Random (but not really)

Friday, March 23, 2012

Adventures Driving Home from the Grocery Store

Driving home, we just barely noticed a man on a scooter who had toppled trying to navigate the horrible sidewalks and hills on University Avenue. It was dark, the intersection was a steep hill, and his scooter was blue, so I saw the reflector in my headlights more than anything else.

We stopped, Michael ran to make sure he wasn’t hurt, and I grabbed a flashlight from the trunk. The man was trying to sit up, his cart tipped sideways, and the contents of the basket on the front of his scooter strewn around his cart.

After getting him into a sitting position, we started picking up the scattered papers and various grocery items–his bananas and yogurt didn’t seem too much the worse for wear.

While we were picking things up, a taxi pulled partway into the intersection. The driver said something that I couldn’t hear, so I ran over.

The driver, a man probably in his fifties, leaned out his window.

“Am I clear to get past?”
“Yeah. You’re fine.”

After we got all his belongings picked up, Michael started to try and help the man stand, by standing in front and pulling him up by his arms, but the man cried out in pain and I stopped Michael, reminding him of the proper way to help someone up, which I had learned for Grandmom. The two of us together smoothly got him standing, though he was unsteady and I was nervous about letting go of him.

In the meantime, a young couple had stopped, the guy saying he had a truck and we could put the scooter into the bed of the truck so the man could be driven home.

The older gentleman insisted he was fine, so the young man and Michael start trying to get the scooter straightened up and pointing in the right direction.

While they were getting sorted out where the man was going, another young couple stopped, asking what they could do to help. The three guys got the gentleman back on his scooter (he still wasn’t very steady) and up on the road (no sense in trying to get back on the treacherous sidewalk), while I stood in the road with my flashlight to stop traffic.

After a moment, the older gentleman puttered off. Michael and I walked back to the car, and I put the flashlight back in the trunk, taking a deep breath as I closed the trunk. The couple who had pulled off near us, pulled out behind the gentleman, and followed him down the road, keeping cars from zooming up behind him and/or passing him.

Anyone who tells you that young people these days are irresponsible and don’t care about others?

You tell ’em from me they’re full of shit.

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