"Michael Pardee" > wrote

> True story.... 27 years ago we were on a family vacation when the timing
> belt failed on our Mercury Capri, Sunday morning between Palmdale and
> Lancaster in the California high desert... a day's travel from home. I had a
> tool box and Chilton's manual. A good samaritan took me to a gas station
> where I called around and found a store with a timing belt. Then he took me
> there and to our car (thanks eternally, Mr. Horn, wherever you are!) The
> engine was non-interference and the crank pulley didn't have to come off to
> get the cover off, so we were back on our way a few hours later. There *is*
> a God!
> Mike

Wow, people a really nice 27 years ago. My parents Cutlass's fuel pump cuts
out in Lancaster at 3AM in 1998. The car was towed to a downtown repair center.
My parents spoke little English and the drifters in the streets were eying them.
Miraculously, a good Samaritan, of their age, gave them a ride to his place to
have tea and make a phone call. There is a God today, but "don't count on it." I'll let
my parents stick with their 270K-mi Honda for now which never cuts out on them.

I notice the word Samaritan is capitalized. This must've been an actual person. :-)