Random Acts of Kindness

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angie_nrs

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On another forum I used to post in, there was a thread like this and it was always a lot of fun to read. It was inspiring to see what other people do to spread a little happiness and cheer for absolutely no reason at all. I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread up like this here so that we can keep the "pay it forward" attitude alive and well. So, if you have experienced someone who threw kindness your way OR you decided today to do something kind towards someone else, please post it here. It doesn't have to be anything big. Perhaps it will inspire someone here to do the same or perhaps get some ideas rolling that we decide to act on too. Maybe we can make this world a little better place to be in today.:D Let's create some Awwwwwwww moments.

I'll start us off.....

Today I had a McDonalds fry craving that I just couldn't resist. So, off to McD's I went. I don't do this often but I was talking to my sister last week and she said someone bought her order in line at the drive thru and it just made her day. So, today I bought the order of the car behind me. It was only a few bucks and the lady behind me waved her hands out the window in Thanks. I think the cashier was smiling about it too. It made me so happy just to spread a little act of kindness today.:)
 
My wife and I were out for breakfast on her birthday and while we were talking an older vet came in with his wife. I told the waitress to put his tab on my bill. I didn't stick around to see his reaction - it wasn't why I did it. I hope they had a great day.
 
Over a couple years, I bought 12 M1-carbines and gave them to relatives and friends:rolleyes:.
I just thought that everybody that wanted one, should have one:D.
FamilyPortrait3.JPG

(Don't worry, none were G.I. or collectable, they were all 'shooters')
Windsor and Chevy are mine.
 
I was in the grocery line and a mom with 2 kids was dollar or 2 short buying ice cream. I gave her the money. About a year or later one of the kids recognized me and said mom it's the guy that bought us ice cream. I had long forgotten about it until then. It felt nice that he remembered.
 
Fast food drive though with a county Deputy Sheriff behind me. I paid for the Deputy's food, picked up my order and left before Deputy could read my plate.

Did the same thing for the 3 officers that walked into Dairy Queen ahead of me. I have a soft spot for LEOs, it's a tuff job they have.

Youngest son took me to a military museum that had a resturant upstairs. We had ordered our meal when about 100 soldiers started lining up for seating. We asked our waitress what was going on. She the soldiers came to use the museum's conference room for training. We asked if they got their meal free? No they had to pay like everyone else. These were a bunch of young kids, no chest full of ribbons. We told the waitress to bring us the checks of the two tables beside us and we wanted to remain unknown. Left the waitress a nice tip too.
 
I believe I've told this story somewhere here before. I went to Great Clips to get my hair cut and was waiting for my turn. A young man, dressed in a military uniform (not a typical uniform) had his card declined when he went to pay. There was a line behind him. He stepped out of line to transfer money or something on his phone. When the line got shorter and he moved to the front, I said I wanted to pay. I would have preferred to be anonymous, but it was what it was. He told me he didn't feel comfortable with that, but I told him I wanted to thank him for his service. I paid, went back to get my hair cut. There were still some people in line and one man thanked me. When I was finished and went to pay, I was told that a man paid for my hair cut. I knew who it was. It was a great day!
 
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About a month ago I heard from a local that our neighbour had little or no money to buy groceries with due to her husband's estate failing to pass on money that was in her husband's will. As we have food storage and needs up to 12 months ahead I put together a care package for her being a bottle of shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, a toothbrush, a tube of toothpaste, a bottle of 1lt of body wash, a bottle of laundry detergent and a bottle of dishwashing liquid and gave it to her. She doesn't like to accept help off people but I told her it was to say thank you from DH and I for all the lovely vegetables she gave us from her garden. Being Thai she bowed to me and said thank you and I know she really needed what was in that gift bag I gave her.

When I go to the local RSL military museum club for our weekly date day I see what needs doing and either sweep the floors, clean the bathroom vanity mirrors, dust, clean the pool table with a brush or mop the floors. The RSL president is in his mid 70's and has macular degeneration and literally can't see the dirt unless he puts his eyes an inch from it. I also help him with reading things as it takes the poor man so much time as he has a large viewer to magnify words and read things with. When he needs things purchased for the club such as curtains and things we purchase it for him when we are in town and the RSL reimburses us.

DH and I noticed that a couple of locals were putting in a driveway next door and we went to help with our large garden levellers (a larger hoe we had made) to level out the gravel as they were using shovels which we thought was the hard way to do it. It saved them a lot of time and more hands make light work and our neighbour had a driveway put in for no charge.
 
Hubby is just awesome. I can't tell you how many roofs and walks he's shoveled (roofs due to weight of snow.) Also, once in a while if we eat out, which isn't very often, and the waitress does a good job, we like to leave "an exceptional tip." Waitresses have to deal with some doozies.
One I received years ago- I was a single mom, building my house, working full time, and going to school full time. My almost ex at that time refused to pay anything even for the children . A friend showed up with a bag of what she call "kid- friendly" foods. I cried. (I was also taking in ironing for grocery money. It was tough.). It feels much better to be on the giving end, but even a bag of groceries can mean a ton to someone who really needs it.
 
apart from the occasional and I do mean "occasional" giving someone a lift in the car, I cant think of anything.
I don't have much to do with others, I find them crass and noisy, tried starting up a conversation with people in the supermarket but most people don't reply or make eye contact these days. It could be the way I look and dress I suppose, but I think their like that with everybody.
 
I don't have much to do with others, I find them crass and noisy, tried starting up a conversation with people in the supermarket but most people don't reply or make eye contact these days.

I'm not a naturally social person either. It takes effort. I'm much more comfortable at home in my comfort zone. But, you never know just how powerful of an impact of just a small gesture of kindness can create, especially to those who seem to be stand-offish. It's typically those people who need that extra lift in their day. It's possible that they may not have a comfort zone to go home to, like I do.
 
Our children paid their way through college on the tips they received as waiters. Sunday shifts were the worst for receiving tips, church folks figuring they already gave at church.

Sunday before Christmas. Waitress had sweat on her forehead, hair was falling down. Appeared that she was working a douple shift. We gave her an unusually large tip. She said thank you without unfolding the bills we had given her. A few minutes later she came back and told us that we made a mistake on the tip. We said no we didn't. She asked do you know how much we gave. We said yes and told her how much it was. She had tears in her eyes as she took a half step towards me as to give me a hug. We explained about how are children lived on tips and how sometimes they thought about giving up. We was just trying to "pay back" all the kinds folks whose tips helped our children.
 
I gave a friend some clothes today.
Didn't have too.
But wanted too.
So I gave her clothes out of my closet.
Even gave her dress she could wear to her grandson's wedding.
I couldn't, wouldn't be wearing them any longer, they didn't fit me, but they fit her to a T.
Got her sizes from one of her daughters, hemmed the pants for her, shortened the sleeves for her.
Fixed the lapels of the jackets, so they would lay nice on her.
Don't expect a thank you, nor do I want one.
This kind gesture emptied about 6 inches of hanging space in my closet.
So to me it was a win- win situation.
 
when we lived in Glastonbury we used to give any unwanted clothing to the local homeless drop in centre, we had a lot of friends in the homeless and alternative community but since moving back to Devon there aren't any such places near us, most homeless here seem to be in the cities and we are not.
 
Yesterday we offered to help our local RSL President unload the alcohol purchases for the club. Today we went down and DH and another man helped unload it from the car and I marked the boxes of alcohol off the purchase docket to make sure it was all there. I have to avoid going out into the sun for the next few weeks as the cream reacts to sunlight although I am now getting a fantastic looking sunburned look anyway gaah . Didn't know what the heck was what as I don't drink alcohol but reading the labels helped :dunno: . I also put the mop together that was purchased and sprinkled the toilets with citric acid as they were quite dirty and I will let it soak and attack cleaning them tomorrow.
 
Wasn't random but yesterday evening my cousin called. The house they are getting ready to sell had water flowing across the floors. They are 3 hours away so he asked me to go check since I'm only a half hour away.
I found the cold water line under the bathroom sink had ruptured. Shut it off and vacuumed up the water. Going back today to check things.
Yesterday the temperature was 105° F, 40.5° C for our metric friends, so all I really wanted to do was sit in the air conditioning and do nothing.
 
This weekend I had to take the truck through the wash. There's always at least 4 people working outside either pre-spraying or wiping down after the wash. The wash itself was $7. I gave a nice tip to the pre-wash person, (b/c I doubt they get many tips) and also gave a nice tip to the person toweling down after the wash. They probably combine tips at the end of the day and split them, but that's OK. It looks like an awfully hot job and they really do a great job.
 
My wife is the generous one in our household. She loves to pay for people behind us when she is going through the drive-thru of her favorite coffee place. She also likes to see struggling mom's in the grocery store and offer them an envelope with some cash in it. Just this weekend she found out our neighbor is being deployed and his young wife will be home for a year alone with two small kids. She went over and offered to help with pick up and drops offs for church or school events, to give her an evening to herself 2-3x a month via free daycare, and to help her with shopping.
 
Not me, but a cousin's wife. They are in their 80's and hard working and very active. They own maybe 8 rental homes that they inherited, or bought from siblings who inherited. He retired from the phone company and she is a retired teacher. She will be in a grocery store line and zero in on someone who is struggling with enough money to pay for groceries. She pays for their groceries and they don't know who it is that paid and the people only know that Shirley from XXX paid for their groceries. She told me she does this frequently.
 
@Sentry18 That is awesome! One of my favorite "gifts" ever was when my children were very young and their father and I both working, the sitter (who lived a mile down the road) brought the kids home while I was at work and cleaned, vacuumed, finished up dishes etc. I got home to a clean house. It was a huge blessing (their father didn't do "housework".)
 
She will be in a grocery store line and zero in on someone who is struggling with enough money to pay for groceries. She pays for their groceries and they don't know who it is that paid and the people only know that Shirley from XXX paid for their groceries.

Some years ago my wife was in the grocery store hauling along with her 2 toddlers and an infant. When she went to checkout this very nice woman with white hair walked around the corner and told the cashier that she would be paying for her groceries. My wife politely decline trying to explain we had the means, but the woman said "Nonsense, everyone needs a helping hand from time to time". She spent about $200 on our groceries.
 
@Sentry18 That is awesome! One of my favorite "gifts" ever was when my children were very young and their father and I both working, the sitter (who lived a mile down the road) brought the kids home while I was at work and cleaned, vacuumed, finished up dishes etc. I got home to a clean house. It was a huge blessing (their father didn't do "housework".)

Hopefully he made some contributions to home life after he got home. The adjustment from the stay at home wife, to the working full time wife has been a heavy responsibility put on many women.
 
Thank you. She is strong where I am weak, I am strong where she is weak. Together we're complete.

Poet huh? But I do agree with Sewing about your wife.

Sometimes just seeing how nice strangers can be makes us feel good. You hear all the division and then some young clerk in a store is very nice ,makes me feel good. It is like they are showing us they don't agree with being hateful.
 
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