Momnesia

The Thrify Samaritan

AUGUSTA, GA - What price honor?

That's what I've been asking myself this week after passing a woman whose car had broken down on Riverwatch Parkway. It was blisteringly hot, the car obviously just had a flat tire that I could easily have changed in 10 minutes, and as I passed her she turned so that I saw she had a toddler on her hip.

I didn't stop.

I was running late for a sales meeting, and I didn't notice her until I was right on her. Besides, there's nowhere on Riverwatch Parkway to turn around until you hit downtown and she was on her cell phone to someone.

And yet... it didn't feel right to pass her when I could have helped.

Not that anyone else was stopping. You simply don't see that in Augusta. As a teenager living in metro-Atlanta, I broke down in my 1970 Chevy van plenty of times. Someone always stopped to help. As an adult, I've broken down a couple of times in my car. No one has ever stopped. Even sheriff's deputies only stop to remind people to get their car off the shoulder in a couple of days or risk having it towed.

And although I've complained about the fact that Augusta is far from the city of brotherly love - in both geography and personality - there I was, flying past a person in need with the capability to help her, but not the time.

I called Scott.

"Honey, there's a woman with a toddler broken down on the side of Riverwatch Parkway," I said.

"And?"

"And it's hot as hell and she's got a baby with her. Isn't there someone you can call?"

He paused for a moment.

"Yes. I can call dispatch to see if they can send someone to help her," he answered.

"Oh, thank you, sweetie. I appreciate it. Will you do it now?"

"Of course."

I breathed a sigh of relief, but I really wasn't comforted. It could take an hour before a deputy became available, and I'm pretty sure it was so close to shift change that not one of them was going to volunteer for the job. Even if someone did arrive quickly, I still felt bad at not stopping.

Still, I got to the sales meeting only a couple of minutes late and grabbed my stuff out of the car when one of the city's persistent homeless began a sales meeting of his own.

"Hey, baby girl. Can you spare a dollar so a brother can catch the bus?" he asked.

"I'm sorry; I don't carry cash," I answered, truthfully.

"You ain't got a dollar?" he demanded, not seeing irony in his incredulity considering that he also did not posses a dollar.

"I don't have a dime," I responded, looking him in the eye.

"Well, whatcha doing?" he asked, eyeing me in a way that - had I been carrying any money - would have made me clutch my purse closer to my body.

"Working - why don't you try it?" I shot back, opened the door to the air-conditioned office and left him outside on the broiling sidewalk.

Good work, Me. There's that charitable behavior you're looking for.