The Kindness Of Strangers.
I coaxed the Suburban across the street to the shop. It was now barely running, and shifting really roughly. There were four guys milling about inside the “office,” in jeans and t-shirts, eating fast-food, and I could see they were clearly not open for business. One of the guys came out to meet me, and I explained our predicament. He brought me inside to “Mike,” the owner, and I told him, as well, that I think my alternator has died, my whole family is in the car, we’re trying to get to St. Louis, NAPA has my alternator in stock across the street, and would he PLEASE take a look at my truck and see if he could fix it?
Mike said “sure” and I pulled the truck part-way into one of his bays. There were two cars on racks inside, and I later surmised that the three guys there with Mike were just friends of his, and they were spending their Saturday tinkering with their street-rods. The shop had not be opened AT ALL that day.
Mike had me turn off the truck so he could disconnect the battery to see, if by some chance, that was our problem, and not the alternator. As he went to remove the positive battery cable, the positive post broke completely out of the battery, totally corroded. Mike told me, well, this is not the way I normally like to begin repairs, but if this is was not the problem today, it was certainly about to be.
To wrap this up I’ll simply summarize that Mike and his buddies (he had them all helping) replaced my battery and alternator in under an hour. They also assisted a young mother who pulled up in her station wagon with a loose wheel, probably thinking that the shop was open because they were working on my car.
Mike told me he was really sorry I had to end my vacation this way, spending so much extra money. He passed on the alternator and battery at his cost from NAPA, and charged me $24 to do everything (he threw in his friends’ slave labor for free). I thanked him profusely, and we were on our way, 1.5 hours after first noticing the problem on I-70, in the middle of nowhere, in the rain.
I’m sure that when Mike and his friends saw me making my way from NAPA over to Mike’s shop they were not excited at the prospect of interrupting their afternoon to work on a stranger’s car. They took time from their Saturday to help our family, and were very friendly and courteous to boot. And not only did Mike not take advantage of us, he absolutely minimized his charges.
It’s comforting to come across good people, and to be reminded that we probably have the same opportunity every day, to do the right thing even thought it’s not profitable or convenient, but often don’t take it.
Wow. Is that a story, or what?!? I’m thinking of tracking ol’ Mike down
and calling him to let him know if he ever needs some editing done,
I’ll do it free of charge. 
out who helps others…
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