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Anne Gerbner's avatar

We had heard this story several times, including one time I remember: His car (Peugeot?) got a flat on 63rd street in West Phila as he was driving from Penn to home in Ardmore. It was cold, dark, and rainy, just up from the L at 69th street, and I recall Katie ( a 3rd or 4th grader?) was in the car. A man stopped and helped him change the tire. George said something along the lines of -- “See, many people are good and want to help. Don’t forget that.” He wanted you in particular, Katie, to have this lesson.

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Katharine Gerbner's avatar

whoa, that's so cool! I have a very vague memory of the flat tire episode, but not much. Glad to be reminded of it!

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John Gerbner's avatar

Funny how you (I) get things wrong. I always thought that the stranger that gave him the money was in New Orleans when he was getting off a ship from Mexico!

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Katharine Gerbner's avatar

That's what I thought too!

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Virginia Whelan's avatar

This is the story I remember and have retold many times. I had t realized it wasn’t in the IS either! Thank you for all this fabulous enlightening research.

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