With clients scattered around the United States, a good part of my business meetings involve travel.  Most of that travel is within a 50 mile radius.  A couple of weeks ago, while driving between client meetings in Newark, NJ, my car stopped in the middle of the street.   "Stopped" is probably not the correct word - died is more like it, and it occurred right when I was switching from the center to the left lane to make a turn.

 

There I was, in the middle of a run-down Newark neighborhood with a line of cars stopped behind me!

 

I called Tele-Aid, got out of the car and directed traffic.  Now, I don’t know about you, but I always thought that if you have a decent, one-year-old car and take care of it, when you step on the gas, it should go!  Guess I was wrong.

 

Within a couple of minutes, a man and a woman came out of a shop across the street and helped me push the car to the side of the road.  A patrol car pulled up to see if I was O.K.  Officer Costas said he would be in the area and gave me his phone number if I needed help.  The owner of Sisbarro’s Towing, Pat Sisbarro, showed up and towed me back to Edison.

 

It was a frustrating afternoon but I got a chance to meet some nice folks.  My car may have died, but my faith in the goodness of people was rekindled.