To the Editor:
In these days of hostility, it’s refreshing to experience something that shows that some thoughtfulness exists. During the fair I was helping out at the parking lot taking the fee. Several times people will hand me $20 and indicate that they are paying for someone coming in after them. This is usually for a friend or a relative – a parent or a son or daughter. This happened one day during the fair. When the second person came along, I informed him that the fee was already paid. Instead of driving on, he gave me $10 and said it was for the person in back of him, who he apparently did not know. When this person came along, I told him that the fee was already paid. He then gave me $10 for the driver in back of him. This “pay it forward” continued for at least fifteen cars.
I have been doing this for about ten years and have never experienced anything like this. Ironically, the process was only stopped by a person who wasn’t required to pay anyway. In retrospect I could have continued it, using the last $10. But I was so amazed that it had lasted as long as it did, it didn’t occur to me.
This incident was, of course, a small gesture. But in this world of meanness, cruelty and selfishness, I’ll take even a modicum of kindness and generosity.
Ted Jochsberger
West Tisbury
