Four Quarters

     I was parked outside of a laundromat waiting on my husband to come out of the local Stewarts with some milk and juice. I was looking around and noticed a man, not in too good of shape, but not too bad either. He walked up to the garbage opened it and peeked in. He pulled out a brown bag looked inside and, "click click click", I locked my doors. He didn't find any food in the bag so he just put it back in and sat at the bench. I watched him for a second to see what he was going to do. Nothing...just sat there. Well it was about 6pm. I knew the second my husband came out of the store with our beverages, the man would approach him for money. Sure enough he did. However, we don't carry cash, nor do we have much to spare, we are a single income family who have to budget wisely, in which with my chocolate cravings and gas prices has not been so easy lately! I unlocked the door for my husband to put his beverages down and he went inside to grab our laundry. We didn't say a word. When he came back I asked him "did he ask you for money?" and he replied yes of course. I told him hes probably just hungry. We sat there for a second. My husband reached in his bag and grabbed out a 1/2 gallon of his apple juice and got out of the car. I watched him walk over to the man and hand it to him. It then occurred to me that we hesitated at first. We almost didn't care! I even locked my doors. I think that is where the problem is at. Now don't get me wrong everyone has their own lives, but too many people would look at that man and just not care. They would rather pass judgement on them "go get a job" or "how did you end up this way anyway" or "they probably would buy beer". I too have had these thoughts before. However, we don't know his story. He could have had a job, a home, food, but he might have lost it and then everything else. He could not even like alcohol. He is probably wishing he had a job. A person would rather walk by and ignore him, not care that he might be going hungry for the third day in a row. I wish I had atleast a dollar to hand this man. Just FOUR quarters! But I had just put mine in the washing machine. When we drove away I felt like I should have done more, I wish I could have done more. I was so proud that my husband went back over to him and gave him some of what we had, without saying anything mean to the man, just wishing him luck. We need more people to care. If you think about it, how many times have you spent tons of money on pointless things? So passing a buck to this person would probably feel better than buying that cheeseburger that your not even hungry for, but are just bored and figured you'd eat something. I have decided to try and always have a dollar on me....in any way, bill or change, help is help, and if you reached out for it, you would hope someone would care too.