7487 upvotes, 64 direct replies (showing 25)
View submission: Have you ever picked up a hitch-hiker?
Just about every time I see someone I stop. I kind of got out of the habit in the last couple of years, moved to a big city and all that, my girlfriend wasn't too stoked on the practice. Then some shit happened to me that changed me and I am back to offering rides habitually. If you would indulge me, it is long story and has almost nothing to do with hitch hiking other than happening on a road.
This past year I have had 3 instances of car trouble. A blow out on a freeway, a bunch of blown fuses and an 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, what 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 incline with less than a gallon of fuel.
Anyway, each of these times this shit happened I was DISGUSTED with how people would not bother to help me. I spent hours on the side of the freeway waiting, watching roadside assistance vehicles blow past me, for AAA to show. The 4 gas stations I asked for a gas can at told me that they couldn't loan them out "for my safety" but I could buy a really shitty 1-gallon one with no cap for $15. It was enough, each time, to make you say shit like "this country is going to hell in a handbasket."
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 6 in tow. I was on the side of the road for close to 4 hours. Big jeep, blown rear tire, had a spare but no jack. I had signs in the windows of the car, big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money. No dice. Right as I am about to give up and just hitch out there a van pulls over and dude bounds out. He sizes the situation up and calls for his youngest daughter who speaks english. He conveys through her that he has a jack but it is too small for the Jeep so we will need to brace it. He produces a saw from the van and cuts a log out of a downed tree on the side of the road. We 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. Fuck.
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 is back in 15 minutes, we finish the job with a little sweat and cussing (stupid log was starting to give), and I am a very happy man. We are both filthy and sweaty. The wife produces a large water jug for us to wash our hands in. I tried to put a 20 in the man's hand but he wouldn't take it so I instead gave it to his wife as quietly as I could. I thanked 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 they live in Mexico. They are here so mommy and daddy can pick peaches for the next few weeks. After that they are going to pick cherries then go back home. She asks if I have had lunch and when I told her no she gave me a tamale from their cooler, the best fucking tamale I have ever had.
So, to clarify, a family that is undoubtedly poorer than you, me, and just about everyone else on that stretch of road, working on a seasonal basis where time **is** money, took an hour or two out of their day to help some strange dude on the side of the road when people in tow trucks were just passing me by. Wow...
But we aren't done yet. I thank them again and walk back to my car and open the foil on the tamale cause I am starving at this point and what do I find inside? My fucking $20 bill! I whirl around and run up to the van and the guy rolls his window down. He sees the $20 in my hand and just shaking his head no like he won't take it. All I can think to 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, tried 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 best fucking tamale of all time and I just cried. Like a little girl. It has been a rough year and nothing has broke my way. This was so out of left field I just couldn't deal.
In the 5 months since I have changed a couple of tires, given a few rides to gas stations and, once, went 50 miles out of my way to get a girl to an airport. I won't accept money. Every time I tell them the same thing when we are through:
"Today you.... tomorrow me."
tl;dr: long rambling story about how the kindness of strangers, particularly folks from south of the border, forced me to be more helpful on the road and in life in general. I am sure it won't be as meaningful to anyone else but it was seriously the highlight of my 2010.
Comment by Frankocean at 14/12/2010 at 04:57 UTC
907 upvotes, 7 direct replies
"hoy por ti, mañana por mi"
Thank u , thank u, so much for writing this, Im mexican (born and raised) and it hurts so bad how my people is viewed outside at times, by the narco war, inmigration and many problems, I think americans are afraid of us. But we mexicans in general are fucking cool people, who view americans "gringos" (wich is not a racist term btw) as neighbors and friends.
I remember one time me and my mexican friends defending americans that where being beaten up by some fucking cholos from east l.a or some stupidity like that. This guy ask Godoy, a friend, "why did you defend us? where fucking gringos."
He said, "because we are the real face of Mexico, not those fuckers."
THank u so much, PM where you live, I can send you some tamales,mexican recipes and anything you like from my country.
Comment by MD786 at 14/12/2010 at 03:35 UTC
1565 upvotes, 4 direct replies
You have made a wonderful contribution to the thread. Thank you for sharing your story sir.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 03:13 UTC
299 upvotes, 2 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by sozeltd at 14/12/2010 at 07:57 UTC
386 upvotes, 3 direct replies
I never have a reason to tell this story but I think it fits here. I was traveling in Mexico, one of my first times outside the U.S., and at the time I spoke essentially no Spanish. I scratched my cornea, which for the lucky among you who don't know is indescribably painful. After literally 72 hours with no sleep due to the pain, I finally deliriously admit to myself I'm going to have to see a doctor, and thus cut my super low budget trip short. I walk into a sunglasses shop, best thing I could think of in my state, and with the help of a phrasebook, I clumsily convey that something is wrong with my eye. The sunglasses guy puts me on the phone with a friend who's an eye doctor and who speaks some English. The doctor gives me detailed directions on how to get to his office on the subway from where I am, and tells me he can see me. When I get there, I realize he's not normally open on Sunday, and in fact he has interrupted family Sunday dinner to see me in his office which adjoins his house. From the table next door where everyone else is still eating his very young daughter peeks her head in a few times, and he tells me she's learning a little English and wants to eavesdrop, but she ends up being too shy to converse. He gets me completely patched up (literally; turns out an eyepatch is step one in stopping the pain), and gives me a prescription for some drops. I ask him "What do I owe you", sort of already bracing for what I assume will be the "off-hours" price and wondering if I'll have bus fare back to the States. He says "Some day, someone in your country will be in a jam, maybe they won't speak the language too well, and they'll need some help. That's what you owe me." It's been years and I still can't think of that story without tearing up a little. It immediately pops into my mind whenever I'm faced with the question of whether to make a little extra time for somebody in a jam.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 05:01 UTC
223 upvotes, 3 direct replies
This sort of reminded me of something that happened to me. A few years ago, I helped a friend move out of his 2nd floor apartment.. with a VERY narrow 90 degree turn out the door and down the stairs. Extremely hard to move anything in or out. It was a good 105 degrees that day in Dallas.. his electricity was shut off, so we had no A/C. His cups were already packed so we had no water. We pushed on.. kept moving boxes/furniture. We had to, he needed to be out that day. It was one of the most miserable days I can ever remember. Anyway, about 3/4 done and around the corner comes a Mexican man, who had to be in his 60s or so, pushing a little ice cream cart around the complex and sees us resting.. exhausted beyond words. The man walked up to us, didn't speak a word of English, and handed us both an ice cold bottle of water from his cart, smiled, and walked off.
I will NEVER forget that.
Comment by alfis26 at 14/12/2010 at 04:53 UTC*
106 upvotes, 3 direct replies
As a mexican I can say that we are generally nice people, and most times will go out of our way to help a stranger in need. Specially the less fortunate.
When I was in high school, I did some social work in a really poor community. Poor as in houses made out of cardboard.
It was moving and just mindblowing that someone in that situation would invite you in as a guest and be so excited about cooking something for you. Even when they were well aware that you might end up eating the entire family's food for the rest of the day.
I think the willingness to give without expecting anything in return is all part of the mexican mindset of "there's always someone less fortunate than me." That's good karma right there.
Comment by Wesa at 14/12/2010 at 04:33 UTC
93 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Reminds me of a time I stopped for someone who needed help. I was pulling off the freeway to get gas and a woman holding a baby standing outside a minivan on the offramp reached out with one arm and a look of absolute need as I drove by. I stopped, backed up, and asked if she needed help. Her van had broken down. She had a baby and 5 older girls in the car, on their way to a birthday party. She had been on the side of the road for 2 hours and no one would stop. Because of the age of the girls (I'd say 6ish) and the baby, she couldn't walk to the gas station 1/2 a mile away for help without chancing one of the kids running off and getting hurt. I handed her my cell phone, held her baby, and talked to the older girls while she made a few phone calls, then stayed with her while waiting for her help to arrive. I was so mad when I heard that no one would stop to help her. Her husband finally arrived, looking worried, and I went on my way.
Comment by Allakhellboy at 14/12/2010 at 13:17 UTC*
79 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I know this will be at the bottom, that's just how life goes. I have somewhat similar story but different ending.
Me and my dad always pick up hitchhikers, always have and always will. We decided we where going to drive down to El Paso (from Salt Lake City) to see Tom Waits live, so obviously in the spirit of things... we where going to grab everybody we could.
On the way we saw 2x young punk kids outside of Phoenix, so we grab them, turns out they're on their way to stand outside the concert hall that Tom Waits was playing at. This made us feel awesome.
The 2nd set of people where 2x people who lived in the boondocks of nowhere. I believe they where 90+ and all they where doing was getting groceries, one of them was in world war 2, and they seemed happy as shit just baking in the sun waiting for a ride. This made us feel awesome.
The 3rd was a Hispanic dude in a broken down vehicle with 2 other Mexican dudes. He made the motions and implied it just ran out of gas. We're in the boondocks still, nothing around for fucking miles. We take him all the way to the gas station and buy him a thing and a gallon of gas and as soon as my dad hands it over he goes through his broken English and says "Thanks yous" and what not, then the mother fucker just starts walking back towards his car like a champ. I'd say how far it was but I'm not good with distance, and there's no way I would walk the distance in the hot sun. So we grab him and shuffle his ass back to the car and give him a ride back to his car. (I think it was about a 15 minute drive on freeway.) When we finally drop him off... and I'll never not hear this in my head when I think about it... he said in the best English that he knew "I... I... thank you... I... I love you."
Best road trip of my life.
Edit: LOL, I'm at work and I started crying when I had to retype this.
P.S. My Dad is awesome, I never learned how to work with my hands or anything, but he taught me how to be an awesome person.
Comment by shatana at 14/12/2010 at 03:08 UTC
397 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Dammit, I teared up.
(none of that onions crap.)
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 05:00 UTC
63 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Six years ago, my wife and I were biking through Oregon and Idaho. We'd just arrived outside of Boise and I had just gotten my seventh flat tire of the day (we later discovered that the tape on the rim had worn out and a spoke was puncturing the tire). We hadn't made it half a mile since the gas station where I'd just finished patching my sixth flat tire. My wife was thoroughly fed up and wanted to get to the hotel room my mom had rented for us in Boise as a present. She decides to try hitch hiking and starts walking her bike towards me. Given that we've got two heavily loaded bikes, and that we're both obviously filthy from biking through Eastern Oregon, our hitchhiking prospects were slim. A van pulled up and a family of latinos loaded our bikes in the back and drove us to our hotel. They refused money. It was awesome.
Comment by gradyh at 14/12/2010 at 03:03 UTC
938 upvotes, 4 direct replies
Thank you for writing this.
Comment by BearsBeetsBattlestar at 14/12/2010 at 03:19 UTC
156 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This might be my favourite post that I've ever read on this site. I teared up when I got to the "Today you... tomorrow me."
Comment by Beneneb at 14/12/2010 at 03:04 UTC
52 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thanks for sharing that, that was actually a very heart warming story.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 03:11 UTC*
52 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]
Comment by darien_gap at 14/12/2010 at 03:53 UTC*
156 upvotes, 3 direct replies
Ten years ago, I backpacked in Central America for three months and everywhere I went, locals would offer me a ride if they saw me walking along the side of the road. It was very normal for them, as so many people don't have cars. It made me nervous at the beginning because I'd be an easy target for robbery and sometimes the ride was a pickup truck with a few guys in back with machetes. But once I realized that they needed the machetes just to do their jobs, it became no big deal. Everyone was super nice.
That is, until I got to about 30 miles south of Cancun, where more of the cars were U.S.ians tooling around in rented jeeps, etc. On that particular day, when I was trying to get to the airport to meet somebody flying in to meet me, nobody would stop, despite my putting my thumb out. I even walked up to a gringo at a restaurant and asked him point blank if he would mind just dropping me a few miles up the road. He just shook his head and rushed away, looked a little scared even. I realize that these people were bringing their context and reality into a new and unfamiliar context/reality (and I looked pretty scruffy by then), but it really made me realize what a nation of pussies we've become -- afraid to help a person with who's fairly obviously in a pinch -- because of the .5% chance I've got an ulterior motive.
TL;DR: Pick up people who obviously need help. Anybody encumbered by a huge backpack is the one taking the risk.
Comment by LouisCyphier at 14/12/2010 at 09:00 UTC
35 upvotes, 1 direct replies
"Today you.... tomorrow me."
This needs to be spread like a virus.
Comment by iamyo at 14/12/2010 at 13:56 UTC
36 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Hm. It's such a stupid thought I have all the time when I go to Mexico (I go once or twice a year) but I can't help having it, which is basically: Mexicans on the whole are about 50 times nicer than Americans.
I'll be in Mexico, everyone kind, mellow, helping me out, whatever, smiling, not freaking out about a bus breaking down and then I'll get on the plane and every American looks like they have been constipated for about 12 days, complaining about every fucking thing then running off to their yoga class because their head is about to explode from the stress. You'll see Mexicans selling peanuts who have to walk 5 miles from their job and they don't complain but you'll get on the plane and some guy will be going on and on about how his IT people won't let him get an Android.
There's something wrong with people here. On the whole, we are vastly more miserable than people who are a lot poorer than us. And I really wonder if it isn't because we are so self-centered? We don't even *notice* other people most of the time, except when they annoy us. And I do not exempt myself.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 05:43 UTC
30 upvotes, 2 direct replies
this is one of the best things ive ever read. I was at lake mead once, and my friends car battery dies, she left the lights on, so she gets it started ( a miracle start) and then after about 30 seconds turns it off again. i almost slapped her.
anyways, this mexican family shows up to fish at like 9 at night. we have no jumpers etc. he fiddles around for a while, goes to the back of his truck and pulls out a huge fucking extension cord. the kind that arent cheap. and just cuts it like its nothing. then he rigs up the batteries and off we go.
i was like omfg, do you know that guy just sacced like 50 bucks to get your car started? the bitch didnt even care. :C
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 03:13 UTC
113 upvotes, 2 direct replies
...big signs that said NEED A JACK and offered money.
I think you got lucky.
Comment by [deleted] at 14/12/2010 at 05:18 UTC
28 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I was in a similar situation. It was about 2 am and a deer jumped in front of me. I avoided it, but blew out both passenger side tires. I could replace one with a donut, but still was out a tire. I stayed at the side of the road for close to 2 hours before someone finally stopped to help. I explained the situation and he just gave me his spare tire.
He hung around till I had gotten it on the car. I had no cash to offer him. He told me not worry about it, but tires aren't exactly cheap. We talked for a little while when I got my first good glimpse of his face in the headlights of a passing car. His eyes were redder than the devil's dick. I joked "You must either be really high or really tired." He responds "Both, actually."
We shared a bowl and went our separate ways.
Comment by BelindaMarie at 14/12/2010 at 03:55 UTC
27 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Second this story! My sophomore year of college, I was driving a ford taurus with electrical problems. I was paying my way through school, and I hadn't saved up the money to replace it yet. The electrical problems basically meant that sometimes it started, and sometimes it needed a jump. Every fucking time that summer the only people there to give me a jump were mexican or south american. In return, I try to pick up hitchhikers or stop for people with car troubles. :) Today you... tomorrow me :)
Comment by cstoli at 14/12/2010 at 03:36 UTC
23 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Great. Now I am crying on a plane over Lake Michigan.
Comment by HumboldtBrewer at 14/12/2010 at 04:06 UTC
48 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I got stuck in the snow one time pulling over to play around in it with my girlfriend, (neither of us have really experienced snow). After a while a van of mexicans shows up. Like 6 or 7 hop out with shovels and pieces of lumber, we make a little corduroy road for my car and I'm out! Before I can get to my wallet to give them some cash they were gone. I was boned without them, stuck in the mountains with no service.....
Comment by FrankReynolds at 14/12/2010 at 04:17 UTC
21 upvotes, 2 direct replies
It has become apparent to me over the past 4-5 years that the people most likely to help those in need are the less fortunate.
Comment by Dontalwaysderp at 14/12/2010 at 04:32 UTC
21 upvotes, 1 direct replies
As an hispanic, living right in the border and with Mexican friends and parents I can testify to that. We are always eager to help. My Dad is the kind of guy that if he sees you at 4 AM in the middle of nowhere he will stop and help and of course, he educated us this way. Nowadays it's a bit harder to find the Mexican hospitality and friendship because violence is awful in the Mexican side but no matter what, you will always be helped.