My wife was in the checkout line at the super market a few days ago behind a woman who was just finishing checking out two shopping carts of groceries.

She had just paid for them and turned to my wife and said, "Bless you" and told the checkout lady she would pay for my wife's groceries.  There wasn't much in the cart, perhaps 20 dollars or less.  But it was a nice thing to do.

Betty was talking to our daughter who lives in South Carolina and told her about the incident.  My daughter said it was becoming a more common thing where she lives.  In fact my daughter bought a front door mat for her new house and she bought an extra one to bless a neighbor who didn't have one with.

A few days ago I had my handyman install another hand hold in my bathroom.  I'm developing a need for these things now.  His wife was with him and she asked me what we were doing for Thanksgiving.  I told her we used to have a traditional Thanksgiving for our friends every year but they have all passed away so we were each going to have a Hungry Man frozen TV dinner.

Yesterday she came by and gave us an 11 pound pre-cooked smoked turkey.  And she said 'Bless you" when she handed it to me.

Now I'm not a religious person.  Far from it.  But I like this.  I've been in the checkout-out line when the lady in front of me has been taking things out of her basket because she did not have enough left on her EBT card to pay for everything.  I told the cashier to put everything back and I'd pay for it.  The next time I do that I'll say, "Bless you" for whatever it's worth.

If this is catching on it's a good thing.  The cynics may find fault with it.  But why should they?

Noel

The concept of "Pay it Forward" has been around for a while. I've seen and done it a few times myself.  With or without the "bless you" it's a nice thing to do.

Moderator hat on:  let's not let tis discussion get into religion please .

31 minutes ago, birdguy said:

The cynics may find fault with it.  But why should they?

Don't get me started! 😂

Yes, they were just trying to run a con on Birdguy, it was some sort of trick! (Just kidding, it was very charitable actually and nice to see). We never have had anybody pay for the groceries in our cart at the market, In fact, I've never seen it happen. The check out people are always very busy, the lines full of shoppers. Not a small town atmosphere where things are nicer. 

On 11/22/2022 at 11:08 AM, birdguy said:

If this is catching on it's a good thing.  The cynics may find fault with it.  But why should they?

Last November 2021 while investigating Hot Springs National Park as a potential new place to live, a friend and I (Zwei alten soldaten) were eating supper at the local Cracker Barrel. As we finished and were ready for our check, the waitress informed us that an anonymous couple had already paid our bill! What a very generous surprise.

Several years ago I was behind a young mother who tearfully set aside some of her items apologizing to the folks in line for the delay. I stepped up and asked the cashier to ring her entire cart's content saying that I would pay for it. Sadly, since losing my then source of income, I am no longer able to do that now. 😢

Edited November 25, 20223 yr by n4gix
Added a missing word "who"

Some years back I rode my HD to the dealer, early one morning for service. As was usually the case I parked outside the service dept door, before they opened, and walked to a Denny's about 4 blocks away. I had a long, leisurely breakfast. I noticed a guy a couple booths away and caught him looking at me a couple times. I thought maybe he thinks he knows me?? He got up, and checked out at the cashier and left. I hung out drinking coffee for another 30min or so. When I asked for my check the waitress said it had already been taken care of. I left her a generous tip!

How are things in Broomfield brucets?  When I was building time for my commercial Used to fly into and out of Jefferson County Airport as it was known then.  I also worked as a development engineer for Storage Technology.  My department designed and built test equipment for the manufacturing floor.

Noel

Hi Noel!

I lived in the DEN area(north & south) from 1956 to 1985, Went east for 21yrs, then back to Broomfield in 2006 for 9yrs. In 2015 we moved to PHX. As of this past July I'm once again a stranger - back in Broomfield. The development here has been outrageous! I'm totally lost in the area I live in. I'm in an old folks home by the name of Sunrise Senior Living just off hwy36 and 128. It's fairly close to the runways at Rocky Mount Metropolitan, formerly Jefferson County(JeffCo). I get to watch, and listen to, about 580Take offs and landings a day!

The Storage Tech site, back then, was out in the country. Not anymore!! I guess they are no longer with us though!

Hope all is well in Roswell!!

Bruce

 

I've never seen this in the UK, or where I live now. 

However... food banks are a common thing, with collection points in supermarkets. Tragic that food banks are required. 

I'm wondering if, in the UK, the response might be occasionally negative. "What, are you saying I can't afford my own food? Is this pity? Get the %£@#&% out of here"

I feel this response might be manifest on occasion, in the UK. 🤔

Edited November 26, 20223 yr by martin-w

11 hours ago, martin-w said:

However... food banks are a common thing, with collection points in supermarkets. Tragic that food banks are required.
 I'm wondering if, in the UK, the response might be occasionally negative

I very much doubt that "in the UK" the response to a genuine, well meant and well deserved offer to help would receive 
a different response to that which it would receive anywhere else in the "first" world.
Everywhere, there are those in genuine need, those whose pride takes precedence over everything else, those who 
instinctively want to help and those who instinctively lack any kind of empathy for their fellow human building.
The UK is completely unexceptional in this respect, of course.
On the other hand, I don't think that we do have the same reaction to an ex-serviceman or indeed a serving one as appears
to be the case in the USA.
My son is one and to my knowledge, no one has paid for anything for him because he was once in the army and on active
service in Kosovo, where, among other things, he survived a roadside bomb attack.
Although it is slightly off topic, what he does have is a very close and special bond with those who shared his active service.
 

 

1 hour ago, Reader said:

Although it is slightly off topic, what he does have is a very close and special bond with those who shared his active service.

I think most who served in the armed forces have a bond of sorts.

I have served in three services, so to speak.  4 years in the Marine Corps, 12 years in the regular Air Force, and 9 years in the Air National Guard although my unit was Army support and we spent most of the time serving with the Army.

I always recognize and speak to anyone I see anywhere wearing a baseball cap stating the branch he served in.  And we are always cordial and compare notes.  But when I see a fellow Marine it's different.  There is a tighter bond and a recognition that surpasses the others.

Those who served in the same unit have a similar bond.  You have shared experiences that you cannot explain to those who were not there.  Your son obviously has those Reader.

Noel

11 hours ago, Reader said:

I very much doubt that "in the UK" the response to a genuine, well meant and well deserved offer to help would receive 
a different response to that which it would receive anywhere else in the "first" world.

 

Well, attitudes vary in nations, dependent on all manner of factors. Attitudes vary in regions of a country too. And don't forget, I''m 64 and lived in the UK for 61 of those years. I've seen some interesting responses. I would say "I don't need your charity" would be a response from some of the weird/proud people I've met.

I fully advocate charitable acts of course and help people when I can. But I'm not sure how this works in the US, where this seems to be a thing. Obviously they can't carry out a means test on random individuals, so they just "assume" that person isn't well off snd pay their supermarket bills. Well I guess that person might well be well off and not requiring charity.

So is this a case of assuming the person is not well off? Or is this just a random act of kindness regardless as to whether the person needs it or not?

 

I think it's both.
It looks like it was a random act of kindness in the case of Noel's wife and a safe assumption that the person was not well off in the case of the young woman who was removing items from her basket, followed, of course, by a random act of kindness.

We humans are strange creatures, even capable of taking offence at random acts of kindness, but the fault in those cases lies with the person taking offence. 

Edited November 27, 20223 yr by Reader

4 minutes ago, Reader said:

We humans are strange creatures, even capable of taking offence at random acts of kindness, but the fault in those cases lies with the person taking offence. 

 

True. 

5 hours ago, martin-w said:

Or is this just a random act of kindness regardless as to whether the person needs it or not?

That's it Martin.  Although at least two of us here have mentioned helping out a poor woman at the checkout stand who doesn't have enough money or dollars left on her EBT card to pay for all the items in her basket.

Fr Bill has said he has paid for such a lady's groceries when he was making money and I have done the same a couple of times.  And one of those instances the woman had kids with her I added some candy bars to her basket.

If I see some homeless person with a sign asking for money on the exit road I make a note to put a couple of dollars in my shirt pocket to give to that person when I am leaving.

But I have never just walked up to a person and handed them money.  But after reading some responses here I might just start paying for someone's meal in a restaurant.  Anonymous charity is the best kind.

Noel

Noel

Edited November 27, 20223 yr by birdguy