Reaching 50 is a life goal.
Getting to that milestone is something we should all aim for.
So many years, so much life lived.
Which means there is so much story to tell.
Who can't help but look back and advise about how to do it better?
Redditor h-gotfred wanted to hear from the over 50 crowd, so they asked:
"To you Redditors aged 50+, what's something you genuinely believe young people haven't realized yet, but could enrich their lives or positively impact their outlook on life?"
There is so much to know about life.
And we have to age to learn it.
So let's chat...
Be Happy
just married love GIFGiphy"Marriage/relationships should be fun, and happy. Life is hard, things get tough. Find someone that makes the tough times easier, not harder."
Inevitable-Mine6466
"Piggybacking off this and saying, even the happiest marriages get into arguments. It's not a reason to leave."
J3sush8sm3
Battles...
"Not everything that you disagree with deserves an argument. Pick your battles and let trivial things slide."
hail2theKingbabee
"To echo this: Not everyone you disagree with is 'wrong.' They are simply operating with different information. You can disagree with someone on an issue and still value the person. Don't let one issue define your entire relationship with another person."
A_Socratic_Argument
The End
"If you die, your employer will have your job posted before you are buried. Remember that when making work/life choices."
Justin9314
"I started my career at corporate headquarters for a large insurance company. I was doing GREAT, but I just didn’t like the industry. I applied for a job at a major university and someone took a chance on me and gave me the position (transitioning from for-profit to non-profit is notoriously hard)."
"I made less money over the course of my career certainly but I wasn’t on poverty wages by any means. But I remember about 5 years in, one of my old VPs was in town and we got together. His comment was 'We miss you, but you look so much happier, the psychic income is showing.' Insightful guy."
Reynyan
The Truth
"2 things I will be eternally grateful to my grandfather for instilling in me..."
"Failure is not an end state unless it is where you choose to stop. He loved to quote that line by Churchill whenever something didn't work out for me, Success is stumbling from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm."
"Honesty is the most powerful tool you can use to define yourself. Admit your mistake, frankly and honestly. The truth always comes out in the end no matter how big or small and it doesn't get better with age. You can give back something you steal, and you can help those you hurt but once they brand you a liar, it's all you will ever be."
iskandar-
Be Quiet
Golden Girls Rose GIF by TV LandGiphy"Unless you don't mind hearing EEEEEEEEEEEE like all the time day and night, use hearing protection in loud situations. Tinnitus is a bi*ch."
revnhoj
Take care of your ears.
One of life's greatest lessons!!!
Live by the Moon
bart simpson maggie GIFGiphy"Wear sunscreen."
nilecrane
"I just had a quick look at my 50-year-old upper chest, frequently exposed to the sun in my youth, and compared it to my 50-year-old belly, which has always been clothed and covered (I have never liked two-piece swimsuits). What a difference!"
HootieRocker59
Passions
"Take a genuine interest in what other people have to say, ask them follow-up questions about their passions in life. Don’t just talk about yourself, or wait for your turn to talk. That’s how you have a conversation, and build a relationship."
MayIServeYouWell
"Sometimes you gotta be careful with that. Pay attention if the other person is doing that too, it's important for you to share about your life. It can be kind of lonely when you know so much about your friends, but they don't know about you."
jacarelunar
Practice makes Perfect
"Every skill takes determined practice to master. I see my young friends/relatives try and give up on so many things because 'they weren't very good at it.' If you keep doing that, you'll never be very good at anything."
EarhornJonesI
"I love cooking - and find it easy and relaxing. I have hit a point where I can make several dishes that I can honestly say are far superior to what I could get at a restaurant. I love delighting my family and friends with what I cook."
"But the truth is - I've prepared thousands of dishes. I've practiced for 40+ years. I have f**ked up every single type of food there is at least once. I've burnt things. I've undercooked chicken. I failed to emulsify things that should have been emulsified. I forgot to set the timer. I've added too much salt. I chopped when I should have torn. I did all of the wrong things at some point. And because of all of these things, I can walk into any kitchen and make something delicious."
NewSummerOrange
63
"I’d say invest in your health by regularly exercising. My wife got me into running when we were in our twenties, and it has been a big part of our lives ever since (I’m 63). Nothing crazy, no marathons, we don’t time ourselves or follow a strict training plan, we just pick a route, go at our own pace, and have fun. We still go 3-4 miles, 3-4x per week."
"I also started working out at the gym 3x a week with free weights in my 30s, and have been doing it ever since. I’m no Schwarzenegger, believe me, but I can still work around the house, move furniture, shovel snow and have fun tossing a ball around with the kids without injuring or exhausting myself. Between aerobic fitness and weights, I’ve been able to stay remarkably healthy my entire adult life, knock on wood. It’s also been great for my mental health and managing stress."
"You don’t have to go nuts and set unreasonably strict requirements for exercise goals or diet that a normal person can’t possibly maintain - just do the best you can, make exercising a few times per week a habit, eat a reasonable diet (avoid fried stuff, eat fruit and veggies, lay off the sweets), and 40 years later you’ll really thank yourself, believe me!"
lanky_planky
Plan Ahead
Make It Rain Money GIF by yvngswagGiphy"Debt can really ruin your life. If you want to take on a lot of it, make sure you have a good plan and run it by a lot of smart people first."
vanityklaw
Debt. Everyone should learn about avoiding debt as early as possible.
This whole list should be taught in Universities.
Money matters.
Don't let people fool you when they say it doesn't.
Yes, it isn't everything.
And yes it can corrupt.
But it can also be immensely helpful.
It's especially helpful in large sums.
A windfall of cash in any amount can be life-changing.
Redditor SheemieRayVaughan wanted to know how we could have some fun with a major windfall, so they asked:
"How would your life be changed by winning $20,000?"
Please someone send me $20,000!
I'll even take $10!!
Living
Kisses GIF by SpongeBob SquarePantsGiphy"Replenish my emergency fund that was depleted from my cancer bills this past year. My out of pocket max + deductible was 5k and now just paid 1k to get a prosthetic (had salivary gland cancer which left a hole in my soft palate). Hopefully part of that will be reimbursed from either dental or medical insurance."
stepheli88
Juicy
"As I'm homeless ATM it would mean a whole f#*king lot! I'd buy some fruit first tho! The biggest pineapple I could find! 😂."
"Umm about £2 so like $3, ah you've very kind thank you! But it's ok I don't even have a knife or anything to get into one and I've no Venmo or PayPal or anything like that. Really do appreciate the very kind offer all the same! ❤️🙏."
Marchogdu
"If you find a way to receive it I will also Venmo you pineapple money. I’ve not been homeless but I’ve been 'no money for fruit and veg or literally anything to bring light to my life' poor. $20k would still be life changing but I have enough pineapple money to share now."
TheLastEggplant
Finally!
"I'd literally be out of debt for the first time in my entire adult life 😅."
SnooTangerines5325
"Same 40 this year and I've just given up on the idea of owning property. Settled for a council house in the sticks in Scotland. Gonna make this house our home, try to clear the debts and just try be comfortable is the aim."
"Actually doing it on the other hand is near impossible when my outgoings of just rent, food and power take my entire wage. At the moment bankruptcy is looking like my only way of actually ever achieving being comfortable let alone buying property."
Nelly32
Same Ole'
"It wouldn't change."
mythoughtsfortheday
"I’m in the same boat that it wouldn’t change much. 1/10 of my student loans would be kinda nice I guess, but when I’m drowning, I prefer they just drain the whole pool instead of 10%."
Schleeeeeem
"Same. It would just get rolled into a current or future investment."
SevenTheTerrible
"I'm with you. Would split it up between Roth and savings. Excitement would last just a moment. I know that sounds spoiled but the question was asked. I answered."
Va0utdoor
Timeless
Episode 9 Hug GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"$20k would cover rent, bills & food so I could take time to spend with my dying parents."
-qqqwwweeerrrtttyyy-
Time is precious.
HELP
Cartoon Network GIF by CNLAGiphy"I'd be able to get the medical treatment and dental work I've been avoiding. I'd probably be a lot happier being able to chew more things."
asianinindia
Bad Ideas
"I would lose my disability and be more f**ked than helped, honestly."
"If I spent it incredibly under the table, then yeah. But if I did anything noticeable with it, it's still a risk. I borrowed money from a friend once to buy a cheap a** van (to live in, yay, leeching off the government is so profitable /s) and they drilled me about where I got the money to buy it."
"To get them off my back, I even drew up a contract stating that I was never in possession of the money and was on a payment plan to pay it back. It can be hell to get disability, but they'll rip it away in two seconds."
odd_ender
A little here and there...
"I have $54k left on my mortgage. No other debt. Don't need a car. So almost no change."
SteelTumbler
"Same pretty much. I don't 'need' anything and the one thing you could argue I could use, you can't buy that for $20k. So literally would not change my life at all. Maybe someone else would be a better recipient."
descendency
"I mean, it wouldn’t change my life, but I could park it somewhere for my son later on."
not_a_droid
It Works
"My mom died and had an insurance policy that paid out about this amount. It allowed me to buy my first ever new car. Everything works in it! Especially thrilled to have heat and defrost. Reliable transportation really does make life easier."
Cate_in_Mo
The Everyday
Bugs Bunny Money GIF by Looney TunesGiphy"It would help immensely, I'm living paycheck to paycheck with $12 in savings. I get by, but the fear of an unforseen expense is crippling at times."
xanarchy69
Debt be Gone!
"Pay off some consumer debt and the rest of my car loan. It would basically just push the timeline for my wife getting a new car up by a year, granted that would mean that the debt we paid off would be replaced by a new car payment. Aside from her no longer driving something questionably reliable (we've had major issues), nothing would change."
duffman13jws
Money isn't everything... but it certainly helps!
What would you do with the money? Let us know in the comments.
The satisfaction of knowing we helped out someone's situation, no matter how big or small, has a way of making us feel better about ourselves.
That is until we discover what exactly we were "helping" with.
Be it an internet scammer or a dishonest friend, sometimes we find that our money or time might not have gone to the cause we expected it to.
Or was donated under false pretenses...
These experiences can be so frustrating, that it can actually cause some people to stop helping others ever again.
"What was your 'F*** it, done helping others' moment?"
Where Have I Seen That Before...
"I posted a futon on marketplace and the first person that hit me up gave me a sob story about needing something for their kid to sleep on."
"I was only asking $20 for it but they asked if they could get it for free."
"My wife and I agreed to give it away, so I took it to our meeting spot at Home Depot."
"2 days later this guy had the futon posted in marketplace asking $50."
"My wife and I Facebook stalked him and his wife and every time they posted it, we would hijack the listing letting everyone know the story of how they got the futon."
"I don't give sh*t away anymore, no matter the story they give me."- archangelmlg
Circle Of Duplicity...
"I stood by my best friend when she cried to me about her husband cheating."
"And he definitely was cheating."
"They stayed married and said they work through it."
"Six months later she was f*cking my husband behind my back."- superwhovianlock
You Never Know Who You Can Trust...
"Was donating baby/toddler clothes to a mom in need through one of those Facebook donating pages."
"She didn't have a car, I did so I drove 30 minutes away to deliver the stuff all for free."
"Got in a bad accident less than 5 blocks from her house."
"So I texted her to see if she could come get what she was able to because my car was totaled."
"She wouldn't walk the 4 blocks then reported me to the group and got me kicked out for 'not following through'."
"I ended up with a fractured sternum."
"Yeah, f*ck that sh*t, never again."- LifeIsSweetSoAmI·
It Was Ok The First Time...
"I'm a teacher."
"A parent of a former student contacted me in an emergency situation, couldn't afford to pay bills, and needed help."
"She was super helpful to me in my first year teaching, so I asked friends and family to help out and raised her about $2,000."
"Never again."
"She has contacted me every few weeks since then, always with a new reason why she needs more money, and when I offer food and clothing resources, she refuses it."
"It has placed me in such an awkward situation and I regret ever trying to help her out in the first place."- mynameissarah
There Is Such A Thing As Moving Too Fast...
"Met a guy who had hit a rough patch."
"We had great chemistry and he made me laugh."
"Ugh the bar was SO low."
"He gave me a sob story of why he was getting kicked out of his communal house and I offered to let him stay with me because I live alone and have my own place."
"HUGE MISTAKE! "
"He hadn't hit a rough patch, he was the rough patch."
"Barely paid for anything and would get wasted while I was at work and be a total a** hole when I got home."
"Got fired from his job, ate all the food I'd buy and make excuses as to why he hadn't found another job yet."
"The absolute kicker was when I went home for my Nonna's funeral, he treated it like a mini vacation in my place."
"Invited friends over, played music so loud the cops got called and when he was supposed to pick me up from the airport, he was wasted at someone's house at 8 am."
"Never felt better than the day I kicked him out."
"No more financial and emotional abuse."
"Finally felt like my place was mine again."
"I've learned an expensive lesson."
"Don't help people that won't help themselves."
"When nothing is their fault, there's a serious issue."
"Run fast and far."- vikinglizzie
Unwelcome House Guests
"Had a friend years ago who was a bit self centered & prone to stretching the truth, but he was a nice enough guy with a rough backstory and my friend group liked him, so I cut him a lot of slack."
"I like to host and I have friends staying over pretty regularly."
"Back then, I usually had one or two people spending the night on any given day."
"Anyhow, over the span of a couple of years this guy starts abusing that."
"Staying over for days or even weeks at a time, eating my food and drinking my liquor without contributing, that sort of thing."
"While constantly talking about his grand plans and daydreams as if they'd already happened."
"A little sad, but also pretty annoying after a while."
"Anyhow, I sit him down one day and let him know he's gotta head home, and that he's free to come over and hang out but I'm not comfortable with him staying over for the time being."
"He leaves, I think it went remarkably well, and head out to work."
"And it turns out that he broke in while I was away at work and stole a bunch of my sister's things because 'his birthday was coming up and neither of us even thought to get him a gift'."
"It takes a special person to rationalize how burglarizing someone is really their fault."
"Anyway, all slack and sympathy went out the window immediately."
"Called the cops and he's dead to me."- bada**_panda
Signed Contract
"In my freshman year of college, my friend of about two years got kicked out of his parents house. He said he needed somewhere to stay "for the night" till his parents cooled off."
"I said you can stay a week if you want but more than that and you'll need to pay me rent (he made pretty good money, more than me even). I was kind of hoping to find someone to split the bills with anyway."
"A week rolls by and he hasn't even looked for another place. His parents aren't letting him come back."
"I ask him if he's going to stay, he says "if it's alright with you" I say sure, just pay me half the cost of the apt every month. He said he can't (I know damn well he can). I say "well then you gotta go"
"He asked if he could stay another week. I said no. He got pissed at me for that. I then got pissed at him for getting pissed at me. I gave you a place to stay and you are mad at me??? Totally ended the friendship."
"Never let anyone into your place unless you have a signed contract."
Mower Problems
"Had a newish neighbor ask if he could borrow our lawn mower....sure. Well more or less every week he would come and get it out of our garage, use it to cut his grass, put it away without cleaning it or adding gas. In the fall we "mentioned" it was a good time to get deals on a new mower. He never talked to us again." -
FireandIceT·
Written Agreements
"When my dad was in nursing school, he had a big group over for a finals studying session and one of his classmates couldn't get a sitter. Well, at the time he had four kids and I was 14 and he asked if I could wrangle her kid and my siblings to keep them out of the way of everyone studying. The plan for the siblings was cartoon movies, some popcorn, dinner later. The plans for my father's classmate's kids was... I can watch them for free, no problem."
"She showed up with FIVE kids. I now had eight under eight year olds to wrangle and I got yelled at every time one of her kids got near the study group. They were screaming, yelling, messy, hitting each other, biting my siblings demons. After four hours, I was sick of it, the kids were hungry and the adults asked ME what was for dinner."
"After a while, it became obvious that dad and company weren't studying- they were talking, laughing, and I could hear them making fun of me. So I gathered up the classmate's kids, walked them over to the group, and said "well, since you're done, I'm done watching your kids" and just went into my room and shut the door."
"As the oldest kid, I was ALWAYS volunteered by my parents to babysit kids I didn't even know the names of. It got old REAL fast."
"Now if someone asks me to babysit because they heard that I have 18 brothers and sisters, I demand $50 up front and a written agreement that I get an extra $10 for every hour +$10 per kid. I haven't babysat in ages."
heyomeatballs
Put Foot Down
"We have helped out my sister n law a few times with money/bills. Never a lot, $50 here, $100 there. Usually for some bill to avoid services being cut off. I’m usually the more heartfelt one in my marriage, but I ended up being the one to put my foot down."
"Went over to her apartment once. She had two big flat screen TVs, new couch, new fridge, kids on PlayStation or whatever console she got them. It was all Rent-a-Center stuff, but that was the end for me."
"I didn’t have any of those things myself, not to mention the incredibly bad financial decision those things were with the high interest rate. Part of me felt like I was taking food out of her kids mouths, but realized that no, her poor decisions were doing that."
"The situation, on both sides, is way more complicated than I can put into just a couple of paragraphs as you can imagine. I want to help others and still do, but it is hard to keep supporting those that refuse to make any attempts to help themselves. I mentioned below she has started to do things differently. We’ve since lent her money again and she has always paid us back when she said she would. She still has a long way to go and a lot of challenges ahead of her, but we love her and will support her efforts as best we can."
red_eye_rob
Generosity can't be forced.
An act of generosity is meaningless if someone is trying to get something out of it.
At the same time, no one should expect generosity, but instead be appreciative and grateful when it's given.
One can only hope that the people in these stories who took advantage of the generosity of others might stop and contemplate how their selfishness might have negatively affected those who genuinely need the help.
'Something's Not Right Here' Gut Feelings That Have Actually Saved Someone's Life
Why do humans doubt the inner voice?
Or that sickening feeling in the pit of our stomachs.
That's our intuition at play.
Some are more in tune than others, though.
And most of us just act like it's not there.
But when we do listen, when we do take that feeling seriously, it can save lives.
The gut knows.
Redditor IChronoI asked the online community:
"Hey Reddit, When did your 'Somethings not right her' gut Feeling ever save you?"
My gut has never been wrong. Sadly, I never listen, so I'm always wrong.
Being Alive
Giphy"My mom and her entire family were saved from dying from Carbon Monoxide poisoning by her dad. He left for work, got a weird feeling and drove back home. Everyone in the house was unconscious, and he had to drag or carry them all outside one by one. They all survived."
bellrunner
"Hey, deer"
"I used to just drive around country roads when I would feel stressed out or sad as a way to just get away and listen to music. One evening I was driving with my best friend in the car and we're on a gravel road that has a huge hill. We were driving towards the sunset but it was winter and the light was fading fast."
"As the car started down the hill I had this moment where I thought to myself 'my brights should be on' and I flicked them on and at the bottom of this super steep hill stood 6 deer on the road. I slammed on the brakes and the car turned sideways and skidded to a stop like 4 feet from the deer."
"Those stupid deer didn't even move, they just stared into the passenger side of my car and my best friend pointed at them and said 'Hey, deer.' The car was fine, we were fine, and Bambi was all good. I don't drive around like that anymore."
unhiddenninja
On the Beach
"My sister since she was about 5 was always obsessed with Tsunamis and would always ask my dad every night before she went to sleep if there would be a tsunami that night (we lived on a beach)."
"About 5 years later when our family was holidaying in Samoa an earthquake struck at about 6am."
"It was only a dull low rumble but went on for over a minute. Everyone at the resort woke up and went outside for a few minutes then went back to bed. My sister having been obsessed with Tsunamis ran down to look at the water and noticed the sea going out and saved a lot of lives including my own."
"There was about a minute from her noticing till the Tsunami hit. Luckily for us there was a cliff right behind the resort if not alot more people would have been killed."
"So something like a gut feeling 5 years in the making."
MWizzle
Class is in session...
"Not me but my science teacher, when she was a teenager she was standing near some lights at a pedestrian crossing with her and her friend. Very chill but out of nowhere she had this gut feeling that both of them had to move."
"They moved just a couple metres away and the next moment a car had hit another car and had hit one of the street electricity utility poles and it had fell and exploded (minor explosion enough distance away that it didn’t hurt the girls) exactly where they were. One of the wires had also snapped and hit it exactly where they were standing as well."
"They basically were in a scene of car wreckage and snapped wires and electricity explosions and the pole collapse. Just real insane. If the pole had missed them, the wire would have hit them and if not that then most likely the cars."
"That gut feeling of moving away saved both of them. I remember this story so clearly from high school science class because it was such a WTF, pity I only paid attention to these things and not actually science... hehe."
Yanked to Live
Yelling The Goldbergs GIF by ABC NetworkGiphy"I was walking out of a grocery store when I saw this kid about to cross the road. Something came over me and I yanked him back onto the sidewalk. Not even a second later a truck came flying past. He was probably around 7 or 8ish."
incognito_polarbear
This is why I just stay home and order in.
An Ordinary Day
Baseball Referee GIF by StickerGiantGiphy"Few years back I went to uni in Brussels. I would always take the train to get there. One morning I just woke up and didn't feel great at all."
"Keep in mind I have had a horrible flair up of Crohn's for the last weeks. But this felt different. Guess it was my gut. So instead of pushing through it like I did with my Crohn's, I decided to stay home for once. This was the only day out of 2 that I ever stayed home from Uni. That day the terror attack happened on the train that I usually ride to get to Uni."
somuchgold
In the Storm...
"I woke up from a deep sleep at like 2AM during a winter storm, something wasn't right... I immediately went looking for my senior dog and couldn't find her anywhere in the house. My roommates had a tendency to let her out for a walk and forget about her, closing the door."
"I ran to the front of the house and found her laying on the welcome mat, she was hardly breathing and covered in snow... She had been outside alone for at the very least 5 hours. I moved out shortly after."
Cafilkafish
Out for Drinks
"I went out with my best friend on new years last year and were having drinks with her friends when I realized I was out of cigarettes. I left for a few minutes to walk over and grab a pack and ended up talking to a homeless guy for a while, and when I went over to the entrance of the bar she was outside and said something mean to me for no reason and walked off."
"I was confused so I decided it would be good if I took a walk to let her cool off and then figure out what she was upset about. I was going to walk down the street for a bit but something told me to turn left, walking behind the bar and then turning to the side of the bar when I see a girl laying down on the sidewalk and people walking by her."
"As I'm walking over to help I realize it's my friend and she's not very conscious. She was probably drugged while I was getting smokes and who knows what would've happened if I hadn't decided to go that way. Scares the sh*t out of me."
kornfanja666
Eat First
"I was walking to the barbershop, and for some reason, everything just felt off. I ignored the feeling but every step I took just made me feel like something wasn't right, so I decided to just go grab some food and come back. While I was eating I saw police cars and ambulances driving to around where I was before, it turns out there was a murder. Now I always listen to my gut feeling."
beastin01
I Was Right There
cougar Htown GIF by University of HoustonGiphy"I was building a fort in the woods near my house as a kid. Got this eerie feeling that something was wrong so I packed my stuff and made my way home. Next day, on my way to school on the bus, my friend mentioned a cougar his family saw running across the road that was within a couple hundred feet of where I was. It just so happened to be at the same time I was out there."
mc_freak2013
Listen to THAT voice... it knows all!
Do you have any similar experiences? Let us know in the comments below.
We all want to help out our friends, and so when they ask a favor of us we are always ready and willing to help.
Well, maybe not always.
For sometimes, the favor in question might not exactly be helping assemble a bookshelf, or help move a sofa, but rather something a bit bizarre.
Possibly affecting our eagerness to help.
Redditor Tinyterex_ was curious to hear the strangest favors requested by friends of the Reddit community, leading them to ask:
"What is the worst/weirdest favor a friend has ever asked you for?"
We all scream for ice cream.
"Go to Doncaster, England, to pick-up an ice-cream van for a friend that he'd bought on eBay while he was in Australia."
"I said yes, and so it began..."
"Firstly he wired me £6000, which I withdrew in cash to pay for it."
"At the time this was the most money I'd ever held so I was a little nervous."
"My girlfriend then drove me down the M1 to Doncaster, and dropped me off at a house with a Pepto Bismol pink ice-cream van in the driveway."
'I knocked on the door and a jolly, gigantic man in dirty overalls opened the door and spent the next two hours with me as I learnt to strip and rebuild the Mr. Whippy ice-cream machine inside the van."
"I was thoroughly unprepared for this."
"I was also unprepared for the machine exploding in my face after loading it with the minimum 4 litres of UHT ice-cream mix."
"With slightly sour milk now liberally coating my clothes, and the light fading, the Friendly Ice-cream Giant talked me through the intricacies of starting and driving a 1973 Bedford ice-cream van."
"The ice-cream machine inside ran off the engine, rather than a generator like most do."
"So there was an elaborate set of linkages that transferred the engine power from the wheels to the machinery when engaged."
"They were also entirely exposed and directly where you would normally put your foot when driving."
"Lovely."
"The engine also didn't start on its own, you had to crack open the bonnet and spray a generous amount of combustable gas directly into the air intake before giving the accelerator a bloody good stomp."
"Fortunately, The F.I.G did this for me. He then let me drive it to the local petrol station to fill it up, during which time he also let me discover that the speedo, windscreen wipers and lights didn't really work."
"Oh, and neither did the fuel gauge."
"And, for some reason, the fuel cap was level with the tank, so you couldn't pump fuel into at more than a dribble or it all ran back out."
"This meant you had no real idea how much fuel was in it."
"But plenty to get it home, I was assured."
"After, sort of, filling it up, struggling to start it, and chugging home at an unknown, but very leisurely, pace, I paid him and we filled in some paperwork."
"At which point he let me know it was untaxed and, contrary to my friends belief, not exempt."
"So I'd be breaking the law driving it home."
"Which I now had to do."
"In the dark."
"With no real lights."
"Did I mention it had just started to rain?"
"But off I set, gingerly traversing the on-ramp to the busiest motorway in the UK, foot to the floor, wind whistling through the various holes in the bodywork."
"I had no idea how fast I was going, but from the waves and gestures I got from passing vehicles it definitely wasn't fast enough."
"I also realized I didn't know how good the brakes were."
"Or what condition the tires were in."
"And it was wet, very wet."
"And the off-ramp was downhill, with lights at the bottom."
"Oh goody, now there was smoke coming from the bonnet."
"By some miracle of agricultural engineering and blind faith I made it back to my flat, and parked the dreaded van in a visitors space."
"Where it sat for the next 3 months, as I gradually ate my way through the industrial sized box of Cadbury's flakes that were going out of date."
"Until my building management lost their sense of humor and forced my friend to come and get it or they'd have it towed away. because once he realized he'd bought a lemon, he was in no hurry to have it become his problem."
"But I'd do it all again."
"The joy you can give kids on boring car journey by hitting the ice-cream tune as they go past is brilliant."- Will-this-do
Ice Cream Truck GIF by Jordan McGrawGiphyA real friend puts up with all kinds of sh*t.... literally
"Not something a friend asked of me but something a friend offered to help with."
"Had a lingering smell of rotten sewage in the house."
"Was a bit short on money at the time so I called a buddy who can fix anything to see if he could figure it out."
"He identifies the issue right away and crawls under my house to find a previous owner used drano and must have not done a proper flush so it ate away the main sewer pipe."
"At least 6 months of sh*t, piss, and food was built up that was probably 4 inches deep."
"He went to his truck to put on his boilersuit and crawled through my girlfriends and my sh*t for 2 hours replacing the rotted pipe."
"I was down there with him trying to help however I could but he pretty much did the repair solo."
"Every time he encountered a thick chunk of poo he would yell up through the crawl hole that my girlfriend should ease off on the corn."
"Didn't phase him one bit and he wouldn't accept any form of payment even though I insisted I had to repay him somehow."
"Best friend I've ever had, this isn't the only example I could give about how great of a friend he is but definitely the wildest."
"Dan the man, you the real MVP if you ever see this."- COYFC
"I became friends with a female coworker as I was dating a guy who was friends with her boyfriend at the time."
"She had this weird thing about not pooping around him to the point when they eventually did long distance she would visit him for the weekend and hold it in the ENTIRE TIME."
"We planned a trip together and shared a hotel room with all four of us."
"While her and I were getting ready to go out, she pulled me aside and told me she had to poop so bad but didn’t want to be in the bathroom alone because everyone would know she was pooping."
"She asked me to stay in the bathroom with her while she took a sh*t so it would just seem like we were doing our make up."
"I kid you not, it stank so bad that I’m 100% sure the guy smelled it in the room anyways and we both just looked like weirdos who poo together."- titsout666
But who helped him bury it?
"To 'un bury his boat' no other information was given, I said yes and turns out he thought that burying his boat in one of our cornfields would help protect it over the winter because 'it wouldn’t get snowed on cause it underground'."- EatingH_tlersB_oty
digging spring fever GIFGiphyThe "big cheese" indeed...
To borrow my truck to 'get the cheese'."
"He drives a Tahoe, I have no clue how much cheese he was getting."- Zpitfire_MK_VI
Keep your property off mine!
"Neighbour asked if they could put a dead rat in our bin because they didn't want to put it in theirs."- HungInSarfLondon
An underground operation gone wrong...
"Back in the old days, had a paranoid friend pay me good money to rent out and dupe porn vhs tapes because he didn't want a record of him renting them out."
"His logic: if he ever became famous he didn't want a record of him renting out porn tapes."
"Postscript: he never became famous."- jacklord392
Was that really the reason?
"Give my friend a hickie to get his ex-girlfriend jealous."- MagicianHairy3459
Best Friends Cats GIFGiphyWho says chivalry is dead.
"A friend in highschool used to call me when she had nightmares."
"I would sneak out my window, wait for her go to her house and hold her while she slept, 6-7 hours."
"Then she would bring me home before my parents woke up."
"Same girl would also ask if it was ok to refer to me as her boyfriend if a guy creeped her out."- FriendshipDelicious8
A plan almost literally for the birds.
"Alright, pretty tame one here, but it felt weird for the boundaries."
"In High School, a girl I rarely spoke to came up to me one day in lunch and asked for help."
"She was always soft spoken."
"I wouldn't say shy, but very gentle and a little quiet."
"She explained that she had an opportunity to buy a pet bird, a sort of once-in-a-lifetime chance, but she didn't have quite enough money for it."
"At the end of the day, she was asking to borrow $100 for a bird."
"For a High Schooler, a hundred bucks was a sh*tload of money - but... I had been working, and had hidden some bills away to buy something for myself."
"So, being the sneaky (read: not) teenagers that we were, I snuck $100 into school the next day, and very sneakily (read: not) I handed over the envelope to her during lunch break."
"It was like a spy operation pulled off by 6-year-olds."
"I mostly remember feeling anxious that someone would notice and steal it off of her."
"A few days later, she came back and explained that it didn't work out - I don't know what happened, exactly."
"But she gave me back a bunch of bills, I think it was something like $5 short, but I was impressed, pleased as can be, and sympathetic that it hadn't worked out with the bird."
"I'd say that was a pretty good experience all around, though I was sure I was absolutely crazy at the moment for tossing money to someone I never spent time with."
"I ended up dating her niece a year or two later, they were only a year apart in age, though at this point I haven't much spoken to anyone in that family for a long, long time."
"Hope they're all doing well."- xRocketman52x
Show Me The Money GIF by La Guarimba Film FestivalGiphyThat she would even ask is strange...
"I started texting a friend of mine, and we keep making plans to hang out, but it just hasn’t happened."
"Anyway, I haven’t actually SEEN her for several years, despite us living pretty close, so as you can tell, we aren’t exactly best friends."
"Her last text to me was that she needed a favor and that she needs someone she can trust."
"I feel kind of bad, but I haven’t responded."
"Why am I, someone she hasn’t hung out with for six years, the person she can trust?"
"I have some of my own stuff going on, and I just don’t think I can mentally take on anything else right now."
"Reading these posts, I’m wondering if any of these favors are like the one she wants to ask of me."
"And possibly looking for validation as I feel bad not responding, but I just have this feeling that no good will come of doing this favor, whatever it is."- screaming_ot_inside
Might want someone with more experience
"For advice for a wedding."
"I was very nervous since I haven’t been to one."- AverageRedditUser965
GiphyRoutine maintenance...
"To sleep with him so he can know if his d*ck was functioning."- Last-Technician3835
Better friends when at a distance.
"A friend who was toxic but managed to heal, but not before she asked me to send her dad “can [her name] play on the freeway with matches?”
"On the freeway was the name for a game of kicking the soccer ball, which we conveniently named matches, against the wall."
"Dad said yes."
"Friend stopped being an a**hat to me after her dad lost custody of her and she found a new place to live."- deadmemesdeaderdream
An almost unwitting accomplice.
"Not me but my sister."
"Her (now ex) friend has always had a rough life that I don’t know much about, but I know she’s struggled with alcoholism and abusive relationships."
"Really unfortunate and awful stuff."
"She has two boys pretty young, one elementary school age the other a toddler."
"She calls my sister one day and sounds really winded, frantic, asking her to pick her and the boys up because they got in a wreck and she needs the ride home."
"My sister gets there and the car is really banged up."
"Like completely totaled."
"So she’s pulling up on the scene when 4 or 5 cop cars come rolling up, sirens on, full criminal treatment."
"Her friend has driven drunk with her kids in the car, no seatbelts."
"When she got into an accident she took her kids and started running down the street to avoid getting arrested, and pissed herself because she was so drunk."
"She nearly made my sister and accessory and could’ve gotten her charges with some serious sh*t.'
"My sister isn’t the best but she stays away from that kinda stuff."
"Needless to say they don’t talk any Ore and probably won’t ever again, which is sad because they grew up together.''- r43b1ll
Bizarre as many of these favors are, one will effortfully lower their raised eyebrow and muster up the courage to do it, on the assumption that this friend would do the same for you.
Then too, sometimes getting a bizarre request might actually indicate just how good a friend some people actually are...