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Words by Bridgette Fossil

Video by Alex Zuckerman

“Double cap to stay for the lady!” “Two iced coffees to go for the gentleman!” the barista enthusiastically yelled to her co-worker preparing the drinks over a blaring Florence + the Machine song and the noise of the crowded coffee shop.

It’s a Sunday morning in Princeton and people are lining up for their fill of morning caffeine at Princeton’s beloved Small World Coffee.

Lines are annoying. They are long and often fail to move along at a desirable speed, especially if you are late for an appointment or are still half asleep and craving your large coffee with just the right amount of milk and sugar to start being productive for the day. Like some things in life, lines are always rewarding if you choose to have enough patience to wait long enough in them. Because eventually, you will get to the front of it and place your need will be satisfied.

However, you may get lucky if that girl in front of you decides to leave the line for one reason or another, pushing your spot closer to the register, closer to your coffee, and closer to starting your day. Today, for our Random Acts of Kindness Project, I was “that girl”.

Sporting my white and orange Princeton Scoop tee shirt peeking out of my blue sweater, I waited in the line at Small World and when I was a couple of people away from the register, I would casually turn around and tell the person behind me to take my spot as I became the caboose of the line.

I felt awkward at times; people were confused and sometimes apprehensive and didn’t understand where I was going or why I was giving up my spot. So I had to be persistent and friendly to complete the task.

After each person that took my spot ordered their drink, Alex interviewed them for a reaction on the act. Every person was smiling with appreciation. One woman said that it made her morning much better than it had been. As I watched the interview happen from the back of the line I felt like my morning had gotten better too. It was a small thing that I did-letting people just get three steps closer in the line, but to me, the smile on their faces had made my coffee that much sweeter.

After I had let about seven people line-hop me, I bought the two large iced coffees that the man in front of me ordered. He was very surprised and was hesitant on letting me treat him, but he gave in after I insisted several times. He was very appreciative and had a beaming smile on his sunburned face while holding his daughter’s hand. He said that it is rare that people do things like this anymore in today’s world and he asked why I was doing it and what made me choose to buy his order.

I simply told him I am just trying to do a little random act of kindness today and I thanked him.

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By Bridgette Fossel

 It was 8 a.m. on a Wednesday morning and unlike the recent mornings of my summer at home from college, I found myself out of bed and outside with the sun. Accompanied by a large Box of Joe and Munchkins purchased from Dunkin’ Donuts, two tall blue garbage bins, the camera gal; Alex Zuckerman, the cheerleader; Melissa Klepacki, and a homemade sign gripped my hands on the side of the road anxiously waiting for the garbagemen to arrive.

As time passed, several cars drove by on the busy road with a 40 mph speed limit, heads from inside the vehicles were arching their necks and staring at my sign that read “Have you thanked your Garbagemen today?!”. Some people beeped in approval with one hand while holding their own morning coffee in the opposite one. Others displayed a smile on their faces, waved or gave me a ‘thumbs-up’. One man in a landscaping company pick-up truck even took both hands off the wheel and dangerously gave me two thumbs-up and a beep with a smile and cheer.

There were a lot of cars however, whose eyes my sign did not catch, and then there were those who just stared. Maybe those cars were accelerating too fast to read, comprehend and react to the sign. Or perhaps they did read it, thought about the words on my sign as I was a distant image in the rear view mirror, and wondered when, if ever, was the last time they thanked or even acknowledged their garbagemen. That is the goal of this project; to make people think and to inspire them to duplicate our act or do their own.

Over an hour had gone by and I was getting antsy, hot and discouraged. My fingers were aching from holding the sign and collecting ink from the black words on the poster board. I tried to stay positive and reassure myself that the garbage truck would be behind the next car that passed. But it wasn’t. And it wasn’t behind the next car either.

Two and a half hours and about 140 cars had passed me on the side of the road with my sign, when suddenly the roar of a truck from the neighboring street travelled into our ears. And sure enough, a big blue garbage truck was approaching us. A rush of adrenaline took over me and the discouraging feelings I had had moments earlier were immediately forgotten.

There he was, the man of the morning, waving with a smile from ear-to-ear as he pulled up next to me collecting the trash from the cans through his machine first, like a good garbageman would, and then climbing out of his truck to greet me.  A short, muscular Caucasian man with a pierced ear and his wide smile still intact came over to me. I told him that he helps our community immensely and that we just wanted to thank him for doing his under-appreciated job by giving him the coffee and donuts to enjoy for the remainder of his morning rounds.

He was at a loss for words and said something that made the long morning of waiting in the sun for almost three hours with my sign completely worth it; “In my 23 years of doing this, nobody has ever done something like this for me. Thank you so much!”

We waved good-bye to him as he drove away and knowing that that small deed made his day, made my day as well.

So if you have yet to thank your garbageman today, hopefully this post has inspired you to do so or thank somebody else who doesn’t hear it as often as they should.

Video: Alex Zuckerman

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