A sad indictment of our times…

[xyz48B]

https://www.wcvb.com/article/good-deed-massachusetts-oil-delivery-driver-clears-snow-from-87-year-old-steps-nahant/38963819
 

Good deed: Massachusetts oil delivery driver clears snow from 87-year-old's steps

First, it’s nice to see a positive story in the news.

But it does strike me as a sad indictment of our times that something like this becomes newsworthy. Are we that desperately hungry for any morsel of good news?

[CuriousByNature]

Hopefully it will encourage others too.

[xyz48B]

It is nice to see there are good people out there still. So many only look out for themselves. 

[+ StLouisOct]

50 minutes ago, xyz48B said:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/good-deed-massachusetts-oil-delivery-driver-clears-snow-from-87-year-old-steps-nahant/38963819
 

Good deed: Massachusetts oil delivery driver clears snow from 87-year-old's steps

First, it’s nice to see a positive story in the news.

But it does strike me as a sad indictment of our times that something like this becomes newsworthy. Are we that desperately hungry for any morsel of good news?

Gosh newspapers and television news have been covering stories like this since they started publishing and broadcasting.

[xyz48B]

51 minutes ago, StLouisOct said:

Gosh newspapers and television news have been covering stories like this since they started publishing and broadcasting.

Were you there? 😂 

[Guest]

I do this kind of stuff regularly for neighbors and friends.  To me, it’s simply paying it forward because of a neighbor who bent over backwards to assist my family - while I was young - on many things my father couldn’t do because of health/alcoholism issues.  I don’t say this to highlight me, but rather the positive impact that my neighbor had on me half a century ago.  

[Luv2play]

7 hours ago, xyz48B said:

Were you there? 😂 

Actually you can read old newspapers going back over a hundred years by going to newspapers.com and signing up for a membership. It's how I found out my grandfather had been involved in a lawsuit in 1908 which he never told anyone about in the family (he lost his claim for damages). I guess he was embarrassed.

[+ poolboy48220]

Our neighborhood clears each other's walks regularly.  I joked with one that it was my passive-aggressive jealousy over him finding a better yet cheaper snow blower than mine, but it's a regular thing to do three or four house's walks, not just your own.  My neighbors on one side and I have alternated weeks on front-lawn mowing for years, back from one year when their lawnmower was broken and it was a trivial effort for me to do both. I do love where I live.

[xyz48B]

49 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

It's how I found out my grandfather had been involved in a lawsuit in 1908 which he never told anyone about in the family

That must’ve been a shock.

What moved you to be checking out the old newspapers?

@BnaC– I think some of that makes a difference if you grew up in a community with immediate neighbors. My closest neighbors were a few miles down the road growing up. That was true for most people in my area. It’s true for a lot of folks even today in rural areas. It might be why we see such a premium put on self reliance by folks from rural areas and why appeals to looking out for other people sometimes fall on unreceptive ears.

Edited February 5, 2022 by xyz48B

[+ StLouisOct]

9 hours ago, xyz48B said:

Were you there? 😂 

Ah Grasshopper, reading takes me everywhere, past, present and future. 🙏🏻😀

[xyz48B]

@StLouisOct– Ain’t that the truth. A good novel will erase the anxieties of the present age for a period…

[Rudynate]

10 hours ago, xyz48B said:

Were you there? 😂 

Aren't they called "human interest stories?"  I agree - the media love to cover good deeds.

[Rudynate]

11 hours ago, StLouisOct said:

Gosh newspapers and television news have been covering stories like this since they started publishing and broadcasting.

They might be more noteworthy now since people are so isolated from each other by the pandemic.

[xyz48B]

2 minutes ago, Rudynate said:

the media love to cover good deeds.

I guess I watch and read the wrong stuff. It seems my TV and newsfeed is surfeited with negativity. 

[xyz48B]

Just now, Rudynate said:

They might be more noteworthy now since people are so isolated from each other by the pandemic.

Quite possibly. I was thinking because it’s an older woman.

[Luv2play]

2 hours ago, xyz48B said:

That must’ve been a shock.

What moved you to be checking out the old newspapers?

@BnaC– I think some of that makes a difference if you grew up in a community with immediate neighbors. My closest neighbors were a few miles down the road growing up. That was true for most people in my area. It’s true for a lot of folks even today in rural areas. It might be why we see such a premium put on self reliance by folks from rural areas and why appeals to looking out for other people sometimes fall on unreceptive ears.

I'm  very involved in historical activities and one of my current jobs is to get our local newspaper digitized. We have an archive of this weekly newspaper going back to the 1890s. Earlier editions were microfilmed a couple of decades ago with those papers going back to the 1860s. Our local paper traced its roots back to 1816.

With digitized copies you just have to punch in a name and up pops all the citations related to that person. Great for research.

Edited February 5, 2022 by Luv2play

[+ Charlie]

3 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Actually you can read old newspapers going back over a hundred years by going to newspapers.com and signing up for a membership. It's how I found out my grandfather had been involved in a lawsuit in 1908 which he never told anyone about in the family (he lost his claim for damages). I guess he was embarrassed.

When I was researching family history, I discovered an old newspaper in Salt Lake City that had a story about my grandfather in 1899 suing the Southern Pacific RR, because he had been riding in a freight car ("Go west, young man!"), and a security guard found him and threw him off the moving train, causing injuries for which he was hospitalized in SLC. A federal judge dismissed the suit. That was an incident that I had never heard about.

[Luv2play]

2 minutes ago, Charlie said:

When I was researching family history, I discovered an old newspaper in Salt Lake City that had a story about my grandfather in 1899 suing the Southern Pacific RR, because he had been riding in a freight car ("Go west, young man!"), and a security guard found him and threw him off the moving train, causing injuries for which he was hospitalized in SLC. A federal judge dismissed the suit. That was an incident that I had never heard about.

I imagine it was a federal case because of the railway being involved?

My grandfather sued a stockbroker for loses incurred when the broker failed to execute a sell order in a timely fashion. He lost the suit. 

Three years later my grandfather became a broker in Toronto, I guess so he could handle his own investments.

[+ Charlie]

3 minutes ago, Luv2play said:

I imagine it was a federal case because of the railway being involved?

My grandfather sued a stockbroker for loses incurred when the broker failed to execute a sell order in a timely fashion. He lost the suit. 

Three years later my grandfather became a broker in Toronto, I guess so he could handle his own investments.

Yes, it was a federal judge.

[Luv2play]

1 minute ago, Charlie said:

Yes, it was a federal judge.

I can only imagine how difficult it was going up against a railway company in 1899. The age of the robber railway barons.

[Todd Jenkins]

So, I am in MEDIA. I work in it EVERY SINGLE DAY. I pitch multiple FEEL GOOD, HAPPY stories a week – THE MEDIA DOES NOT WANT THEM!!! Happy and Good DON'T SELL!!! The media LOOOOOVES the horrible shit.

Sad. But true.

There's MORE GOOD going on in the world today, but if the media talked about it, they couldn't lie to us so much!

[BSR]

15 hours ago, CuriousByNature said:

Hopefully it will encourage others too.

Too often after heavy snowfalls, you hear about some poor old man who died of a heart attack while shoveling his driveway.  Because snow removal is expensive, seniors on a fixed income have no choice but to try to do it themselves.  If this story inspired a few people to lend a helping hand, I'm all for it.

[nate_sf]

6 hours ago, Luv2play said:

Actually you can read old newspapers going back over a hundred years by going to newspapers.com and signing up for a membership. It's how I found out my grandfather had been involved in a lawsuit in 1908 which he never told anyone about in the family (he lost his claim for damages). I guess he was embarrassed.

I LOVE newspapers.com. I have a membership and love going through old articles and advertisements. I find local history interesting so this becomes a rabbit hole for me. My husband will look over at me and say, "are you going through those newspapers again?"

I think part of the reason for the disappearance of these human interest stories is that on the print broadsheet papers they often had small leftover areas on the page that needed to be filled with something. So there would be these random filler stories. I find those random filler stories to be so interesting just because they seem so odd ball and out of context.

[jeezifonly]

A recent tweet showed three young teens helping an old man struggling to exit a bus with parcel and a couple bags - making sure he was balanced and safe before heading on their way. It was unsolicited and kind of them to jump in.
A bystander filmed it, and his friend got out of the car and gave them each a bill or two to reward them.

Thank and compliment them if you see it. “We’ll done, man - you’re a hero”. Don’t give them money, please, unless you’re a parent of them. I think It’s enough to acknowledge it in person, and post a nice clip on the twitz as a surprise.

[xyz48B]

@jeezifonly– Eh. I heard about that. Today a few bucks isn’t anything. I see nothing wrong with that. I’m not going to criticize any of the kindness in that whole exchange. It was good all around.