The descent was bumpy. “Why is it so bumpy,” murmured the woman in the window seat, “when the trees below us aren’t moving?” It was bumpy enough to make me feel nauseous and I clutched my arm rests, even checked for the folded bag that has been part of airline travel throughout my lifetime. I’ve never used one, but it’s nice to know they’re still there.
It had been an uneventful trip from Tampa, the plane relatively empty, so passengers had plenty of personal space, with middle seats largely left vacant. I was tired, good-tired. Happy because I’m always happy when my plane is Balitmore-bound. Tired (good-tired) because I had spent four intensive days at a writers conference, part of a faculty that had bonded with the accelerated intensity that I thought vanished from one’s life after summer camp and freshman year in college. I was lost in my own thoughts and happy to be there, when the woman in the window seat, a striking African-American woman about my age, tugged at my sleeve.
“Look,” she said. She extended her toes, bright with red polish, and pointed to the shoes she had slipped off. They were black loafers with white stitching, just like mine. “Look,” she said, pointing to her jeans — using her beautifully manicured finger now — her watch, with its black face, silver trim and black band, a double for the one I wore. I slipped off my shoes and showed her that my toenails were painted, too, if not in the same shade. And I had put on a white blouse that morning, just like hers, before I had decided I would need the double layers of T-shirt and sweater to make the transition from warm St. Petersburg to chilly Baltimore.
“What do you know?” she said. “Ebony and ivory.”
When’s the last time that a stranger made you smile?
right after I read this post I had to run out and get lunch for the crew. The same 3 ladies have worked at this Panera Bread for the last 3 years, and they are awesome. So adorable, and they know me, and they’re always so helpful – but beyond that, they always make me laugh. And it’s usually chaos by the time I get there ( mid-lunch-rush) but it’s like we all just need a giggle. Today one of them helped me carry out my bags (she doesn’t speak english very well) and said to me “it’s cold outside?” with a huge smile, pointing to her short sleeved shirt. Despite the language barrier it’s still so precious to see them.
I was also recently in line at my local Goodwill, a very loooong line, and struck up a conversation with the stranger in front of me regarding our mutual frustration with the line. She contemplated giving up – I talked her into staying. We discussed each other’s purchases, then went on our way. I think sometimes if we’re open to chatting with strangers, that’s the first step in meeting great people and having a good laugh at the oddest moments.
Just a few days after we’d moved to Oregon, my husband and I were in the parking lot of a restaurant and he had a map on the hood of the car searching for a street. A couple-on their way into the restaurant-stopped to help us. They had recently moved here as well-and had been helped in somewhat the same manner and wanted to return the gesture. A thoughtful act and four big smiles.
This is in reverse and in a more malicious vein, but here it is:
My ex-husband kept a station wagon that I didn�t want to get in the first place after we divorced. It was in my name, but he was always late with the payments � wrecking my credit. Lucky for me, he totaled the vehicle. I got a call from a woman in the insurance office who was clearly being bullied by him (�that�s unacceptable� was one of his favorite verbal weapons). Apparently there was money left over the blue book value and it was to go to me since my name was on the title. Unbeknownst to me, he was trying to harass her into giving it to him. When I left him, I didn�t take anything � just wanted to be free � and although I could have used the money, I wanted no more of the drama. I asked the woman if he was terrorizing her and she confessed that yes, he had been there for quite a while throwing a fit. I asked what I would need to do to let her give him the money. She said I could fax a letter with a copy of my driver�s license and signature saying he could have the money. I drafted a letter that said that he could have the money if and only if he apologized for being such a terrible ass to the woman. I called back to see if the fax went through and she said that he was still going through the paperwork part � but that she had passed the letter through the entire office and they were all having a good laugh at him.
The one that comes immediately to mind happened some years ago, on Fisherman’s Wharf. I lived for a long time in the North Beach / Fisherman’s Wharf area of San Francisco, where there are eternally flocks and gaggles of tourists, many of whom are perfectly normal, some of whom are complete morons – so I tend to look at them all with a jaundiced eye. I was standing outside the Buena Vista Cafe one day, at the cable car stop, and right next to me was the young Cute family. Mama Cute, Daddy Cute, and the two blonde Cute daughters. They were obviously having the time of their lives, everything in their world was lovely. The father looked at the two little girls and asked “And now do you want to ride the cable car?” And the little girls started jumping up and down in their mary-janes, giggling and crying “Wheee!” It was like being in the middle of a Disneyland commercial. It’s a great memory that never fails to make me smile.
Heather – I want you to be my new best friend! That was amazing!
My favorite stranger/smile story goes way back to when I was a fresh young thing, just out of high school and working in an office in the mail department. On my lunch hour one day I walked briskly to the bank. I passed a man going the opposite direction of me and he said “My, you have a nice stride!” I didn’t hear him correctly, so I said “I beg your pardon?” He repeated the sentence, and then added “Oh, and you have nice legs, too!” He was not impertinent – merely being nice. I smiled broadly and thanked him and went on my way. But from that day on, I vowed to try to make someone else’s day if I could, by noticing something special and telling them. I’m not Mary Poppins – I don’t do it every day or even every month, but when the spirit moves me, I remember that guy and pass on the good karma.
First, I hope you had a good time here! I also hope you managed to make it across the Bay to St. Pete – because St. Pete is way cooler then Tampa.
The first stranger smile that pops into mind is a time when I was walking my Pupster. There is a wall my house, a very small one that comes up to my waist. Pup and I always walk buy it, he jumps up on it, runs on the grass on the other side, and then barrells top speed into me – with lots of doggie sugar. He puts his paws on my shoulders, and I get to “hug” him tight.
Last week a man was walking by, and he smiled at us, and said “Well someone sure loves you, young lady!” I said that I loved him too . I am used to people saying that it’s obvious that I love him, but no one has ever said that they can tell he loves me.
Marika, I was in St. Pete, but Southwest flies in and out of Tampa. I loved it. By far my favorite city in Florida.
Dorothy – Thanks! Remembering the story makes me smile. I should tell you that it was actually better that the woman never asked him for the apology or showed him the letter. Everyone in the office had enough of his antics, so it was all for their benefit.
Well if you ever ventured downtown — you were in my neighborhood. I can walk to The Pier, and every other place I want to go. It is a beautiful little area. The sad thing is right now, the city is starting to build million dollar condos, and are pretty much forcing the artists and musicians etc .. out of the downtown area – and they are the ones that made it great. Such is progress – I guess
Marika,
We were so near — I stayed downtown. But our days were very, very full, so I didn’t get to see much. And there was so much I wanted to see.
This is certainly not the last time a stranger made me smile, but one that sticks in my memory. One afternoon, some years ago, I was approached by a really bright and enthusiastic 10-12 year-old girl at the Silver Spring Metro station selling those chocolate bars with almonds for a school fundraiser. I told her I was sorry but I shouldn’t eat the candy because it’s not good for me. She replied, “Yes, but if you BUY the candy, that’s good for me!” It not only made me laugh but also made everyone around me smile as well. I bought 2 chocolate bars, and ate one on the way home to Columbia. No, I shouldn’t have eaten it; and no, it wasn’t good for me.
Recently at Wal-Mart, I was getting out of my car and a youngish woman, probably in her mid to late 20s (much younger than me) was walking toward her car. She stopped and said, “I guess people think because my car is old and beat-up, they can leave their carts by it.” She was smiling while she said this and was patiently moving the carts out of the way. Two or three of them were left right there next to her car. I smiled back and said, “Oh, I’ve seen worse. Heck, I’ve driven worse.” It was nice that she took it so well and even shared it with me.
The woman who is the waitress at the pizza place my husband and I haunt every Wednesday makes us smile everytime we’re there. She’s picked up on the fact that I’m appalled by my husband’s taste in pizza and has taken to giving him as much grief about it as I do.
He always orders a black olive and sausage pizza. The waitress abbreviated the order in big letters on her pad: “BS” then showed it to me and we both cackled. My husband had to laugh in spite of himself.
2 years ago I finally got rid of my car that was over 10 years old and decided to get the car I always wanted to run around in, a Miata. I was coming out of the grocery store and had the top down. There was a van next to me with a woman loading groceries in the back. She had a child on her hip and one standing next to the cart and one still in the cart. She looked at me as I was getting in the car and said “Please tell me that will be me in a couple of years!” I laughed and told her, her day will come.
A few years back, I was working in retail loss prevention (security). I was at the customer service desk of one of the stores looking into a cash shortage when a twenty-something female customer caught my eye. “May I have a word with you?” she asked. She didn’t look familiar to me, but I figured she had some kind of complaint. In that line of work, you make more enemies than friends. I came out from behind the counter to speak with her.
“You don’t remember me do you?” she said.
I told her that I didn’t.
“You caught me shoplifting last winter in Lee. You had me arrested.”
OK here it comes, I thought. Any minute now she’s going to go ballistic on me, tell me I’m evil incarnate. Call me every name in the book.
“I wanted to tell you that I was going through a really rough time in my life. When you had me arrested, it really served as a wakeup call to straighten up and turn my life around. I just wanted to thank you for that, and for treating me decently that day” she said.
Totally floored me. “You’re welcome(?)” I said. We chatted for another minute. I wished her luck and she went on her way. I never saw her again.
In the 14 years I worked in that field, I managed to get punched, kicked, spit on, bled on, pissed on (don’t ask), dragged across a snowy parking lot by a fast-moving truck, and called every profane name (and combination of profane names) you can think of. No one ever thanked me for having them arrested. Until that day. Still makes me smile when I think about it.
John D.’s story is a lovely example of the power of truth. If someone tried to write a short story like this, I’d find it a little too neat/sweet. But it’s true and therefore very moving.
Plus, I love “retail loss prevention.”
In the mid 60′s I worked in the admissions office of a college.
During a visit to my hometown in the 80′s I was somewhere in public (cannot recall where) when I was approached by a woman I did not recognize but who called me by name. She introduced herself and I realized she had been a friend of my parents. However, that was not why she came over. She wanted to thank me for helping her daughter get into the college 20 years previously. The girl had been having problems and my encouragement had made a difference in her life. I hadn’t thought of this for years until I read John D’s story, but now, as many times before, thinking of it does make me smile.
Just thought of another. However many years ago, I was waiting for a friend in the lobby of the TV station where Oprah worked during her time in Baltimore. She came through the lobby to see someone to the door. There were already rumors that she was leaving town. As she was watching through the glass door, I asked if it was true that she would be leaving us. She very coyly looked over her shoulder, kicked one leg back, smiled, and answered, “we’ll see.” You know the rest of the story! I never fail to smile when I recall this.
Five bonus points for mentioning watches…
When I was about 8 or 9 I was running up the steps of the Franklin Institute and I tripped. A man coming down the steps said, “Have a nice trip! See you next fall” I cracked up…for years about that.
The most recent was last night. I was attending a schoolwide literacy event at my daughter’s grade school–a bunch of performances of all the kids’ writing. They’d been handing out balloons, and Katie (age 11) had one. A mom with a 2-year-old daughter approached and asked very politely if there were any “extra” balloons around, because her daughter was very eager to have one. I gave her Katie’s balloon. The obvious delight this little redheaded girl got, and the care with which her mom tied the balloon to the girl’s wrist, and the cute way the girl pronounced “balloon” all made me smile.
A monster rainstorm drove me into a grubby McDonald’s in downtown Albany a few months ago. An older gentleman (who was obviously a regular at this McDonald’s) noticed I was having a bad day, and offered to go beat up anyone who treated me badly, at any time. Albany is a long way from where I live, but I might go back there some day, just to thank that man for making me laugh.
I’m not really a happy person, but it seems that almost every day, some stranger somewhere makes me smile. It doesn’t take much. Another driver yielding so that I can turn left; someone offering to take my grocery cart back to the store as I’m finishing loading my groceries into the car; a checkout clerk being genuinely friendly; a boisterous dog chasing a frisbee. Maybe it’s just that the lower you are, the more the little things move you? (Or, perhaps, I’m just shallow.)