You Take the Good, You Take the Bad, You Analyze, and There You Have the Stats of Strife

It is no secret that Val thinks the world is going to Not-Heaven in a handbasket. Common courtesy has flown out the window, and self-centeredness has oozed in. It's a continual source of strife for me. Yet this week has seen a new trend in Backroads.

Twice this week, lithe young men with shoulder-length braids (one with beads, one without) have held the door open for me at the Gas Station Chicken Store. Of course I thanked them, and let one go ahead of me, since he would have been there first, and was only paying for his gas.

On Thursday at the School-Turn Casey's, a county sheriff's deputy motioned me ahead of him at the counter. What a nice gesture. Maybe he was paying it forward, since the staff there have a habit of waving the law enforcement officers through without charging them.

Saturday, as I was headed down the hill by our neighbor's big red barn, I spied a car coming down the opposite hill. That part of the gravel road is visible, now that the trees have shed their leaves. Rather than continue down Hick and Buddy's badly-blacktopped hill, I pulled off to the side and waited. Waited for that red sedan to come up the hill, so that neither of us would have to put a tire in the ditch. Waited. Waited. Here came the red sedan. A young gal was behind the wheel, with another young gal riding shotgun. She kept going right past me, like she owned the place! No "thank-you" wave. No nod of the head in acknowledgement for my good deed. 

However... once I got to town, and was waiting fifth in line at Country Mart with only 10 bananas in my cart, a checker opened up a new line.

"I can help whoever is next."

I nodded at the people ahead of me. The next in line couple with a full cart did not turn and look. The guy behind them, scraggly beard, in a white t-shirt and jeans, with half a cart full, motioned for me to go ahead. 

"No, you guys are all ahead of me."

The thin man in black jeans behind him also motioned for me to go ahead. So I did. Paid cash for my $3.20 purchase. Such a nice gesture from the in-line crowd.

So, out of five incidents, four were acts of common courtesy, with only one selfish display of entitlement.

Four out of five ain't bad.