For free! Surplus drums of mayonnaise from Operation Desert Storm!

I love free stuff. Whenever I find a free giveaway, no matter what it may be, I'm there and I want as much of it as possible. For example, I recently discovered this little monthly coupon magazine called 'The Clipper' (no relation to the poor little Davis County Clipper), wherein I found a coupon for a free beverage at a local coffee shop, no purchase necessary. So I went down there to get my free beverage and found out that they have a nice assortment of smoothies and fancy hot chocolate. So pleased was I with my free drink that I found a stand full of copies of the Clipper magazine and I went through and cut the free drink coupon out of about twenty magazines. (I left plenty of untouched magazines on the rack and the coupon was a couple days away from expiring anyways, so I felt like it was okay). Over the next couple days, I probably stopped in to pick up a free hot chocolate about six times, always getting the biggest size with all the whipped cream, caramel, and fudge they could squirt on top - if it's free anyway you've got to go all out, right?

So naturally you can understand my attraction to such things as Ben & Jerry's annual Free Cone Day. I organized a little outing with my friends Jessica Allen and John McElderry to go down and get our free cone. The line went all the way around the block, but hey - free ice cream! The coffee shop with the free beverage coupons was just around the corner, so after we got our free cones we stopped in and all got some more free stuff. Then we went next door to the movie theater (we saw a little Brazilian film called "The Year My Parents Went on Vacation"), followed but another round of free drinks at the coffee shop.

However, this time was different. I went up to the counter to order and Jess and John said they would be right back and they disappeared out the front door, returning moments later with a homeless man they had seen out on the sidewalk. They told him that we would get him something warm to drink, so I gave him one of my coupons. As soon as he got his drink, he thanked us and left. We sat down to eat and a moment later he came back in and said that since we were so nice he wanted to sit down at the table with us. He told us he had hitchhiked his way up from Florida, where he had had surgery, and he was trying to back to his family in the Upper Peninsula. Jess and John bought him a sandwich, which he ate, and I gave him all the rest of the free drink coupons that I had and then he left.

I felt pretty humbled by the experience. I live my live as such a gluttonous consumer, always thinking of myself - even my last blog entry was about how I greedily check every vending machine I pass for a few extra cents. But John and Jess (I suspect she was the brains behind it, being a social worker and all) saw that someone else had a much greater need and they went out of their way to help him. I was very touched and I resolved that I need to stop thinking of myself and I need to be more helpful to others that have a much greater need.

P.S. - The title of this post comes from a Simpsons episode where Homer is scouring the want ads for free stuff, finding such gems as sixty soiled mattresses (courtesy of the Springfield Men's Shelter) and the aforementioned mayonnaise.