Modern Vespa

A neighbor who lives a few doors down from us is a 50-ish university professor (chemistry). His married kids come over to visit quite frequently, so it is a very common sight to see him or his wife strolling past our house with one or more of their toddler grand kids, on the way to the playground.

Early on, I noticed that all of their grand kids seemed to be fascinated by my shiny red scooter, so I extended an open invitation to them to feel free to sit the little kids on my scoot anytime they saw it parked.

I knew it would mean having to frequently readjust my mirrors and wipe off dirty fingerprints, but they are really nice people who went out of their way to make us feel welcome when we moved in to the neighborhood... so I wanted to give something back when the opportunity presented itself.

Over the past few months I've been pleasantly surprised to note that whenever he or his wife come by with the grand kids and let them sit on the scooter, they ALWAYS make a point of wiping down the mirrors and other shiny bits with a tissue before leaving so that I don't have to contend with dirty fingerprints.

This gesture only reinforced my sense that these are good people, and made me glad I'd extended the offer.

But I wasn't prepared for what I found when we returned from our 2.5 week vacation in the U.S. (which had come on the heels of a two week business trip in India):

As we pulled up in front of our house I was prepared to find my scooter (chained to the light post out front) covered in dust since we live in a desert climate and it hadn't been ridden in well over a month.

What I found was my neighbor and two of his grand kids washing my scooter! They had a big bucket of sudsy water and a couple more of clear rinse water. Everyone had their own sponge, and they were having a blast in the heat getting each other wet while washing down the scooter.

When we stepped out of our airport taxi, the neighbor ran up to me and apologized (can you believe it!) for not having asked permission. He explained that the sight of my normally shiny scooter covered in dust had made his grand kids sad, so they had asked if they could give it a wash. Given the heat wave he'd decided to turn it into an excuse to let them cool off as well.

It's stuff like this that restores my faith in mankind. I can bank an experience like this, and it will tide me over nicely through several months of encounters (on and off the road) with @ssholes.

That's a great story! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Whoah! GREAT story! I get so sick of reading stories illustrating the apparant de-evolution of man...thank you so much for sharing this experience with your nice neighbors.

Don't thank me... I'm a giver.

Trep

Whilst this story says a lot about your neighbours, I think it says something about you too.

If it was me, I'd be somewhere between

"Hey folks, that's really kind of you"

and

"WTF ? I hope you haven't got water in the electrics/engine whinge whinge whinge whinge whinge".

I figure that so long as they aren't using a high pressure hose, they can't do much damage, since the thing is designed to be able to work in the rain and ride though puddles.

Also, I don't have an expensive leather seat to worry about like you do.

+1

What a neat story. I just read it to my wife, who loved it, also.
Great way to start off my Sunday morning.

Thanks.

Thanks for sharing that- I love not starting my day reading the latest run down of backed over or stolen scooters.

Sounds like both you and your neighbors have developed a good relationship. Good karma for all.

Nice story. Makes you feel good about people.

Not all people are good, considerate or worthy of such gestures. Like I said, something nice like this will make it possible for me to tolerate the unworthy for just a little longer.

How blessed you are to have such great neighbors. Great story. But of course had you not been the initial mensch to offer them the opportunity to sit on the scoot in the first place. . . Still it is wonderful that you have your neighbors and wonderful that you appreciate them as well.

If YOU are a good neighbor, you usually live in a neighborhood with good neighbors. Truly, what goes around comes around - has worked for me my whole life. Best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend!

I guess I would thank him for the clean scoot... and quietly be looking for something to do in return. Something nice; as a gesture of thanks.

I think that kind of courtesy rates a plate of brownies!
What a lovely story, and how fortunate you are with neighbors.

My prior neighbor was a very nice 90+ year old gent. He used to be a wing-walker on a bi-plane! He was still very active and gardened every day. He would bring my trashcans in to my carport every Monday after the trash pick-up, and sign for my packages when I wasn't home! He would pull weeds he saw along my lawn! He was friendly and pleasant and I loved listening to his stories of when he was younger.

His family took him away when his partner of 26 years fell and broke her hip, and had to go into a nursing home. They never married, because she would have lost the money from her husband's pension if she had.
I think he recently had his 100th birthday, because someone had mentioned they saw it in the local paper. I had planned to give him a model bi-plane for it, but his family don't keep in touch with anyone in the complex any more, so I don't know where he is now.

Neighbors like him are gold!

Such a nice story! I love cool neighboors, they're the best!

I completely agree. Neighbors are like teeth, backs and feet; You don't really notice/appreciate them until there's a problem.

Over the weekend this neighbor brought a few of his grand kids to our garden gate to say hello to our black Labs (another ritual they perform on the way to and from the playground), and I thanked them all again for washing the scoot.

They all looked surprised - the little kids just as much as the grandfather - as if they should have been thanking me for the opportunity to have a water fight on a hot day.

Clearly, those kids are being raised right. I just wish that sort of thing was catchy.

Treppenwitz, you are an unbelievably nice person. Kids crawling on my scoot? I think my head would explode. Come home to find them washing it? That's a Waco moment.

My kids get to sit on mine and pretend occasionally, but as for the next door neighbor kids--well--this is a pretty accurate representation of the neighbor kids (and their parents):

I'll add to this, though mine is NSR. 6 weeks ago I was out for a bike ride and the bag that had my wallet, glasses, keys, and cell phone broke away from the bike and went missing in action. Oh well, crap happens, I made a quick search knowing the general area it had to happen and I found the broken strap. No luck.

So I wrote it off. Cancelled the cards, replaced license, rekeyed locks on the house, replaced cell phone. The glasses were not my everyday glasses, and were by far the most expensive item in the bag, so I had not replaced them yet.

Last night I get a phone call. A gentleman had found the bag and wished to return it. It was nearly 35 miles from where it was lost. Everything was present except for the cash. The phone even worked ( anybody want a Palm Pre+ on AT&T with a couple of touchstones ? ) and there was no evidence that the bag had ever gotten wet.

Best guess is that someone found it between the time I lost it and the time we looked for it (less than an hour) since it rained quite hard that night, took the cash and left it in their car for several weeks. Then dumped it several weeks later where it was found by this nice gent. He called and we met this morning on his way to work where he returned it.

I offered him cash for returning it and he refused, unwilling to accept anything for 'doing the right thing'.

Guy deserves some good karma in real life. Where is my real world thumb up button dangit.

What a wonderful, uplifting story. To be such a role model to his grandkids. I predict that they, (the grandchildren), will do great things in the future.