May 30, 2005

  • Car Trouble


    Regular readers of this blog know that I spend a good bit of time with senior citizens.  This afternoon the only senior citizen left in my family, my mother-in-law, called me with car trouble.  She's 86 years old and a lot of fun to be with, and she was on her way to our house--from her house 60 miles away--so she and Beth and another friend can go to Biloxi tomorrow morning for their quarterly gambling outing.  Her car had stopped on a major highway, and she had managed to pull off onto a dirt side road just in time.


    She has a car phone, which wasn't working because the car had died, but a lady in what the lady described to me as "a white police car" pulled up to help her.  She used the lady's cell to call me.  The 2 of them couldn't figure out how to get to the battery to try to jump it off.


    I wondered if they knew to open the hood.  I mean, I've never looked under the hood of a car that I couldn't find the battery instantly.  I wondered what was up.


    As mother-in-law Jane and I were talking, a man stopped to help them.  He was some kind of army guy, so I knew he'd be able to get to the battery.  Guess what?  He couldn't find it, either.  That seemed very strange to me, and I can't wait to look under that hood.


    I told Jane that Beth would be on her way to get her and that I would call Triple A to tow the car.  I called Triple A, gave them the information, and waited by the phone for them to call me back, if they needed to.


    The lady in "a white police car" called back shortly after that to say they got the car started.  She was going to follow Jane to make sure she made it to our house.  I tried to call Beth on her cell but couldn't get through.  Five minutes later Jane called me to say the car had died again and they needed the tow truck.


    The lady evidently left, as did the man.  A few minutes later he came back, with his wife and 2 daughters in the car.  He gave Jane a couple of bottles of cold water (it was, of course, very hot, this being late May in Florida), and he made her get into his car out of the heat.  They waited there with her until Beth got there.


    After the man and his family left, the tow truck got there, and the afternoon's adventure ended happily.  Jane tried to give the army man a $20 bill, but he absolutely refused to accept that money.  I would have done the same thing he did, and therein lies the irony.


    We hear so many stories about people exploiting others who are in trouble that I think we assume people are out to get us.  This is especially true of elderly women.  Jane was very well dressed and in a nice car--obviously affluent--and, in fact, she had more cash on her than she might otherwise have had for the gambling trip.  Despite that obvious "I'm a easy hit" appearance, 2 people stopped to help her, and neither one wanted to do anything but help.


    I'm very thankful that it went as well as it did, but I think it might also disprove a few stereotypes.  One: women don't know anything about cars, but men do.  Two: only marked police cars patrol the highways.  Three: people won't go out of their way to help strangers.


    To add to the irony, after Beth and Jane spent a good hour or more in the hot sun waiting for the tow truck, the air conditioner in Beth's car gave out on the way home.  Beth and Jane came home wringing wet.  My work is cut out for me tomorrow: get Jane's car working again and get Beth's air conditioner back in shape. 


    I never expected this, but I can do it.  And to me this is infinitely better than spending the next 3 days in a casino.


    ED