Crosswalk Encounter

From the moment I entered that small college town I was met by wonderful, kind people. The gentleman working at the bus station began the trend (after, that is, the locals aboard the bus who shared assistive insights with me). Next, the sweet bus driver explained about where the airport was in relation to the bus station & about there being a widely used bicycle rack attached to the front of the bus - because the town is such a large bicycling town - with nearly every street marked with a bicycling lane.

The local "super" department store was filled with kind & helpful associates one of which was ready to retrieve this from the top shelves where I couldn't so easily reach. This young male associate had, about fifteen minutes prior, stood behind me at one of the store's water fountains as I used the cap from this in order to quickly refill it, ounce by ounce. Because, even though I could fill it quite rapidly in this way, it still wasn't that quickly, I offered for him to get his drink before I completed my task. He kindly & gently responded, "No. Go ahead. I get paid by the hour." 😄 (I thought to myself, "Suit yourself.")

Another associate assisted me with using the appropriate hardware cutter to unlink my duplicate rental vehicle keys from each other in so that I'd be able to run each marathon carrying only one bulky set, rather than both bound together. (I'd been provided with another "linking strip" to reconnect the two sets of keys properly before I returned the rental & boarded the bus back home.)


Then there was this:

I watched a man walk toward my rental vehicle as I waited at the intersection - not even knowing if selecting a left or a right-hand turn was in my best interest. I'd no traffic light to provide me the right-of-way, & assist me with making my turn. Knowing that this man, as a pedestrian, had the ultimate right-of-way, & because I'd not yet made my decision on which direction I'd go prior to his reaching the curb, I sat & waited just as I should.

He walked into the street & across the lane for the opposing traffic. He then continued walking straight, which meant he lined up directly with the front portion of my rental car, putting him briefly standing directly in front of the driver side wheel, & just behind the front bumper.

He audibly said, "You're in the crosswalk, so I guess I'll just walk through the vehicle." (The vehicle's windows were all closed.) As he bumped his chest lightly at the hood above the wheel well before going around the vehicle's front bumper & ultimately on his way.

I couldn't forget the encounter because, although I was new to this town, & needed my mapping app to successfully drive myself a mile or so down the road, I've been driving for decades & had never encountered anyone being so ridiculous with me while I sat in a vehicle, a nose or two too far into an intersection.

I eagerly enjoyed sharing this nugget with many locals - namely these superb department store associates. Letting them know that everyone in their town had been especially amazing & super kind. Then there had been this one, oddball pedestrian-crossing encounter & how I'd never encountered such a thing in my entire driving history.

A young woman, seemingly at about the same age I'd been when I'd first become a retail store cashier, happened to wait on me a few days in a row.

On this particular morning an older gentleman happened to be in line just in front of me. He wished for his change to be a $10 dollar bill rather than two $5 dollar bills. As she closed her drawer, ending his transaction, she quickly explained that she couldn't give him a $10 dollar bill because she didn't have one in her drawer. She directed him to the store's service desk. He then asked her if he could have different $5 dollar bills, better ones that weren't so messed up. She repeated that he'd need to go to the store's service desk. Just before relenting, he frustratingly questioned her, "You can't give me different bills?" (I wanted to say, "Obviously not sir. That's why she's repeatedly explaining to you you'll best be assisted at the customer service desk." Instead I didn't say anything to the man; I kept my mouth shut.) She apologized & explained that she couldn't open her register back up; he'd need to go to the store's service desk for further assistance.

I felt her pain. He wanted different bills & didn't want to stand in line to get them. It was early in the day, when any store's cash register would be likely to be low on cash change options. Because I "understood", & because I did feel her pain (anyone truly paying attention to the "big picture" would've), I made sure to share my story of the man (likely to have been drunk), who decided to "walk into my rental vehicle" because it sat a foot or so into an unpainted crosswalk.

Yes, this young cashier did giggle when she heard the story. 😂

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