July 22, 2002
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A friend and I had a booth at a popular two-day outdoor craft show and festival this past weekend. We sell greeting cards and paper goods (also at www.mclax.com, which isn't finished yet, but will be someday).
So, we put our tent up, but could only find one stake. Then the wind came, thought our tent was a sail, and promply blew it over, scattering our paper goods as well. The festival hadn't opened yet... it was still set-up time. But here's what amazed me.
Other vendors came running over. The women with a booth next to us (selling hand-blown glass) were the first to reach us. They said something that really touched me, for some reason:
"Tell me the first thing I can do to help."
I was flabbergasted. I'd never met this woman. I stammered "Um, get the cards, I think." (That was our product flying around the grounds, see.) Several folks helped us rebuild our tent. None of us were tall enough to put the canopy up right, until a man with a cane came by and said "Aha! You meed a man with a stick!" He used the curved handle of his cane to catch the canopy and pull it over the tent frame.
After the mayhem had subdued, I asked the woman from the next booth why they were going so far out of their way to help us. "We're going to be neighbors for two days!" she said, smiling.
These folks made me feel fuzzy all over all weekend long.
Comments (13)
Awwww.. It's stories like those that help me realize what wonderful world we live in! Glad it happened... =)
~Priya
Awesome! My friends and I were talking about starting our own little craft projects. I just re-did my dresser with decoupage (it looks FAB) and this is our effort to quit all the boozing and smoking and refocusing our energy on something somewhat productive. Wheeeeeeeeee!
joyjoy
That's pretty cool of them to be that way.
Of course, what sucks is that we don't EXPECT people to be that way.
Yeah, what gowan said - the shame is that we expect people to sit there and watch us struggle instead of offering a hand. I'm glad you were at a show with the good ones.
mmmmmmmmm.
people can be wonderful in the most simple ways sometimes
Yeah, people like that can make your day, wouldn't the world be a much better place if we were all like that? Have a great day, and I'll be listening to AM radio during the mornings....
Oh WOW!I am thankful I click onto your site today. The reaction of those people made me all fuzzy inside too.
Matt.7:12 comes to mind. Also,Matt.22:39
They made you feel fuzzy? I feel that way after working in the yard all day w/o a break..
I had a similar thing happen the first weekend of May. I had a booth set up at a craft-fair-type-thing and the wind was gusting around. Even though we were all strangers, we took turns helping an older lady retrieve her quilting squares and watching each other's "booths" while we shopped around and took pee breaks. At the end of the day we all grabbed lunch. It was really a great day!
It's great when people are willing to lend a hand instead of just standing on and being critical....we don't see it often enough anymore methinks.....of course, you deserve it too. You are kind, yourself
Propping to say thank you for taking care of feith.