Some Things are Proven the Hard Way

Have you seen many a gentleman in the neighborhood lately? For example, when was the last time a young man held the door for you at the mall instead of just letting it go and slamming it in your face? Oh and the dreaded moment when you wait and let someone come into your lane only to be totally ignored with not even a wave of a thank you. I have felt that the ways of manners have gone by the wayside with a once in awhile yes mam or no mam heard now and again. This is something that really irks my soul, as Meredith Jeppson would say. We have raised our boys to be gentlemen. Many nights they have gotten in a little late because they stopped to help someone who had a flat tire or who had lost their way. One Sunday I waited and waited for Eric to get home from up north part of the Stake on a horrendously rainy and stormy Sunday. He finally got home absolutely soaked because he had stopped to help a young mother who was walking in the storm with a little toddler.

But, alas, proven to me the hard way and I do mean the hard way, that for the most part a gentleman cannot be found. I have been taking Hatcher on two walks a day--one in the morning before reading the paper and then later in the day. It's a great way to exercise. My walking is not a non-chalant, dilly dally walk. It is walk at a trot. Isn't that the purpose of exercise to raise the heartbeat? Being the coordinated person that I am and so dedicated to my walking (which I truly am by the way), before I knew it Friday morning I was laying on Westgate Street flat on my feet, knees and upper body. Hatcher didn't even know I fell. He just kept going, leash dragging behind him. I had broken out in a sweat, thought I was going to throw up, and called out to Hatcher to come back. He was a gentleman and came right to my side and sat down. Now as for the nit wit in the black SUV sitting at the corner of Westgate and Brandywine watching this whole thing, if I could have gotten up I would have sicced my dog on him.

I sat up to call Maren (yes I always carry my cell phone with me when I walk) and the nit wit in the SUV drove away. I could not believe it. If that had been my son and I knew he did that, I would have slapped him up side his head.

Meanwhile waiting for maren and Ryan to come get me, a young man pulled up behind me and got out of his truck to see if I was OK. My faith in the genlemen of the world just became a little stronger. I told him my family was coming and he told me that he would stay with me until they got there. And that is exactly what he did. So, I pray that to pay it forward I will have the opportunity to help someone else someday as this kind gentleman did.

As for the injury report--baldy sprained ankle (I am in one of those annoying boots), my shoulder is banged up but I don't know what it is, and my arms and knees look like a little kid covered with bo bos (Or as we would say in New York-boo boos). And as for another gentleman, Eric called Marshall Hayes who was out of town and everything was set up for me at his office to get my ankle taken care of until he can see me on Tuesday. Any of you young single girls that might read this, when you are looking for your one and only, make sure he is a gentleman; and if you don't know what one is like since they are so had to find nodaways, come to my house or the Hayes house and you will find fine examples of what you need to find in your one and only.