"Need Some Help?"

Well, yes, actually

“Sometimes kindness isn’t in your face. It’s more subtle. It’s Kinda Kind.”

The Kinda Kind Series is about talking. And not talking. About gestures. And expressions. And sounds. And silence. It’s about all the curious ways we communicate. And sometimes it’s about just being Kinda Kind.

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“We can’t help everyone, but everyone can help someone.” ~ President Ronald Reagan

Photo by Pro Church Media on Unsplash

The Day Before Thanksgiving

Last Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, Bill and I hopped in Sparkle, my black SUV, and headed out to Ralph’s. My grandson was driving down from Cal Poly Pomona to spend Thanksgiving weekend with us at our little beach condo. Woo Hoo!

We had decided to order a precooked turkey breast since it would be just the three of us for Thanksgiving dinner. It was going to be ready around 8am-ish. All was going according to plan. (I love it when a plan comes together)

Even though it was late November, we parked Sparkle in our favorite spot at the far end of the parking lot, enjoying the stroll to the store. Back in my Cleveland days, late November would have seen me driving round and round the lot hunting for a spot as close as possible to the store so I could avoid the snow and cold. But this was Oceanside, land of beach breezes and palm trees.🌴

As I headed toward the deli, home of my turkey breast, I noticed the manager opening the large oven doors behind the counter. The oven was empty. Uh Oh.

“Hi, are you Zack? I talked with you on the phone. I’m here to pick up my cooked turkey breast.”

“I am Zack. It’s going to be about an hour before your turkey is ready. We’ve had a little trouble with a couple of the ovens.”

“Ok. No problem. I’ll check back.” I was skeptical. After all, I’m not a bird brain and I had seen the empty oven, but I figured Bill and I could wing it for an hour.😁

An Hour to Kill at the Grocery

So what do you do with an hour to kill at the grocery store? When I’m at Costco I know exactly what to do. I buy a whole bunch of stuff I don’t need. But Ralph’s? This would require some creativity.

Bill and I started out wandering around together, but pretty soon my wingman and I split up, looking for our own adventures. I grabbed another pecan pie… never can have too many, a couple of jars of gravy… even though I had 48 ounces at home…. eggs…. 6 bottles of wine…. and managed to add about a dozen other ‘necessities’. Then I meandered around the bakery…. no, that was a bad idea.🍩

A little later I stumbled across Bill in the coffee aisle. He was eyeing some PEET’s whole bean.

Miraculously the hour ended before I filled the shopping cart. We picked up our very hot turkey breast, thanked Zack, grabbed the final critical item from the freezer case…. vanilla ice cream… and checked out.

Uh Oh

We loaded Sparkle up and climbed in to head home with our feast.

Brrrrrrrrrrr…. click, click, click….brrrrrrrr, click, click, click. What the heck? Sparkle, whom I had affectionately named for sparking into action (even though spark plugs are a thing of the past), was dead.

A few more tries, a few more brrrrrr… click, click, click….. and we knew it was hopeless.

Bill (ever the thinking man) tried to call State Farm. I had visions of Jake from State Farm and Travis Kelce coming to our rescue.

But alas. Bill’s phone had no bars so he meandered to the other side of the lot seeking cell strength (of course, when one things goes wrong Murphy’s Law kicks in).📳

Bill waved to me from across the lot. State Farm had promised to send Quality Towing (sadly not Travis) to jump start Sparkle.

Need Some Help?

Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed. I leaned against Sparkle, trying to track the progress of the tow truck on my phone (which, oddly, was working). For you Uber fans, it was a little like that… watching the vehicle move along the roads, getting closer and closer but not arriving. 🚚

A giant black Chevy truck pulled into a space across the aisle. An older guy wearing jeans, a t-shirt, and a battered cowboy hat slid down from the driver’s seat. He was bald, wearing wire rims and a big smile. He sauntered over to us in that cowboy sort of way and said, “Howdy. Need some help?”

“Thank you. That’s really nice of you. We have a tow truck on the way, so I think we’re ok,” I said. It’s possible that I looked a tiny bit desperate.

“Alright. I’m just headed into Ralph’s to pick up the libation for tomorrow. I’ve got hay in the truck for the cows at my ranch, but I’d be happy to take you somewhere if you need it. I’ll check on you when I get back out.”

I watched him walk down the row toward the grocery. He had that cowboy walk, a little bow legged. “I’ve got friends in low places…” started humming in my brain.

Another five, then ten minutes ticked by. Two more strangers stopped, each one saying, “Need some help?” I thanked them, holding out hope for the tow service.

Finally, after thirty minutes Mr. QT pulled up (You do remember that last frozen grocery item we picked up before checking out, right?). He brought his charging machine over to Sparkle and started to give her CPR.

Meanwhile, our cowboy from the Chevy truck reappeared, loaded his truck up and then he just sat patiently in the truck until Sparkle came to life. He pretended to be talking on the phone but he couldn’t fool me. I could tell that he was just waiting to make sure we were ok. As we eased out of the lot, he pulled his Chevy in behind us. And with a wave and a smile we went our separate ways. I silently wished him a very happy Thanksgiving.

Epilogue

After Bill dropped me off with the groceries (being careful NOT to turn off the car), he headed to the auto body shop we have used many times to get a new battery. Craig, the owner, was happy to see Bill and catch up after nearly two years. His wife had recently passed and he was eager to have a friend to talk to. If Sparkle hadn’t become ‘Unsparkle’, that conversation would never have happened. Do things just happen for a reason? I don’t know. What do you think?

🐇 Lessons from the Rabbit Hole

I learned a few things from our Thanksgiving shopping trip.

• There are a lot of kind people out there who are ready to say, “Need some help?”

• Check your car battery. (Ours had been leaking and we didn’t know it)

• Ice cream doesn’t melt as fast as I thought it would.

• We were grateful that Sparkle had waited until parked in the lot before going kaput… thank heavens for small mercies!

• Don’t let a little mishap get you down. It’s ok to acknowledge that it’s a bummer… and then look for the positives. You never know where you may find them.

• We really didn’t need that extra gravy.

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Comments:

1. How was your Thanksgiving?

2. Have you ever been helped by a stranger?

3. Hi, my friends. I’m grateful for you!

4. Have you ever had the chance to say to someone, “Need some help?”