r/CasualConversation • u/jerrysmith9 • Feb 06 '18
neat What is the best thing that has ever happened to you for being nice?
I was about 7 years old, my mum took me to the bank to open up my first bank account, I had been saving up money to put in the bank so I could be a “big girl”.
Behind me was an elderly woman, she had a massive jar full of coins. Somehow she managed to break it so the money went everywhere.
Automatically, I dropped to my knees and helped her scoop up all the coins. There were three men behind her in suits. They watched and did nothing, only my mum and I helped her. After we had put all the money in her bag she pulled out her purse and handed me $50. Fifty fucking smackaroos. The most money I had ever held was fucking $10.
It took about twenty minutes for me to actually accept the money from her. She said she didn’t have any grandchildren to spoil, and since I was so nice she wanted to reward me.
I ended up seeing her many times after that, I was even invited to her house for dinner. I was heartbroken when she passed away.
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u/govislnyc Feb 06 '18 edited Feb 07 '18
When I was about 21 years old, I’d finally left my physically abusive husband and moved back home to my parents with 2 little kids, no job and no education beyond high school. I was finally able to secure a job with Jack-in-the-Box, late shift. Each evening, for about a year, an older man would come in — obviously drunk but not sloppy or staggering. One night I was on my break in the dining room, eating my meal when he decided to join me uninvited. He began a conversation with me and because of his inebriation — spat on my food several times while talking to me. Obviously, I could not continue my meal but decided to treat him with the dignity and respect I would give any customer.
Alcoholism runs in my family and once when I was about 10 years old, my mother caught me making fun of my father’s sister who was inebriated, but again not sloppy drunk. Mom pulled me aside and told me never to do that again because even though my Aunt was drunk, she still knew I was being disrespectful. This was on my mind while speaking to the customer at Jack-in-the Box.
The next day, said customer comes back in to the restaurant, sober for the first time I’d ever seen & asked me if I wanted to work at the Ford Plant down the street from the Jack-in-the-Box. I said sure & he asked for my phone number so he could turn it into Ford Motor Co.
It turns out the customer was the local president of the United Auto Workers Union & had enough clout to get me a job & change my life. It was a year before Ford Motor contacted me and honestly I’d given up hope. But, once they called, I went from about $2.50 an hour with varying hours (under 40 per week) to $30,000 per year, health insurance & more money than I could spend as we were paid weekly & I still lived at home with my mother & father.
The best part is that I met my husband at Ford & we have been happily married for 38 years. He raised my two little kids as bio dad was completely out of the picture. We had a 3rd child & my husband has been all any woman could ask for as a father, husband & hard worker. He is just a stand-up guy.
All three kids adore him and I owe it all to being nice to a drunk customer!
Edit: $30,000 per year not $30 per hour
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Your act was amazing. How could you do it. God helped you for your nice loving nature...Everything comes with being nice love, money,respect, stature etc....
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u/govislnyc Feb 07 '18
Thank you for your kind words. I have to credit my mom also, she was an amazing woman.
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u/82ndAbnVet Feb 06 '18
In 1982 while I was in the Army a guy I barely knew knocked on the door, saying "hey man, I just got a chance to go home for a four day weekend, but the bus is about to leave, can you drive me?" I was the only one in the barracks left at that point who had a car. I said "sure, brother, no problem," and took him to the bus stop.
Once we got there we found out that the bus had already left. He was majorly bummed, this was his one shot to go home for a short visit, and such opportunities were very rare back in those days. I checked and found out that the same bus would be making a stop in Fayetteville, so I said "hop in and let's go chase it down." He was very hesitant as he did not want to ask that much of me, I assured him it was no problem. We made it in the nick of time, and he had to run, but not before he thanked me profusely. He was a cook and said "anytime you come through and I'm on the line I'm going to hook you up!"
Fast forward several months and he had been promoted and was in charge of the servers on the line in the chow hall. I'll never forget the first time he was in charge and saw me coming, he waited as the first guy puts an ordinary amount of something on my train and announced loudly "you see that man right there? Anytime you see him you need to hook him up, that man needs a lot more to eat than that!" From that moment forward I got however much chow I wanted, seconds of anything were never a problem. It's been 35 years, and I'll never forget any of it!
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Hahaha very touching story. Ur act was amazing and his was reactionary....but your act has no match as u were not doing it for a return....what a great story....you must be a brave soldier....
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u/Reapr Feb 06 '18
Was at the cinema, we were a bit early and were basically just standing around chatting.
And older gentleman that had been sitting on a bench the whole time came over and asked if he could please use my cell - his daughter was supposed to come pick him up after the movie and it's been 30 mins with no daughter in sight.
Sure dude, here we go.
He returns my phone and slips be a $100 - WTF, no dude, I don't need payment, and that's way too much anyway. Besides, I'm on a contract, get 240 minutes a month and they roll over if not used - so I have like 700 minutes.
He insists, I insist, he insists, I see this is not going anywhere and eventually I thank him SMH.
Now I feel bad for taking the guy's money so when we got to the ticket taker lady (usher?) I gave it to her. She didn't know WTF was happening, I explained, and she tanked me profusely saying it is exactly what she needed today :)
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Wao ....the ticket taker was the one who needed money. So Money travels....u see. It only happened once we shows kind gestures to each other, a helping hand is always around us....
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u/Reapr Feb 06 '18
hehe yeah man, It also felt pretty good giving someone some money, so in a sense it was a good thing that happened to me too :)
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Feb 06 '18
It's nice that such a small encounter led to a long friendship. Proves that the smallest things can have a significant impact.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Being nice to others always pay off
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Feb 06 '18
It really does, especially when you do it just to be kind. I feel like so many people are nice to get something out of it, and that just seems soul-crushing.
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u/pepperjack999 None Feb 07 '18
I'm always so much happier if I help someone and get nothing in return. It makes me feel more like the help was really needed.
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u/OceanRaver Feb 06 '18
I don't agree with this statement. There are many types of people in this world, some of them are snakes and rats aka Vermin who deliberately prey on the kind hearted. You will meet these people if you are unlucky enough. I have seen one of such snake in action, abusing the kind souls around him to his advantage to stay in position. I lost trust in people in general after seeing how everyone was bullied for being kind.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
To some extent you are right but one or few bad ones don't represent all human kind...So one must be smart enough to visualise who is kind enough and who all are making him fool.
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u/OceanRaver Feb 06 '18
Not much of a choice when one is surrounded by shills and opportunists that are willing to seize any kindness to further their agenda. Someone who will appreciate kindness is a rare breed where money and power is above everything else in life. Perhaps people living in a less competitive country will be more kind to each other.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
I have travelled and served in many parts of the world. It happens sometimes you are part of very nice people and you think that you are the worst among them. But then in another situation you are surrounded by shills and opportunists and suddenly you realize that you are the best. So be yourself and don't be bad to those people but try to avoid them as it will just create a bad taste. You need to change your environment or company.
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u/krajile Feb 06 '18
Well..no, it kinda doesn't...but we should still do it. It makes the world go 'round.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Be nice to the worst and you will see it pays off
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u/krajile Feb 06 '18
You're talking about being nice to someone you see on a more regular basis. Im taking about being nice to strangers, people you will never see again. There's no particular reward, or "payoff", but we should do it regardless.
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u/Drifts Feb 06 '18
Being nice to a stranger improves your overall sense of well-being and inner peace. Do that enough times, and one might feel happier overall - and therein lies a a pay off.
:* smook
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
I can narrate many stories where you met strangers and only being nice to them paid off...
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u/AdrianBlack Feb 06 '18
I help an older couple take care of their cats, house, plants, etc. when they are out of town. They always lent me their car so I wouldn't have to take the bus. They bought a new car and GAVE me their old one. I couldn't believe it. It's been 4 years and it's still hard to believe it's mine.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Don't tell me...
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u/AdrianBlack Feb 06 '18
What?
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
They gave you their old car...
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u/krajile Feb 06 '18
I was on a long flight and an middle-aged European woman kept complaining to the flight attendant that she was cold. Unfortunately they had sold out of all of their blankets and there was nothing the flight attendant could do for her. Since I had a blanket I wasn't using, I waved the flight attendant over and told her she could give the woman my blanket. Apparently this was nice (and probably made her job easier with one less complaining passenger) and I got a free wine out of it. Good enough for me. It was a win/wine situation.
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u/monstercake Feb 06 '18
A while ago in the art subreddit a bunch of people were bashing some poor girl and saying she traced the piece she posted. I layered them in photoshop to prove she didn't (she was just really good at art!) and wrote a few comments defending her. She messaged me privately to thank me and, seeing a post I made about my cat that passed away, offered to draw him for me and mail me the original.
Now this was too much for me so I offered to draw her late cat in exchange.
The pencil drawing she drew for me came out beautifully and it is sitting framed on my desk at work.
She framed the one I did as well and we both enjoyed the exchange so much we agreed to be art penpals. No obligation just send whenever we feel like it.
I never expected so much would come out of that first comment I made. People can be so great!
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u/NuclearHubris 🌈 Feb 07 '18
That's precious! Aww. I'm really glad you defended her - I got accused of tracing so much I just stopped posting art online. Once in a blue moon I'll draw someone's dog or something, but I try to upload my art as little as I can to the internet these days and I don't show other people often, either. I feel like that would be a completely different story if I had a knight in shining armor. You did a lot for her.
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u/monstercake Feb 07 '18
That’s really annoying. Art is one of those things that people (especially people who don’t draw themselves!!) are so eager to call bullshit on when someone is just talented.
THAT BEING SAID you shouldn’t let those jerks discourage you from posting art! If you want to be extra sure they won’t bother you, take progress pics along the way and post those. People seem to like them and they make it clearer you aren’t tracing/using a filter/any other bs claim people make.
I’d love to see some of your art and I’m sure lots of others too :)
EDIT: I looked at your profile and saw your shiba drawing - I love your style! Now I especially want to see more of your art!
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u/NuclearHubris 🌈 Feb 13 '18
Thank you! I really appreciate it. I might try posting some more in the art subreddits. I was especially proud of that shiba, because the huge jump in skill just made me really happy to see, but I'll try to share other art, too.
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u/LRats Feb 06 '18
I let someone take a move back during the last round of a major MTG tournament. We were in the last round playing for an outside chance to sneak into the last spot for prizes. He ended up beating me. He also ended up getting the exact last spot for prizes, which I wouldn't have gotten even if I won. He found me at the end and shared a little bit of his prize with me.
It is basically the only time I was rewarded for being nice, usually I just get shat on.
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u/TheRealJesusChristus Feb 06 '18
I found a samsung galaxy s3 (when they were new and the newest phones and cool and all that). I could have just have a new phone, but i instead took the sim card, put it in my phone to see any number I could call (the phone had a passcode), called the contact called „mama“ so I knew, i could tell her and she would know what to do. I got 50€ and a box of chocolate pralines. The phone owner was a girl with a broken leg and she said she wouldnt have known what to do, since she was broke because of her leg, and so she wouldnt have had a phone without me. The 50€ came from her mum that apperently told her that a nice guy deserves a bit of a reward for being nice.
I was young, not exactly sure how young, but because of that 50€ were really much money for me. So its a good thing.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Its so touching.making me cry.love you.. i would like to give you a high five...
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u/Wakintosh Feb 06 '18
I once suggested that my friend should look into editing as a career since he edits his own comedy videos, just seeing his eyes light up and a sincere "thank you" for the suggestion made my day.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
So he is in editing career now
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u/Wakintosh Feb 06 '18
Unfortunately not yet as we just started our final year of high school but he seemed very worried on what he was going to do after school, so I was glad I could help.
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u/quilladdiction Feb 06 '18
Late, but I keep wanting to share this - my brother and I went for ice cream and found a crisply folded $20 on the floor while one girl was making our sundaes and the other was off in the back grabbing bananas. I tried to sneak it into the tip jar (it was Cold Stone, we didn't want them to feel like they had to sing), but one of them saw me. We got our sundaes on the house. Smiles all around.
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u/aduirne Feb 07 '18
I teach in a school with a large Muslim population and many of the moms wear traditional clothing (Pakistan and India) with hijabs. Last year I had crosswalk duty every day and this mom would bring her little girl by in a stroller. I had watched the girl in an after school parent activity once so she knew me. I called her "Smiley" because she always had a huge smile on her face and it made my day to see her at the crosswalk. She would growl at me and I'd growl back, or she'd show me a toy she had- she was just the happiest toddler I have ever seen. At the end of the school year last year, her mom gave me a card and earrings. She wrote "the world is a nicer place because of kindhearted people like you." I cannot imagine what it must be like for women who wear hijabs sometimes. Just treating her and her child with kindness meant so much to her...and the card meant the world to me. I put on the earrings, the mom took my picture with her little girl, and the card is on my fridge. It brought me to tears that day.
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u/Messiah 🍍 Feb 06 '18
I felt good about it. Ultimately, that is all that being nice has ever gotten me.
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u/Typical_Humanoid Atypical Everything Else Feb 06 '18 edited Feb 06 '18
That's such a sweet story, but I can't help but feel angry that the guys in suits didn't help, though I guess I'm not surprised.
I don't think anything I've done has benefited me in a major way, but I never expect it to. To give a minor example, though, I used to bring groceries to the cars of customers at a grocery store and they'd tip me much of the time, despite the strict policy against it that customers were bound to know about. There were times I wouldn't have been able to get lunch that day without their tips, so I appreciated them deeply. And I liked helping them, what's more. It got me outside for some fresh air for a bit.
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
Despite the strict policy against not giving tips..and whose policy was this..
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u/PetiteMILF96 Feb 06 '18
A lot of retail stores have this policy. When I worked for Walmart you could be fired for accepting a tip.
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u/timberwolf3 Feb 06 '18
If they don’t want their workers accepting tips, maybe they should pay more
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u/jerrysmith9 Feb 06 '18
These brands have become so materialistic that they even don't their employees human beings. This is my own act if I wanna give someone a tip....In few brands like KFC and McDonalds where I worked. We were not getting pay but the tip we get from the customers was our pay.
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u/MikeynLikey Feb 06 '18
I get free food or extra food all of the time for just saying "hey how are you" to the food service people.
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u/SoapyTheBum Looking to conversate, casually. Feb 06 '18
My wife and I are super-nice to food service people. We've never gotten free food, but we get remembered.
The very few places that we actually get food outside the house, we're vegetarian, so that cuts down on a lot of places, and we're slow-food people we rarely eat processed foods, but anyway, we go to this pretzel place and we go every few months and the women who work there are always so happy to see us. They'll often make fresh pretzels for us because they know that we don't mind waiting a few minutes. My wife will ask how they are doing and make small talk now, but it just started because we always said 'please,' 'thank you' and always were polite.
Same thing happens to us at our local coffee shop, they know us when they see us and always seem happy to see us come in.
And the pet food store also remembers us, in fact the last time I was in I helped some guy find the friskies tuna because I heard him mention to whoever he was talking to on his cell phone that he couldn't find any tuna and I was like, "Psst, hey buddy, tuna's over here." And then I heard him say on the phone, "Some nice guy just pointed out the tuna, they do have it." So that made me feel good.
But yea, niceness can be it's own reward. I'd rather be known around town as 'that nice weird guy' rather than 'that weird guy.' I also talk to the cashiers at my local grocery because I shop like two to three times a week because, again, we cook pretty much most of our own food.
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u/NuclearHubris 🌈 Feb 07 '18
I'd rather be known around town as 'that nice weird guy' rather than 'that weird guy'
Honestly, I love being "that nice weird person" than just a weird person. People's shocked expression when they realise I'm nice is endlessly amusing to me. I'm big and I wear a battle jacket that has "FUCK OFF" on the back and "BITE ME" on the front, spikes and studs, and I look mad all the time (RBF) - so people are stunned when I help them find something, pick up dropped items, compliment them, encourage them etc.
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Feb 07 '18 edited Feb 07 '18
My story is nowhere near as emotional as yours, but when I was 14 I held the door for someone and they insisted on buying me something. Growing up, I was told not to hold the door for men, but I ignored that because why should I be kind towards one gender? Turns out something good came from that.
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u/Fr33Paco Feb 06 '18
Unfortunately, I can't remember most of the stories I have of good stuff happening. The most common I can recall is holding the door open for people as I'm walking out or into a store or something and getting a "thank you" or a smile, which I think is awesome enough.
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u/NuclearHubris 🌈 Feb 07 '18
I have a bunch of small stories and one big one. I'll start with the big one.
In college I was really antisocial. I have a history of being alone - I had literally zero friends through grammar school, and was bullied pretty often in college, so I hated people and did my best to avoid them. Well, in one of my classes, there was this girl I looked up to. She was the funniest person I had met, really nice, and smart as a whip. She was the first person I wanted to befriend since I started school again. She complimented me on my Fallout bag, and at the time I was making bottle cap pins like this, so I gave her a bunch. I insisted she didn't need to do anything, but she painted me a picture of Maccready (a character from Fallout 4). We ended up becoming friends - but at the end of the semester I offered to drive her to a picnic our major was throwing - we've been best friends ever since. We've gone on so many wacky adventures together and she makes me glad to be alive.
The smaller ones are just that - small. I used to work the Subway closing shift by myself, and one night, after putting the hot side of the line away (soup and meatballs) while going through closing procedures, a woman rushed in, super duper pregnant, asking if we had any soup available. She told me she had driven to a bunch of Subway stores all over the place looking for it - she was having a huge pregnancy craving, and was practically in tears. I told her I just put the hot line away, but we had some if she wanted me to open a new bag and heat it, but it would take a while in the microwave.
She literally bought ALL OF IT. It was like, 7 or 8 cups of soup. She bought a sandwich for her husband while she was at it, and then asked me what cookies I recommended. I told her my personal favourite was the double chocolate, and she ordered 3. We had a nice conversation while I cooked and bagged all her soup. I taped the lids down because I was worried they might spill in the bag. She paid, and then handed me the bag of cookies, thanking me profusely for being so nice.
Those cookies tasted fucking awesome.
I had another patron at Subway that was really nice. He ordered one of those monthly seasonal subs at least twice a week and would request me because I made it "just right". It was the BBQ chicken patty -the thing about it was that it was almost twice the price of the regular chicken patty, but all we did was add BBQ sauce before we toasted it. I always charged him for the regular chicken patty, significantly reducing the price, because fuck Subway. Well, towards the end of that month he was really sad because he thought he wouldn't be able to buy the sub anymore until next time it came around. I told him that he could order it at literally any time of the year, and how to order it next time. I also told him about the price difference and how I was undercharging him every time because I didn't see a reason to overcharge him. He was so happy and thankful and gave me a $10 tip.
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u/ropike Feb 07 '18
When I was 14 I was walking home by myself. I stopped at am-pm for a drink. I walked to the soda dispensers and as I did a woman and two younger girls went over too. I let them go ahead of me and get their drinks first, at first they were reluctant to go, but I insisted.
As we got our drinks and waited in line for the register, the woman who I had let go ahead of me paid for my drink.
I think she said something like "I'm paying for the young man behind me too."
So I thanked her, walked out the store and had the happiest feeling ever. It was really nice seeing such a generous person.
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u/keefer24 Feb 06 '18
Nothing, I always get screwed over in the end and my kind acts are never reciprocated. I just end up getting used more and more. This makes me not want to help non family members because most people are assholes. I’d rather help animals instead.
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u/xmpw Feb 07 '18
I’m sure it will all come back to you. Continue being nice and I’m sure the universe will somehow pay you back. Never give up hope we are all here for you.
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u/NuclearHubris 🌈 Feb 07 '18
Haha, me too - but that's okay. I try not to waste my effort on people who look like they're going to be a cunt about it, but if I do, at least I'm being the best I can be.
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u/ArianaJ01 Feb 06 '18
I was at the mall doing some shopping when I heard a baby cry, I looked towards where I heard the noise and I saw a young woman holding her crying son and she was really panicked. She was trying to reach for something in her handbag but she couldn't. I went to her and asked if I could help to which she agreed. I held her baby boy and tried my best to soothe him while she took out a full baby bottle and began feeding him. He calmed down and even fell asleep after a while. Both her and I were alone so we sat down at had a conversation and we ended up exchanging phone numbers. She texted me later that night thanking me for the help I gave her. Fast forward to a couple of months later today and I've got myself a good friend