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"Today you... tomorrow me"
Just about every time i see someone, i stop.
i kind of got out of the habit of it in the last couple of years,
moved to a big city and all that,
my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice
and then some *** happened to me that changed me
and I'm back to offering rides habitually
if you would indulge me, is a long story
and has almost nothing to do with hitchhiking other than happening on a
road
this past year i've had three instances car trouble
a blowout on the freeway
a bunch of blown fuses
and out of gas situation
all of them were while driving other people's cars which for some reason makes it
worse on an emotional level
it makes it worse on a practical level as well
with the fact that i carry things like a jack and extra fuses in my car
and know enough not to park facing downhill on a steep inline with less
than a gallon of fuel. Anyway,
each of these times this *** happened,
i was disgusted with how many people would not bother to help me
i spent hours on the side of freeway waiting watching roadside assistance
vehicles blow past me
for AAA to show
the four gas stations I asked for a gas at told me that they couldn't loan them out to me
"for my safety"
but i could buy real *** one gallon one
with no cap for fifteen dollars
it was enough each time
to make you say *** like
this country's going to hell in a hand basket
but you know who came to my rescue all three times immigrants
mexican immigrants
none of them spoke a lick of the language but one of those dudes
had a profound affect on me
he was the guy that stopped to help me with a blow out with his whole family of
six in tow
i was on the side of the road for close to four hours big jeep
blown rear tire
had a spare, but no jack
i had signs in the window of the car
big signs that said need a jack
and offered money
no dice
right as I'm about to give up and just hitch out there
A van pulls over and a dude bounds out
he sized the situation up and calls out his youngest daughter who speaks
english
he conveys through her that he has a jack but is too small for the jeep
so will need to brace it
he produces a saw from the van
and cuts a log out of the downed tree on the side of the road
we've rolled it over, put his jack on top
and bam, in business
i start taking the wheel off
and if you can believe it
i broke his tire iron
it was one of those collapsible ones and i wasn't careful
and I snapped the head i needed clean off
no worries, he runs to the van
gives it to his wife and she is gone in a flash down the road to buy a tire
iron
she's back in fifteen minutes
we finish the job with a little sweat cussing and i have a very happy man
we both are filthy and sweaty
the wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands
i tried to put it twenty in the men's hands but he wouldn't take it, so instead
I gave it to the wife as quietly as i could
i thank them up one side and down the other
I asked the little girl where they lived
thinking maybe i could send them a gift for being so awesome
she says that they live in mexico
they're here so mummy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks after
that they're going to pick cherries and then go back home
she asked if i had lunch and when i told her no, she gave me a tamale from their
cooler
the best tamale i've ever had
so to clarify
a family that is undoubtedly poorer that you, me,
and just about everyone else on that stretch of road
works on a seasonal bases where time IS money
took an hour or two out of their day help some strange dude on the side of the
road where people in tow trucks were just passing me by
but we aren't done yet
i thank them again and walked back to my car
and open the foil on tamale cuz i'm starving at this point
and what do I find...
my twenty dollar bill
i whirled around and run up to the van
and a guy rolls his window down
he sees the twenty in my hand and just shaking his head like no he won't take it
all i can think the say is "por favor, por favor, por favor"
with my hands out
dude just smiles
shakes his head and with what looked like great concentration
tries his hardest to speak to me in english
today you... tomorrow me
rolled up his window drove away his daughter waving to me in the rear view
i sat in my car eating the tamale of all time
and just cried
like a little girl
it had been a rough year and nothing and broke my way
this was so out of left field
i'd just couldn't deal
in the five months since i've changed a couple of tires given a few rides to
gas stations and once went fifty miles out of my way
to get a girl to the airport
i won't accept money
everytime, i tell them the same thing when we are through
today you... tomorrow me.
THE END
alright that's the story guys i hope you enjoyed it
it's a little bit different than the past one about girlfriend revenge but i
think that's the point, i think im going to do all sorts of stories for this Reddit
stories series
they're gonna be happy, sad, serious
depressing, funny
gross
because that's what Reddit is so
next one will be three of the grosses stories on Reddit
so I think that one will be coming out maybe two or three days
if you have any suggestions for stories from Reddit that you would like to see
you can leave them in the comments and if you have any suggestions for the series in
general
you can always leave that
thank you for watching and i'll see you guys later