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Ricochet in Real Life
The story you are about to read is 100% true. This morning I called an Uber to get to an appointment in Center City. The driver showed up promptly, but I — for some stupid reason — could not find my keys. I eventually made it to the street not to find a huffy driver but a gentleman with a smile, holding the door open for me. “Sorry for the delay,” I confessed. “Couldn’t locate my keys.” He laughed as he closed the door. “No rush sir. No such thing as a rush.”
I always like to chat with drivers if they are willing (it’s where guys in sales get some of our best stories). “How is your day going?” I enquired. “Now that you are in the car sir, very well. A paying client is always a good thing.” I laughed, and we were off to the conversational races.
Over the next 20 minutes I learned that he had started at Temple University in 1961, when it was “a war zone.” That made him about my dad’s age. I then learned that he had been in an actual war zone for three years as an intelligence officer in Vietnam, between 1964 and 1966 doing interesting things Laos. “Not that we were ever in Laos,” I commented. He checked the rearview- was this guy in the back an idiot or a smart ass and grinned when he realized the latter. I learned he spent a year in a VA hospital recovering from wounds sustained in combat. Then he finished his degree. We talked about the importance of education, family, Frank Rizzo and the MOVE disaster (both of them), David Koresh, the wisdom of not showing up with a tank when a simple arrest when jogging will do, and how the country has changed, and could we turn it around? We got on well.
As we pulled to a stop, I decided to take a chance. “This has been fun,” I said. “If you enjoyed this conversation, maybe you’d like another. Have you ever heard of a site called Ricochet?”
“Yes,” he replied. “I’m on all the time”.
My jaw dropped, and he laughed again. I said:
“I’m FightinPhilly. Quinn the Eskimo and I organized one of the Philly Meet Ups last year.”
He gave me his screen name and explained that he had wanted to come, but had to work. We shook hands again and parted ways.
It was a great start to the day. Keep the faith Ricochetti. There are more of us out there then we realize. Keep spreading the word.
[Editor’s Note: This is what we mean when we say Ricochet isn’t just a website, but a community. Want to be part of it? Easy. Visit the join page and become a member today. You’ll be glad you did.]
Published in General
Wow. Just wow. What are the chances?
Although I am sorry you didn’t find us a new member.
What a great experience!
Aw, how great! I always wonder if I’ll ever have a serendipitous meeting like that.
Now THAT’s a story.
I’ve been looking for some good news the past couple of days, this hits the spot.
Wonderful.
I am enjoying the the smiles you’ve provided by taking the time to write. In my opinion THIS is a post that should be elevated to Main Feed upon arrival!
Excellent.
Amazing!
Update: I’ve looked but have been unable to locate the screen name the Uber driver gave me, so I must have misheard his avatar name. Hope he sees this post- love to hear the story from his perspective.
Seriously?
What a great story!
As far as I’ve been able to tell, a truly hermetic lurker will remain unknown to us. If he never posts or comments, there’s no trace of him to search on. There are a few thousand people like this here. For a while, you could stumble across some of them by randomly typing in numbers in the url when you were in a member’s profile, because that’s how R> identifies us in its database. I don’t know if that still works.
Awesome!
That’s fantastic, FIPhilly! That was a great meetup last June – there were a few that couldn’t make it – Sam? DVDRowe?
It’s both amazing and not surprising that this happened.
Remember, though, it’s more likely to happen the more members we get. All of us — self-included — know people who would enjoy and contribute to Ricochet but who aren’t members. Send them an invitation. I’m doing one right now.
If you’re out there, please say hi. Let’s see if we can’t give this story a happy ending.
And we should start talking about another meetup in Philly for 2015.
Great story. Thx for sharing.
Great story! Made my day!
We have uber in Canada, and I use it all the time. I too find the drivers exceptional.
Today, there is a rally in City Square in Toronto to support uber. The Council is trying to ban it because it goes against the monopoly of the big companies who have to pay horrendous licence fees to the City. I wish the supporters luck!
Great stuff!
It is all kinds of cool that you posted this. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing! It’s cool to run across folks from other online communities like Ricochet, especially when you least expect it.
Hey Rico member that made FightinPhilly’s day–identify yourself so we can all tell you how great you are and contact you for a ride when we’re in Philly! And a meet-up.
Great story! This opens the door for Ricochet users to develop an easy way, by site (tattooed R on forehead :-)) or handshake, pass a ‘secret Ricochet signal’ that will quickly ID one as a Ricochet user to other Ricochet members.
Is there interest in developing a ‘secret Ricochet signal’? If so please comment with your suggestions.
I’ve been thinking a lapel pin would really rock. Can we add it to the store?
The luggage tags seem like a good idea for the times when one is traveling.
I work in Center City. I’m heartened by your story. Maybe the odds of two right-of-center individuals meeting in Philadelphia isn’t as close to zero as I thought.
With you, me, FightinInPhilly and the Uber driver, there are four of us.
I confess, I could never live in Philly again. The overwhelmingly Lefty ethos was just too disheartening. I don’t envy any of (the four of) you.
I just work here. I commute from the suburbs. I have only lived in two metropolitan areas in my life. Chicago, which was wonderful, and Washington, D.C., which was depressing.
Let’s plan a meetup where we all wait at Suburban Station & the Mystery Ricochet Uber Driver picks us up & takes us to the restaurant.
Is there a way to retrace your steps from the time you contacted Uber for the ride?
Are there Uber records of who responded to what requests for rides?
We need Harold from Person of Interest. :)