Do You Admit Your Own Stupidity?

I've been very stupid lately, so I was just remembering back when I was just as stupid. It must have been 1999 or 2000.

I was waiting for a bus to work. It was like 6:00am in the morning, when a crusty old tan VW van pulled up and the black woman inside offered me a ride.

Well, in the darkness, I coulda sworn she was a coworker from work, so I was very thankful she had stopped. But when I opened the van door and the interior light came on, it was a total stranger.

I said, "You're not Gina. I don't know you!"

She yeah, but that she was a good person, she just needed my bus fare ($1.10) for gas money. "Get in."

I hesitated.

Then she said, "Just cuz I'm black doesn't mean I'm going to kill you. I'm a decent person. Get in."

And white guilt set in (I didn't want her to think I was a racist) so I GOT IN!

Ugh!


OKAY, HERE'S THE REST OF THE STORY, AS PEE WEE HERMAN OR PAUL HARVEY WOULD SAY (I get them two confused all the time)

I got in real nervous and apparently without the use of my brain... into the van with this total stranger.

I'm a big guy, but this petit black woman had me scared sh!tless.She grabbed my briefcase and threw it int he backseat (great....that was the only defense I had...)

She asked me to pick up something on the floor near my feet. I bent over, watching her the whole time so she wouldn't go for a gun or a lead pipe. It was amake-up compact.

She asked me to buckle up - thank God I was even fatter than than I am now because I pretended I couldn't get the belt around me. I lied and made her drop me off at a nondescript place downtown.I gave her 10 dollars and told her we both shoulda never done it. She cried and prayed over the money.

I felt like a heel.

David was later on hold at work, telling this story to a co-worker when the woman at the other end came on, just at the "Just cuz I'm black doesn't mean I'm gonna kill ya" part.

So David had to tell the entire story to a complete stranger, who replied, "I AM black and I wouldn't a got into the van!!!!"

I told Gina the whole story, and she said about the same thing...

I was stupid, what can I say?