“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven’t yet met.”
— William Butler Yeat

With a boy that loves cars, we have become regulars at the local dirt tracks. I am no stranger to the places. We used to go all the time growing up but fell out of the habit as we got older. One thing is for sure, you will find all types of people there. My observations of these people have made me realize that some of the kindest people are the ones that look the roughest. In particular the ones that look like they may or may not own a shower seem to be the friendliest. My son having the super radar for stranger danger just stares at them. They are usually the ones with a whole family there and the grandpas of the family even try to be nice to him but he is just to leery. Which, I am not complaining about that safety feature that came with him, especially now a days. But, even after spending a couple of hours with this family he still won’t have anything to do with them. At the track a couple of weeks ago, there were popsicles at the concession stand. Every child got one free with admission but then you could also buy them. The family sitting next to us had a boy about my son’s age and they even played together a little. We chatted through the night. When one of the guys offered him a popsicle, nope. Didn’t want any part of that. He had taken the little boy to get a popsicle and he came back with an extra. He offered to us and he just got “the stare”. These weren’t even the roughest looking people really. This past weekend we sat next to another good sized family with the a grandpa figure that did look a little rougher. He tried talking to us and making friends. Offered about $5 to my son for concession stand goodies and he just got “the stare” too. This guy was from out of town and would walk up to the fence to take pictures/videos of the racing. One of those times he found a little police car hot wheel type toy. My son LOVES hot wheels, and he still just gave the stare. The family just put it down on the seat in front of us so that if he changed his mind he could have it. Took maybe all of 5 minutes for him to pick it up. He played with it the rest of the night.

The whole not judging a book by it’s cover could not be more true. Like I said, some of the nicest people look the roughest. The cleanest looking people often seem to be the most rude.

“Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.”
Hebrews 13:2