<p>I like to think I’d have done the same thing as Brad Warthen & his wife, but I probably would have driven right by. Thank goodness they didn’t.</p>
<p>"THE TERROR OF HAVING TO LET OUR KIDS OUT OF OUR SIGHT
By BRAD WARTHEN - Editorial Page Editor, The State (South Carolina Newspaper)</p>
<p>No man could have missed her. Dressed, if you want to call it that, in a hot little “nurse” costume — snug white dress covering not a bit of her long legs, pert little cap pinned atop blonde head, high-heeled white boots — she caught my eye from a block away.</p>
<p>“Somebody’s got her Halloween costume on,” I started saying to my wife with the least-interested tone I could muster. But something was wrong. The girl was teetering in a way that went beyond the impracticality of her boots. She barely made it across Main Street to the northwest corner of Main and Blossom, where a temporary tunnel guides pedestrians past high-rise construction…</p>
<p>I like to think I would. And calling the police for help would be an option as well.
Hopefully she’ll remember enough to not find herself in that situation again!</p>
<p>My kids think I am paranoid. “Mom, that stuff doesn’t happen. OK, well it doesn’t happen very often and it’s NOT going to happen to me!” Oh, to be as invincible as my kids think they are.</p>
<p>I know they were being good Samaritans and all, but isn’t it lucky it was them who put her into the car and not a creepy abductor? I wouldn’t offer a ride to a random drunk person for the reason that I wouldn’t take it (hopefully) if the situation were reversed - it’s dangerous to get in the car with people you don’t know, even moreso if you’re under the influence.</p>
<p>Under the same circumstances, I would do the same. Help a young woman stumbling alone on a dark street in a college town? Yeah, definitely. </p>
<pre><code>Once, when I was right out of college and working my first job, I ran out of gas just off the exit of the freeway, a few miles from my apartment and in a not very safe part of the city where I was living. It was about 1 a.m. and rather than spend the night in the car, I decided to start walking through the unfamiliar neigborhood, looking for a gas station or 7-11 with a pay phone. I hadn’t been walking very far when a car slowed next to me, containing a black family. “What are you doing walking round here this time of night?” the grandma in the passenger seat asked me. She was quite indignant. They were very concerned and insisted I get in the car. They would not drive off until I did. They drove me to a 24-hour diner where I was able to call a cab and get home.
</code></pre>
<p>I’ll always be grateful for that kindness. Obviously, I’ve never forgotten it.</p>
<p>I think the couple in the story read the situation accurately, took account of the youth and predicament of the young woman and did the right thing.</p>