About 4 years ago, my ex-girlfriend(gf at the time) cooked a huge Thanksgiving meal, I mean the works, just for the two of us. We ate our meal and then packed up around thirty or so meals and got in the car and drove around Santa Monica giving the meals to the homeless. It was extremely rewarding. Each came with a juice box as well. The smiles on the peoples faces were well worth all the effort.

 

No broken legs here (mindcore).... i don't have a *single* great act, but anytime (not midnight) i see a car in distress, i usually stop (if i am alone) to lend a hand, or call for help. Thusly I found out one day that the S2000 spare fits a 1988 Bronco II that had a flat. I have driven people to get gas, driven them to payphones, driven people home, even just stopping to let them use my cellphone is way better than beeping and flipping them off.

I did push (by myself) a stalled car uphill in traffic as every other asshole watched...... i got back to work and my back went out for about 2 days..... next time i will warm up first.

Scot

 

I gotta say, It makes me happy, really happy to see that some people can be so great. However this one is for Scot....I came up behind a mini van, and didn't notice that she was immobile. She waved me by, and As I passed I stopped to ask if she needed to use a cell phone. to which she responded "I don't need any help from you!"

It kinda make me wonder sometimes why I bother. This thread reminds me

 

Was your Johnson hangin out?

I guess some people are just plain jerks!

In my area, everyone beeps their horn and no one helps a stalled vehicle. I hopped out down in the city and pushed a black man's car and I think I surprised him...not too many caucasians in this part of town, and not too many willing to lend him a hand.... he seemed semi-appreciative..

Scot

 

I always keep my Johnson in the dry dock

 

This isn't the best thing I have ever done but it was one of the best things that was ever done to me.
As I have said here many time before I use to race cars and this was the closest I ever came to dying but thanks to a couragous act of someone else I am still here.

It was the last year of the runoffs at Road Atlanta, the first day of practice.
This was before they changed turn 9 so I was hauling it up the hill towards the bridge turn where you normally tap the brakes go down a gear and aim for the bridge. Well my crew person was messing with the brakes before we went out and this was the first hot lap for me so I wanted to really go fast at start finish.
So when I tapped the brakes the car went sideways(too much rear brake bias) and I am sliding up the hill and I can see the bridge go by in the rearview mirror thinking any minute I was going to hit it(hard) but it didn't(surprise). So I am sitting sideways under the bridge with the drivers door faceing oncoming traffic and I see a Toyota coming fast right at my door, T bone style. He sees me and points his car into the tire wall. BANG tires, dirt, and car parts go everywhere. The corner workers are waiving flags like crazy and I am trying to get the stupid car to start.
Finally it did and I go back to the pits because of the black flag.

The next day I am working on the car and this guy comes up and introduces himself to me. He is the guy in the Toyota. His car is screwed so he can't race, he spent the night in the hospital because he suffered a concusion in the crash. He introduces his wife and kids, and I feel about 2 inches tall. He said it was his choice, me or the wall and he couldn't see destroying two cars so he hit the wall.

That was a great thing for someone to do.


This is my longest post ever.

 

Well, I'll have to say pulling a child from a sinking truck at the Marina I used to manage while in the service. His father left him in the cab alone while on the boat ramp docking his boat. The kid jumped into the front seat and pulled the truck in reverse. The truck floated for a little while. The trailer sunk in over 20 foot of water. The boy didn't want to come out of the back seat of the truck which was filled up to the bottom of the windows so I had to enter through the window pull him out before the truck sank. Got him out and put him on shore. The truck sank in over 20 foot of water and was recovered two hours later. Didn't bother me cause I'm an expert swimmer. They tried to give me the Airmans medal but I refused it. I don't think I did anything that anyone of you wouldn't have done in the circumstances. It was reward enough to see the little fellow in his Dads arms crying.

 

Well, I don't have any stories of heroism, but here it goes...

My wife and I don't have any children (she had cancer when she was 28 and can't), so our Golden Retriever is our "child". She is the most wonderful dog you could imagine - everyone should have a dog like here at least once in their lives. Anyway, we heard about this organization called Therepet, that uses pets as therepy for patients in the hospital. Stroke victims are given special brushes so that they can brush the dogs for exercise, others throw a ball to be retrieved, walk the dog while using their walker, etc. They also take the dogs just to visit people in the hospital, especially children. We have been training our dog for almost 1 year, and she past her temperment test and had her first hospital visit last Wednesday. It really made my wife and I feel good to see the looks on the patients faces when a dog came to visit them in their rooms. We went to the ICU, the pediatric wing, and the heart patient recovery wing. Even the nurses and doctors would stop to pet the dogs and visit for a while. It really helps take peoples minds off of the stress of being in the hospital.

 

I guess I'll step in here. This is kind of like Mindcore's don't think just act reaction. I was working at an amusement park running a very dangerous ride called a Swinging Gym. It wasn't unusual to send 6 or 7 riders to the hospital in any given week. As bad as it was for the riders the "real" danger was getting hit or crushed by it on the outside. There was a small fence to keep people away from it but we did have a cat run under it and get crushed one night.

One night I was putting a couple of people in one of the Gym's and saw a baby that had crawled under the fence at the other end of the ride and was about to under the ride. In about 3 seconds the babies head was going to be about 2 inches thick. I made a running dive for the baby and it was so close I thought we were both dead. The ride missed us but the metal fence I took out and the concrete I slid on (on my back) made me a bloody mess.

The baby started yelling and the parents who hadn't been watching their kid thought I was trying to kidnap their kid. Yeah, like a kidnapper's going to be laying on the ground bleeding. The Daddy wanted to kick my ass and wouldn't believe that HIS child had crawled under the fence. The parents finally stormed off still yelling at me. I hope the kid will be smarter than the parents.

 

"Best" makes it very difficult. My wife, our children and I try to be as helpful as we can. We donate (anonymously) to the Orange County Rescue Mission. Twice a year our church has a "Care and Concern" day where we help people in the community: I repair bicycles and my sons work on cars. (One year a man came in with a bike in awful shape, and it was his only transportation to work. He had tears in his eyes when we gave it back to him with new tires, breaks, and seat. What a feeling!) We have organized a warehouse full of donations for the church's "Motel Ministry", and I have put on magic shows for several church events.

When we lived in New Jersey for a year two girls ran out of gas in front of our house. While all of the locals raced past honking and yelling we got them some gas and got them rolling on their way. Another time our neighbor was stuck on ice and had to get to work. No one else came to help, so my wife and I spent an hour getting her rolling.

So the short answer is: no heroics, we just try to help whenever we can.