From the Roadshow archives: Being thankful for the kindness and heroism in others

Editor’s note: Mr. Roadshow wanted to share some of his favorite columns and stories from more than 30 years of informing, entertaining and getting things changed for Bay Area (and beyond) drivers. He’ll be back on the road with new material soon. In the meantime, please keep sending Mr. Roadshow your comments or questions to mrroadshow@bayareanewsgroup.com.
This story originally was published on Nov. 26, 2020.

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday of the year. We will find a way to enjoy it even during this terrible pandemic, with the guidelines on not gathering in large groups to celebrate and feast in the ways we normally would. So here’s some cheer, and good stories, to recognize people who have performed kind and heroic acts.

TWO HEROES AT A BART STATION
A young woman dropped a bag at the BART Powell Street station in San Francisco. When she leaned to pick it up, she slipped off the platform onto the tracks below. An unidentified man jumped onto the rail line to try to get her back onto the platform. He could not lift her to safety alone and a second man jumped down to help. Together they managed to get her back onto the platform.
The second hero who helped lift the woman to safety was Matt-the-Roadshow-Son. Jan and I are so relieved you were safe and so proud of you that you helped prevent a tragedy in this dangerous situation.

ALEX AND OLLIE
This comes from the Almanac Express, a terrific source of local news along the Peninsula that found Alex Roginski, who in non-COVID-19 times would be a freshman at UC Santa Barbara. Instead, he’s been doing remote learning from his Menlo Park home during the pandemic, and he’s not goofing around when not busy with school.
Instead, he hops on his bike every day with a trailer he tows, a trash picker-upper and his Jack Russell terrier, Ollie, on two-hour rides around Menlo Park and Redwood City streets.
“I like finding a really dirty street and cleaning it,” Roginski told the Express. “What I realize is the routes I cleaned a few weeks back are still pretty clean. … It feels like the right thing to do.”
Keep it up, kid. And good luck with school, too.

A TEENAGER WHO MAY HAVE SAVED LIVES
A man who drove to the Monte Family Skate Park in Capitola last month was reported to CHP as being under the influence after getting into a verbal altercation with kids at the park and driving off in a Volvo station wagon.
The hero? A quick-thinking 14-year-old at the park called the CHP and gave a description of the vehicle and license plate, which helped locate the driver at the 76 gas station in Aptos passed out in his car.
The CHP arrested the driver for suspicion of DUI. They would not release the name of the 14-year-old who may testify at the trial. The boy may well have saved lives, including the driver.