bus, the cheerful driver took me a few miles north and then about eight blocks or so through a meandering, beautifully laid-out subdivision (if you aren’t particular about parallel streets and 90-degree corners).
What no one had realized or thought to tell me was that practically every street in that subdivision was a dead-end or fenced-off and there was no way out except to go back to the entry point – retracing that eight-block scenic bus ride.
The overcast afternoon – no sun – and the gracefully laid-out non-directional streets left me unsure even of which direction I was facing. I wanted to go north to the highway, but for all I knew I was heading back south.
Overcoming the macho male image of balking at asking directions, I approached a city worker who was rearranging construction barrels to protect his just-poured new curbs.
Wonder of wonders – I was within a couple of blocks of my target highway, which was only five or six blocks from the motel.
He glanced at the glowering sky.
“Looks like rain,” he said, apparently not noticing that I was already damp from my drizzle stroll. “Hop in and I’ll take you there.”
That was kindness event No. 2.
My big question – would I have reacted similarly in corresponding situations? If not, why not?
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Quips ‘n’ Quotes: B.C. Forbes, founder of Forbes Magazine, said, “The human being who lives only for himself finally reaps nothing but unhappiness. Selfishness corrodes. Unselfishness ennobles, satisfies. Don’t put off the joy derivable from doing helpful, kindly things for others.”
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Henry Passenger’s column appears each Wednesday in the Tuscola County Advertiser. He can be reached at hbp35@sbcglobal.net