70s Story Time kids, set down your fancy phone(wireless cable box) and pay attention….OK…..So, we used to play OUTSIDE for fun…..really!
Not all the sad or perfect childhood however, just about everybody has little memories of cool things that happen when people made your day when you were a little kid.
Those moments when strangers or even people you knew did something unexpected or surprising that brought you excitement happiness, joy, some other positive emotion.
A little thing, I remember some 45 years later, plus, is the dudes attacking us with water at the Texaco gas station up the street.
It’s at a famous intersection in Ann Arbor on the west side where five streets come together at Huron, Dexter and Jackson Roads. That gas station was an outpost even back in the day when it was the railroad train running there as that is part of the East West route that travelers have been taken between Detroit and Chicago for literally hundreds of years.
Old gas stations used to pump the gas for all of the people that come in and self-serve didn’t really start happening until the 80s. in order to know that a pulled in if you were busy doing something else working on a car in the shop helping somebody inside whatever you needed to know a guest arrival so they would lay rubber hoses that would ring a bell
in the Shop. The bell would ring based upon the pressure of a car rolling over them.
Because we were a little smart asses, and we are always looking for things to do. We would always cut through the gas station just to make the bells ring on our bicycles. we could only do this when there weren’t a bunch of cars they’re getting gas and it wasn’t something that we made a big point of doing it was just part of what we did whenever we could.
So there we were, John, Larry and I, fighting around on our Schwinns wreaking havoc before the street lights came on and when we dipped through the Texaco station to ring the bells as soon as the bells wrong, we felt these massive splashes of water.
You see the guys in the gas station and decided that they were going to get those little rat bastard kids on their shins tonight. If we came bombing through their ringing the bells they had buckets of water set up and when one of them saw approaching, they made their battle stations.
Shock and dismay when we went from giggling and plotting our next move to being soaking wet on our bicycles, looking at each other like “what the hell just happened?”
Those greasy dudes were doubled over and laughter, and clearly this was an active aggression that we interpreted as the beginning of a full scale war.
We home at full speed to get water balloons, trashcan lids, and even a can of shaving cream, just in case we had to go completely postal on these guys, and we returned for a counter attack!
It was such a simple thing for one of them to say “hey man, we should fill some buckets up with water and drench those kids if they cruise through here ringing the bells tonight!”
A totally harmless gesture in terms of harming anyone yet these guys at the gas station were in touch with what it’s like to be a kid and how magical it is when people acknowledge your existence even and better yet do something fun and childlike that surprises you.
There is nothing magical about the people at the gas station that did this other than the fact that they were present in the moment to think about other people and how they could create a great experience for others. Instead of focusing on being stuck at work, they actually thought about how do we have fun and play and who can we play with here?
Out of there, efforts to have fun and play my friends, and I literally have lifelong memories that we could call up at any time and I know for a fact all of us remember that night just like it was last week.
Don’t be selfish with your attention or awareness by not using that gift to acknowledge other people and to reinforce our connections and unity that we can express through simple gestures of kindness.
Don’t overthink it just slam the brakes on your bike turn around and say hi to that other kid.
See that.
It didn’t cost you a penny and what you gave was priceless.
Welcome to your Attitude of Gratitude.
EVERY DAY:
Love
and
Gratitude
https://www.instagram.com/GratiDude_abides
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com/941.894.8030 Text me your celly-cell so I can build my database please…..
Thank you sincerely.
The G.I.F.T. Today
Grateful: for a dew sweeping tee time and a full Sabado Gigante in front of me(look up tv show “Sabado Gigante” if you don’t get the reference. Gringo).
Intention-do quiet caddie on your own, keep reactions silent and vibe high! carry all day, like a caddie, Daddy
First-grab your golf stuff by door
Things-bring a change of clothes for lunch after
Every day, every way, grateful.
KC
I am here to help, add somebody that needs a “check up from the neck up”
KevinACarpenter@gmail.com
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