Social Question

LadyMarissa's avatar

Would you be willing to walk 20 miles to get to work?

Asked by LadyMarissa (16082points) July 17th, 2018
41 responses
“Great Question” (2points)

A young man in Alabama had recently been offered a job for a local moving company. The night before he was supposed to start his car broke down. Not wanting to call in on his first day on the job he got dressed for work & set out walking at midnight just to make sure he wasn’t going to be late for work. The cops stopped him to see what he was doing. Once they heard his story, they put him in their car & took him out to breakfast & still got him to work on time!!! The first customer he was set to move heard about his story & put it on Facebook plus she started a GoFundMe page to help this young man who has so much character. As it turns out, his boss saw the FB post & was so impressed that he decided to reward him for his efforts. The boss called him in to hand over the keys to his personal SUV so the young man wouldn’t need to walk until his own car could be repaired.

This young man was originally from New Orleans & he & his family had lost everything during Katrina. In place of saying that life is out to get me, he has chosen to be a productive member of society by working hard toward his goals.

Are you as impressed as I am with this young man???

Walk a mile in my shoes

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Answers

SQUEEKY2's avatar

Couldn’t do it with my bad knees.
But I would get there some how.

kritiper's avatar

No! I had a job in Las Vegas years ago that was 7 miles from where I lived. I could always get a ride there but could never get a ride back.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@SQUEEKY2 This kid looks to be around 20 so I’m guessing that he doesn’t have bad knees…yet!!!

I’m going to go out on a limb here & give credit to his Mother who has apparently instilled in him a good work ethic!!!

LadyMarissa's avatar

@kritiper Too bad I didn’t live/work close by as I would have given you a ride home!!!

rojo's avatar

Probably do me good.

Zaku's avatar

The most I have walked was 5 miles, but I took the bus there and then walked back from work, sometimes.

A 20-mile walk would tend to take about SIX HOURS, EACH WAY.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well, I’m trying to think of how many hours 40 miles round trip would cut out of a day? Would I have time left to sleep and eat?

snowberry's avatar

I couldn’t get the link to open. I tried to search for it, couldn’t find it. :(

Dutchess_III's avatar

When I was a kid, 15, 16, my friends and I did a 20 mile walk for some charity thing. It literally took us all day. Well, it seemed like it, anyway.

Call_Me_Jay's avatar

I walked 5 miles to work when I was 20. Even then I would not have done 20.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

I use to walk 11 miles, from my morning part-time job to evening college classes. I’d get a ride to work and one of my neighbors was taking classes at the same time, so I’d get a ride home. Not all the time most times i take a bus to school.

I am amzed that he did that.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@rojo I know it would do me good but I still don’t see me even attempting it!!!

Zaku's avatar

@Dutchess_III “Well, I’m trying to think of how many hours 40 miles round trip would cut out of a day? Would I have time left to sleep and eat?”

Not really. If you take 6 hours each way (Google maps walking time), and work 8 hours, that leaves you 4 hours for all meals, breaks, getting dressed, and sleep.

(Sounds like something some people would like to think people should be grateful to do for minimum wage.)

Dutchess_III's avatar

Yeah, that’s kind of what I figured @Zaku. I wonder if the story @LadyMarissa is real life or a feel good urban legend.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@Zaku & @Dutchess_III When I was this young man’s age, I could walk 4 miles in an hour. Logically speaking…assuming he didn’t get too tired, he could have conceivably made it in 5 hours. That’s 10 hours round trip with an 8 hour work day. So, he’d have less than 6 hours to eat, sleep & start over!!! I’m just as sure that he was going to grow tired & slow down!!!

LadyMarissa's avatar

@snowberry This was on my local news & I captured the link from cnn.news. I think it was on the front page of CNN under “News & Buzz” 4th link down. The story was also on Facebook. What makes this more amazing for me is that this gentleman is a young person of color out walking after midnight in Alabama. He could have been putting his life in danger. Attempting link again

Dutchess_III's avatar

Cool! that’s just cool.

Speaking of, I had a young bilingual Mexican kid who lived with me for about a year. One time we had to rush our dog to the vet. There was blood everywhere. After the vet started stiching the dog up, Jauvy turned green and rushed out the door. So there is this Mexican kid, running down the street as fast as he could, at night, covered in blood! Talk about getting your ass shot!

LadyMarissa's avatar

@Dutchess_III This story has been on 3 different news reports today; so, I can only assume that it is the truth & not an urban legend!!! IF you can show me that itis false, I’ll gladly delete this post!!! His name is Walter Carr & he’s NOT the Scottish actor who passed away in 1998.

CBS version of this story.

Demosthenes's avatar

I once hiked 18 miles in one day, and that was through rugged terrain. So I could probably do it, but I’d have to have a damn good reason for it :)

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well, the link you provided was from CNN so I accept it @LadyMarissa.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@Dutchess_III I don’t trust CNN so I looked further & it is being reported on most of the major US stations. Station all over the US are reporting this as fact. With today’s internet climate, I seldom just post the first thing I see without verifying that there is some basis to what I’ve read. It’s even being reported on the BBC!!!

Dutchess_III's avatar

@LadyMarissa I said I believe you!

CNN is a pretty good new site, but I was quite disappointed at how far down the list it was, according to this. So I quite perusing them. I stick with the BBC, NPR, ABC, those guys.

LadyMarissa's avatar

^^^ Bellhop Moving has also posted the video on their 6 year old Twitter account.
Bellhop Twitter

Dutchess_III's avatar

I SAID I BELIEVE YOU!!! Like, 5 posts ago!!

flutherother's avatar

I used to cycle 10 miles to get to work but I wouldn’t walk 20.Totally impractical on a regular basis.

Patty_Melt's avatar

I would have called my new boss and explained things to him.
I have worked moving jobs. A twenty mile walk getting there would make that employee useless for the day.
It was a brave attempt, and the results came up good, but foolhardy to believe he could actually do the work once he got there.

chyna's avatar

I saw that on the news last night. It made me tear up. No I wouldn’t walk 20 miles, probably not even 2 miles for a new job. But I’m getting older.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Patty_Melt the impression I got was that he was afraid his new boss was thinking he was making excuse already, so he just wanted to get to work on the first day, by whatever means necessary, to make a good appearance.

LadyMarissa's avatar

The impression I got was that he wanted the job so bad that he wasn’t willing to take the chance of being fired for not showing up on his first day!!!

LadyMarissa's avatar

@chyna He probably won’t be able to do it when he gets to be our ages either!!! When I was his age, I worked in DC & the lot where I parked my car was 2 miles from where I worked & I walked 4 miles a day just to keep my job!!! Actually, all that walking was really good for my figure!!! LoL

Dutchess_III's avatar

Well, yeah. Basically what I said @LadyMarissa.

chyna's avatar

@pattymelt According to the family that he was packing and moving, he did work the full day.

Patty_Melt's avatar

And he didn’t walk the twenty miles, and he was fed breakfast.

Dutchess_III's avatar

But he was going to. He left at mindnight. But yeah. He was given a ride. Wonder what he did in the hours before his work opened?

Patty_Melt's avatar

If it was Mayberry, a nap on a cot in an open jail cell, fresh coffee waiting.

chyna's avatar

@pattymelt. Nice of you to take away the credit for the huge effort this young person under took to get to get to work.~
He did make it to the town where he was supposed to start work.

Patty_Melt's avatar

What? I answered the question, no I wouldn’t, and why.
Not my fault the guy didn’t just call his boss and ask if there was anyone living nearby who could give him a ride.
Kudos to those who came to his aid, but I believe he had better options.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Patty_Melt He did not want to call his boss on his first day with car troubles! I understand his logic perfectly. Day one is Perfection Day. No excuses.

Patty_Melt's avatar

Well why did we ask the fucking question if only one answer will do?

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Obliviously to get you pissed off

And your answer is NO! @Patty_Melt.

You wouldn’t walk that far.

LadyMarissa's avatar

@Patty_Melt As the OP let me assure you that there is NO wrong answer to this Q!!! That is why I posted it under Social so everybody could be free to speak their mind openly & honestly!!! I’m confused by all the options you feel this young man had. IF he had called his boss to say my car is broke down & I need someone to drive out & pick me up, his boss would have more than likely responded “it’s NOT my job to get you to work. you either want to work or you don’t. You no longer need to worry about getting here in the morning.” Since he hadn’t even met any of his coworkers, how many do you think would be willing to get up at least an hour earlier to drive out to pick him up??? On the same thought, how many neighbors do you think would be willing to get up even 45 minutes earlier in order to drive him to his job??? Your neighbors won’t even close the lid on your trash can so I can’t imagine that they would offer to drive you ½ hour to a job!!!

For years, all I’ve heard are people complaining about poor people being on welfare while they sit home & play video games all day while doing drugs. This young man did NOT want to sit home all day getting paid to do nothing. He was PROUD to have a job & wanted to make damn sure that he didn’t lose it!!! I personally ADMIRE that attitude!!! He has set the bar high for any of his friends & I’m just as sure that he’s not that popular with many of his friends whose parents ask…“Why can’t you be like Walter???”

Admittedly he didn’t walk the entire 20 miles due to the cops picking him up. Nope, he only walked 14 miles. Still, when he left home, he had every intention of walking the full 20 miles if necessary!!! Yes, the cops bought him breakfast. Still, when he left home, he didn’t even know IF he’d get breakfast before he had to be at work!!! Did that stop him for setting out walking to be ON TIME for his job??? NOPE!!!

Maybe once he got to work & had the opportunity to meet some of his NEW coworkers he had every intention of coming up with a better plan so he didn’t need to walk the next day. The reality is that he felt he had NO other option on the first day & he showed GREAT responsibility & PRIDE in himself!!! He could have thrown his hands up & said “fuck it” but he DIDN’T!!!

Patty, I’m sorry you felt attacked while disagreeing with the majority of thoughts here. I don’t agree with most of what you had to say. Still, they are YOUR opinions & you are ENTITLED to believe in them wholeheartedly!!! On the other hand, those who don’t agree with them are just as entitled to believe just as passionately as some chose to express!!!

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