Helping with tires

[Beavah]

 

Yah, in da thread on a young scout hero, Gunny comments:

 

Unfortunately that's not how many parents see things today, no one wants to put themselves at risk to help someone change a tire on the side of the road .

 

Just got me to wonderin' how many scouters and troops, as a regular habit, stop and check on stranded motorists when they're goin' to and from a weekend camping? Help change tires, give a lift to pick up a gallon o' gas, whatever.

 

You know... help other people at all times?

 

Beavah

 

[packsaddle]

This week as a matter of fact. Their car had a flat and the owner didn't know how to change it. I've done this or similar things quite a few times over the years. But there's usually quite a few others stopping to help as well - it might be a regional thing.

Had just a few occasions to help people at automobile collisions, some of them really bad (Brent, Gonzo1, you reading this? One was at mile 137 northbound on I85...that one was to write about). Fortunately the ones I've been in had no injuries...whew!

[frank10]

With the scouts in the car it would have to be life or death for me to stop. Gloves and mask in the car, cell phone in pocket.

 

Alone, I'll stop for just about anything.

[John-in-KC]

Sadly, not as often as I should.

[kraut-60]

I stopped on the way home from 2nd shift for a car steaming merrily away on US12w. The two guys in it thanked me for stopping and said they had help coming while holding up a cell phone..they also said I was the only person who stopped, so far.

 

Once I stopped for a car pulled over with the occupants sitting in it...I figured something was up, maybe lost or out of gas...Turns out it was a couple of young guys sharing what I would call a "left handed cigarette", I was offered some , which of course I declined.

After I drove off, I met an oncoming sheriffs deputy on patrol..I wonder if they offered him a hit too?

[fgoodwin]

In my story, it was MY car that had the flat. My son and I were just leaving from a week-long day camp, our first after having just moved to Texas from DC. As we left camp, I notice my car was riding kinda funny. I stopped, already knowing what happened. Sure enough, I had a flat.

 

I took off my class A shirt and commenced to changing my tire. It was a chance to show my fourth grade son what to do if he ever found himself with a flat.

 

Despite the father-and-son moment, I was very disappointed that not a single Scouter, of the hundreds attending that day camp, bothered to stop and offer any aid -- not even an offer of a bottle of water!

 

Mind you this was in June in Texas (before the torrential rains) when the temps were 100+!

 

I didn't let that episode sour me on the new Council before I had a chance to get to know the many fine people I would eventually meet -- but I haven't forgotten it, either.

 

About a year later, my son and I had a chance to help change a tire for someone else. As we pulled into the Scout Shop parking lot, an unattended car sat there with a flat tire. We asked around inside about the car, but no one knew anything about it. We left w/o changing the tire, and never having seen the driver.

 

Oh well, at least we tried!

[orennoah]

Three years ago, we were returning to Northern California from a summer camp in Southern California (Camp Cherry Valley on Catalina Island, THE best summer camp I've ever attended). We were in a school bus and had just left long, straight, boring Highway 5 to eat at roadside diner in the middle of nowhere.

 

We saw a motorist and his passenger trying to push a disabled sedan to the gas station, which was on a rather significant rise. No way they were going to get the car up that.

 

So, we pulled over and the Scouts ran from the bus, surrounded the car, pushed it up to the gas station and ran back onto the bus.

 

We still laugh about that today.

 

Just imagine the poor motorist and passenger. They know it's pretty hopeless trying to get their car up the hill to the gas station in the middle of nowhere and then, miraculously, their car is surrounded by Boy Scouts (if full Class A, I might add) who push their car to the station and then, just as quickly, disappear.

 

We hope that they still tell their story.