Thanks. I enjoyed this story very much.
I have one of my own I would like to share. A true story.
It was July 1991 & I was a young soldier coming home on leave after being stationed overseas since 1987 (most recently in Desert Storm). I was sitting at a Bar (go figure) in DFW airport wearing my Class A's and struck up a conversation with an older gentlemen. We talked about military service and life in general for about an hour.
Near the end of this conversation he asked me where home was. I replied Houston and I'm just waiting for my connecting flight. He then asked me if I wouldn't mind driving home. I was somewhat confused but said that wouldn't be a problem really (uh, had to sober up a bit of course). The gentleman then offered me a car, with no strings attached. Said he had the title and everything and was just looking to help a soldier out.
I asked him why. I wasn't too concerned that he was trying to get something over on me (being a combat veteran & handy with my fists, I expected it would be a short struggle). He said that he was a young soldier once & was sitting in an airport on his way home after serving in the Korean War. He was sitting in a bar at an airport and an older gentleman gave him a free car.
He was just returning the favor.
The car I received was a 1972 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham with 60,000 miles on it and every gadget that 1972 could muster (everything worked too). The car had a 492 motor and probably got about 7 mfg (but it got this mileage really fast)! The car was so big it actually had fold down footrests in the back-seat....so your feet could touch the floor! I drove this car for nearly 3 years before it threw a rod, and had to be put down. My wife and I both cried when we had to leave "The Bad-illac" behind.
I never forgot this act of kindness. DW and I and kept in contact with the gentleman until his unfortunate passing in Winter 2006.
Christmas 2007 my turn came. I have a life-long buddy who stayed in the service and his unit was rotating back to Fort Hood from Iraq. I asked him to pick out someone from his unit who could really use a car and met them at DFW on their way back to Ft Hood.
The recipient was a PFC with special needs twins. Nice kid. Nice family.
The car? Well, it wasn't a Cadillac, but it was a very clean minivan with 35,000 miles. I understand that it is still running just fine.
It was really cool to be a part of passing along something positive.
I highly recommend it.