By Jim Hunt for the News and Journal
My wife and I decided to take a quick trip to our house at Crystal Lake in Doddridge County on a recent Saturday afternoon and headed out around 1:00 PM. As we navigated through the maze of construction zones on Route 50, I started to hear an odd noise coming from the left side of my truck. It sounded like a window was cracked open. Just as I asked my wife to check hers, the sound turned into a thumping that I could feel through the steering wheel. I quickly pulled over to the side of the road.
News and Journal
When I got out and walked around the truck, I found the problem—a shredded tire, barely hanging onto the rim. As cars and trucks flew past us, my wife and I weighed our options. She called our son, Jason, while I decided to make use of the time and get the jack and spare tire ready before he arrived.
I lowered the spare from under the truck bed, only to learn a valuable lesson: spare tires are completely useless if they have no air in them. At that point, it was clear we needed professional help, so we called for a wrecker. Jason arrived shortly afterward and had the truck in the air and the bad tire off in no time.
Just then, a car pulled up behind us. I walked over to let the driver know we had help on the way.
I explained the situation with the flat spare, and without hesitation, he offered to take it to the gas station and fill it for us. I thanked him and said the wrecker should be there soon.
Moments later, another driver pulled over from the opposite side of the highway. He’d seen us and turned around just to check if he could help. While we were talking, the wrecker finally arrived. The driver took one look and said he had a compressor onboard. He rolled the spare over, filled it up in just a few minutes, and handed it back, ready to go. Jason secured the new tire, and just like that, we were back in business.
I asked the wrecker driver how much I owed him, but he just smiled and waved me off with a “Have a nice day.” I pressed a twenty-dollar bill into his hand anyway, grateful for his kindness.
On what started as a routine day, my wife and I encountered three good Samaritans who stopped what they were doing to help two strangers—and one good Samaritan who we’re lucky enough to call our son. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking the world is full of people too busy or too preoccupied to care about others. But that day reminded us that kindness still lives in the hearts of many. Sometimes, all it takes is a flat tire to see it.
