I was hitchhiking across the country before reaching the age of 21. I was without money and hadn't eaten anything for a while. I was roaming the streets in Minneapolis and it was late in the day along with being extremely cold. I came to a small store on a street corner that sold food and I went inside and asked the clerk if I could sweep off the sidewalk to the front of her store for a loaf of bread and a quart of milk.

The clerk told me that this store belonged to her father and that she couldn't give to me anything that she proudly claimed belonged to him.  However, she continued on by telling me that she was about to close the store for the day and that she was willing to take me over to where she and her boyfriend lived and also to where I could get something to eat, take a bath, listen to her boyfriend play his guitar and even sleep there for one night.

I couldn't believe hearing the words that had entered my ears and wholeheartedly thanked this young woman for her generosity.  All of those things on that particular cold Minneapolis night that she promised me actually took place. The next morning, after having a sound sleep in a warm bed and not on the side of a road/freeway,  I was given breakfast and I have totally forgotten what was on the menu for that particular morning.  Afterwards, she gave me a ride to where she felt would be a much easier place for me to hitchhike while she was on her way over to the University of Minnesota, in the Minneapolis/Saint Paul area, where she attended college with some of her friends.

I was willing to sweep the front sidewalk of her father's store for a loaf of bread and milk, a job proposal she justifiably turned down, and then she enthusiastically wanted me to know that she could offer me even a lot more than that:  A genuine heart full of compassion with a taste of the best that humanity could offer me at the time...along with letting me know that her honesty and integrity towards worldly goods which belonged to her father couldn't be altered or compromised.

Interesting too is that before I had entered that small mom and pop corner grocery store in Minneapolis on that cold evening night, I was in a smaller community many miles south of there.  While in that town I had visited a number of grocery stores and asked if I could sweep off the sidewalk in front of their store for a loaf of bread and milk and my proposal for temporary employment with them was turned down and no reason was ever given to me for the job rejection.

To this day, I do not know the name of that young woman. That was over 50 years ago.  Happy "for her" Thanksgiving.