WEST SACRAMENTO CA (IFS) -- The morning already started off with a brisk white-knuckle drive in the early morning faced with getting to work, playing "Beat the Clock", and it's Friday. With 100 miles under my belt, and it was not even noon yet. I was tired, hungry, angry that my GPS has sent me to the wrong address, not only once, but twice. I ended up at my third location and only to find out, the clerk cannot find my reservation.
I find myself at the counter with eight customers standing behind me and my phone is slow. I finally get him the other numbers where the reservation maybe and nothing. The crowd is getting a little warm. I tell the clerk "thank you" and move out of the line and to the customer's area to regroup.
It takes me ten minutes to get a message out of the mountains. I'm there so long in the lounge area, that the outside equipment manager comes into the area and ask me if he could help me. I tell him that the reservation is lost in the system and the first clerk wants to reschedule me two weeks from now. I'm sick. Really sick.
The equipment manager takes me up to the counter and sends for his computer technician, and within a couple of keystrokes, she produces a sheet copy of the reservation. She calls the install center and I'm first in-line. My car is running out of gas, and this is a good time to get something to eat and drink too.
I pulled into this Chevron Station behind a young lady who appeared to be searching for something in her car to no avail. I noticed that I was on the wrong side of the pump. Pulling around to the front of the Stop and Go mart, I was hungry and just needed to wind down.
After walking around the store and collecting items to snack on, I found myself to be the second patron in-line. The young lady who was in the vehicle in the first gas line was now in the store checking line and with her "electronic bank card", it was total rejection. With these new electronic bank cards, they use "Block-Chain" processing and selective banking establishments, causing the cardholder to search around for a merchant that does.
The clerk was just into her routine and the cash register. It's always "Next in Line". You get to move it along. When the young lady asked if there was another way to pay, as she only had a check and she was desperately going to be late. With five men standing in line now, she asked out loud, if anyone could help her.
It must have been dead silence for several seconds, with my voice finally breaking through and telling the young lady that she could have half of what I was going to get, and asked her would that get her to where she had to go. The young lady said that's more than enough and "Thank You So Much".
But the story was the clerk and her reaction to my offer to pay for the gasoline. I believe she was going to cry. She asked me was I really going to pay for her gas, and I said yes. So, she heads toward the door and asked the young lady her pump number and grade.
After the transaction had been completed, the clerk told me "God Bless You and Thank you for service to our country." She further asked if I was "paying it forward?" I told her that I did not know. It was just a fellow citizen that needed some help, and I was there. It was my turn to be an angel.
The Bob Mora and the Third Degree Blues Band was on the back of the card I received from this young lady. What got me was --where they live -- Rough & Ready CA 95975. That is so cool.
