Quote:
Originally Posted by Diver1111
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Some people, like an older couple whose tire I changed offered me money. I said I didn't do it for money but if they wanted to do something nice, to help TWO people in the future if they could and then tell those two people, to help TWO people. Do the math.
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That reminds me of a hike I did with my three kids up Mt. Washington, years ago, in mid-July. The two older ones had gone on ahead, while I followed with the youngest, maybe 10 years old at the time. We left the top around 5 pm, so it was around 6 or so that we passed a family of four, just below tree line. The two kids were perhaps 3 and 5, and they were having obvious difficulty getting down over the boulders, making very slow progress down the mountain, not a good thing so late in the day. That bothered me. A couple hundred feet down, I stopped with my son, and we waited for the family to catch up.
When they got down to us, I looked at the man, and I asked him "Do you need help?" He must have been thinking the same thing I was. He paused a couple of seconds, then replied "Yes." I let his wife carry my pack, mostly empty by then. They had a Gerry kid carrier, which I initially took with the youngest, a girl, and the man carried the boy. A short distance down I suggested switching kids. So I carried the boy in the Gerry pack, while the man carried the girl, who weighed next to nothing. Down we went at a good pace. We got down to the bottom by the Cog RR base station a bit after sunset, and ten minutes later it was totally dark. I didn't want to think about their being way back up the trail, with two little kids, in darkness.
They thanked me, but I was glad to have helped. I also hoped it had made an impression on my son. But it wasn't until on the way home that I realized that I had missed an opportunity, that I should have told them just what you [Diver1111] told the older couple, to do something nice to two others, and to tell each of them to do the same for two others.