Good sorts - Bad sorts.

In New Zealand one of our Television Channels has a segment in the news every Sunday Night called "Good Sorts".  They take the opportunity to highlight the work of some person in the community going the extra mile. It could be some long serving volunteer, or somebody who has initiated a caring program or some person who goes above and beyond the call of duty in their profession. (eg. a long serving community policeman) Well today I thought I would split my post into "Good and Bad sorts" and tell stories from the last few days.
Good Sorts
Tree planting ex-MP 

  - Down our road and around the corner there lives a man who was a Minister of the Crown in the last Labour Government. He was Labour Member for North Dunedin and I always thought he was a good politician. He is now retired from politics and has a big older style house with a great garden. As well as working on his own garden he has beautified the banks of a creek that runs next to his property. Recently I have seen him working on a rough piece of ground over the intersection at the end of our street. It is swampy, was covered in broom bushes and long grass and has not been used for anything in the last 25 years.  He had cleared the gorse and broom and made wood chip covered tracks in various directions. He has been busy planting trees. As I drove to work last Tuesday morning I saw him shoveling wood chips so I stopped and went up to him and asked him about his project. He told me it was city council owned land and he had decided to make tracks and beautifying it with tree planting to make a little forest walk area for the neighbourhood.  Another man had seen him, and joined him in his project. I affirmed what he was doing and commented that when I retired I could join him. He's a "good sort". Well done Pete Hodgson!
Celebrating service 

50 years service- John Bethune

On Saturday I attended a celebration of a guy's fifty years of service in the New Zealand Fire Service as a professional fire fighter and, for a time, as a volunteer.  John is his name and I loved how both his professional and volunteer colleagues and his family went to a great deal of trouble to hold this fifty year medal celebration. They picked him up at his home in a vintage fire truck and delivered him to the fire station for the presentation ceremony.  There was a guard of honour, the mandatory speeches (even from the Mayor) and then the social time with sandwiches, tea, drinks and savouries.  I was so impressed that so many of his past and present colleagues attended the event. I enjoyed catching up with all these emergency service workers and once again loved the warmth of their interaction with me. A fun part of the event was that in the middle of the ceremony the bells and whistles went off and three crews in fire trucks rushed away to a job.  It seemed fitting. 
Bad sorts
Drop-in centre trouble  On Friday Night we had over fifty through the Drop-in centre. Now I like most people, but there are some people who come to our drop-in that I would describe as "repulsive". They are demanding, ungrateful, aggressive and abusive. There were a couple of guys under the weather from alcohol and I suspect drugs. One was unsteady on his feet and playing pool. He upset one of our keen players and there was a brief dispute. One other big lady seated quite a distance away decided to join the fray and came over screaming, yelling abuse and even pushing people violently. We decided she should leave and began to speak to her about this. She shoved my wife violently and two of her friends joined the mayhem at the pool table and started trying to pull one of these alcohol affected guys outside with the intent of beating him up.  I had to physically pull myself between them and command these people to leave. Screaming abuse at us they left, but not before throwing a cup of coffee across the floor. My wife and others, fearful of the fight escalating was ringing the police. Their control room staff were pretty dense in trying to locate our Church ("In the Church on the corner of Fillieul Street and St Andrew Street in Dunedin" makes sense to me??) By the time they had fathomed that, we had everything under control so I told my wife that we did not need them. Both my wife and I were shaken. In eighteen years of running the drop-in centre it was the worst incident we have had. Many of our clients have mental health problems, some have intellectual handicaps, a number have been through prisons and others have socialising issues, so I think we generally do well. I look at the few who cause problems and feel sick. They are such sad specimens of humanity. They are a mess causing mayhem almost everywhere they go. I am really concerned that more and more of these people are wandering around our communities. There are complicated, interrelated and interconnected reasons why they develop in these ways. Our values; our economy; the state of family life; education emphases; etc etc. There are no simplistic answers. These are "bad sorts" that made Friday evening scary.
Car salesman  Last Monday we went and picked up our little caravan from the people who had borrowed it. We realise we have a lot of work to do on her if we want to take off when we retire. We sense we could need a better vehicle, so today we browsed a couple of car yards. One we had visited before and had been annoyed with the salesman who lambasted us with prattle in spite of the fact that we said we were "just browsing".  (Park'n'sell Portsmouth Drive)  Then we said we would never go back. Today we went back and browsed for a while undisturbed.  We both began to head for the car and this man stepped out of the office and headed for us. "No thanks" I yelled as I climbed into the car. My wife said, "No we're fine thank you." But he still walked our way asking, "What are you looking for?" "We're in a hurry, we have to leave." Jean said and waved him off.  He arrived at our car just as I started the motor, and he tapped his phone angrily on our car, "You're being rude!" he shouted.   I was angry. What part of "no" does he not understand?   We definitely will not be going back.  He's a bad sort! 

Today I had a phone call from a firefighter wanting to talk over a problem. I went out and spent an hour with him. It is my job and I don't mind doing it, but it does muck up a day off. Another week of work begins tomorrow. I have 26 Sundays to go.