THE ULTIMATE SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY STORY: I know that I have a bunch of good stories that make people laugh and surprise people who are not used to people being so nice. However, my 21 year old passenger from Minnesota, has the best story. She has been in South Carolina less than two years and about a year ago her car broke down and she needed coolant. She had to walk two miles to a gas station and when she bought it a man pumping gas asked her if she needed help. She asked if he could drive her to her car two miles away and the man did it and put the coolant in, but there was a hole and she was really stuck. She was in Columbia, South Carolina, over two hours away from Myrtle Beach where she lived. The man offered to drive her home. She said that he was very religious and he felt that God was telling him that day to help someone. He drove her home and then drove over two hours back to Columbia. He refused to take any money from her. Her car had to be towed and he paid $150 and would not let her pay him back. I told her that in a recent travel survey that South Carolina was voted the number three friendliest state and Minnesota was voted number one. She said that South Carolina was definitely friendlier than Minnesota, which is where she had spent most of her life. It's going to take me a long time to come up with a Southern Hospitality story to beat this one.
THE RIDE: (This is the condensed story I wrote my comedy sketch about recently)During the past sixteen months I've given about 2,700 Uber and Lyft rides. There has been only a few times that I have had an unusual and instant connection with a rider. It happened recently on a Saturday night in downtown Charleston with my last ride which was 1.24 miles and took 9 minutes to finish.. I pulled up on one side of the street and recognized four women in their twenties(?), on the other side of the road. As they crossed the street, one of them who I'll call "K", was leading the pack and immediately started commending me on my high rating as a driver. I started laughing,because she was crossing a busy street in the dark and I knew immediately this was going to be a ride to remember. I opened the front door for her and said something about the service she was getting.
As I started driving, "K" said to me, "the ride is only a mile long, is that okay?" Having known her for about thirty seconds I said, "you're all already in the car, I'm kind of stuck with you." Her reply was something like, "if you kick us out, I'm going to have to rate you a 1." I immediately said, "you do realize that I get to rate the passenger, right?" I asked who was the person who ordered the ride and "k" told me that she was in the back.(she lied, it was her) When I found out I said, "have you ever done stand-up?" She replied, "no, should I? We should do it together, maybe later tonight?"
I was trying to get them to their destination in the dark and the woman to my right had me laughing constantly while I tried to keep pace with her. I told her that recently a rider gave me the nickname, "Jeff-fro, No-fro," and she suddenly blurted out, "I have to show you something, I have to show you something."(this is distracting when a woman is saying that to a man while he's driving) I had her wait until I finally stopped and saw a picture of her in the second grade with an afro, which fit right into the conversation, because she was no-fro now too.
I told her that I would definitely have to write about her in my blog and she said she wanted to read it so I made plans to send it to her. I believe she had a couple drinks, but it was obvious to me that she had quite a personality. I told her that I wouldn't be able to take her on a longer route, because I would be laughing too much. This was a ride that would be impossible to forget.
THE NURSE TO BE: I started driving my passenger to Wal-Mart where she was going to work. She was definitely a little stressed out. In three weeks she was going to graduate from a Nursing Program and she would be able to get a full-time job that would pay her very well. She was focusing on all the work she had to do for school and she was overwhelmed. Her goal was to work in a hospital in the MUSC Department to care for very small children. She had worked part-time there and was told she did great work, but she lacked the confidence in herself to believe that she was really good. I gave her a pep talk and we talked about how great it's going to feel to achieve her first significant goal. I told her that she could get it done and I would provide her with some extra motivation the first week of December. I told her to send me her e-mail address and I would e-mail her this story. So, I'm now talking to you "nurse to be": you're going to do it and you will be very proud of what you've accomplished. Don't forget: there are Mom's and Dad's out there who will be counting on your loving care to help their child. Congratulations on your graduation!
THE DIE-HARD RED SOX FAN: We were having a good conversation when he said he was a big Red Sox fan. Immediately, I went into my fun story where I educated two close friends who were about 26 and one rooted for The Red Sox and the other for The Yankees. I knew he would like the story, but he interrupted me before I could finish. He knew I would love his story. He is from Connecticut, and half his family are Red Sox fans and the other half are Yankee fans. His grandfather was a huge Yankee fan and oddly enough all the grandchildren except him were Yankee fans. His grandfather, a die-hard Yankee fan, always needled him about being a Red Sox fan, but he got his revenge. His grandfather passed away one month after the Red Sox won their first World Series in 2004 since the early 1900's. At the funeral, many of the grandchildren left Yankee things in the coffin with their grandfather. My passenger took a newspaper of the Red Sox winning the championship and tucked it under his grandfather's arm inside the coffin. But, it got even better! Three years later, The Red Sox won another championship and this guy went to the cemetery with a friend of his and brought his grandfather's favorite liquor. They toasted The Red Sox championship and he left another newspaper showing them winning the championship, on top of his grandfather's tombstone. I'm going to have start telling his story!
NOT SCOTT: I was scheduled to pick up Scott, but it was obvious immediately that it wasn't going to happen. A woman in her 40's came smiling out of the house towards my car. I said, "There's no way you're Scott." She said, "I am Scott. Why can't I be Scott?" "You are not Scott," I said again. She said, "Scott could be a very nice name for a girl." She wasn't Scott, but I told her I would call her, "not Scott." Our conversation turned pretty serious, since she was still upset by what happened at school with her thirteen year old son two days ago. He was going to get in trouble for using his cell phone, when suddenly he started crying. His mom said he's been going through some "puberty" things and was trying to avoid getting in trouble. The Vice-Principal got involved and asked her son if everything was okay at home and asked if anyone had a drinking problem. The boy told him that his Mom got "tipsy" sometimes. You can imagine how well that went over with "not Scott." Then, the Vice Principal called a woman who she carpools with and asked her if everything was okay in the family. "Not Scott" vented a lot and told me more about her marriage and family situation then I needed to know. She's a professional artist and she showed some of the things she's done and it was impressive. My advice to her was to vent all she wants before approaching the Vice-Principal or the Principal. It sounds like the Vice-Principal went a little too far in his concern for her son. I would have just laughed about it and then spoke to someone, but I think "not Scott" will need a little more venting before she deals with it.
HE BECAME A SOUTHERNER: Growing up in Spokane, Washington was very different than living in North Carolina now. Out west, people were very tough and individualistic and on their own a lot. They always felt that they were capable of making their own decisions. My rider told me it was a big adjustment moving to the South. He could not get over how friendly people were and that his in-laws were constantly trying to do things for him. He said, "I had to get used to how people talked to me." He explained the cultural differences and that people in the South show how much they care by paying a lot of attention to you. It's just not the same out west, but he does like it now. It's not that easy "becoming a southerner."
No comments:
Post a Comment