Some guys watch a scene like this develop and just shake their heads and move on. Too bad, they say. Nothing they can do about it. What's for lunch?
Other guys see the same scene and take action. These are the guys we call winners.
From the rear of his trophy shop, Jaques Hay watches the frail middle-aged woman park her small white Toyota Tacoma in the lot.
The driver's side door opens and the first thing out is a cane, followed by a leg, then another. Slowly and painfully Penny Mosinski extracts the rest of her body from the car.
Since she was in a horrific car accident as a teenager, Penny has had severe rheumatoid arthritis from her jaw to her toes. Wherever she goes she shuffles. Her feet never leave the ground.
It's only 20 feet from her car to the back door of Cabanne Hair Design in Northridge where Penny has a standing appointment every Thursday at quarter to one with hair stylist Anita Kreuger.
But Penny gets there 45 minutes early because between her car and the hair salon is a three inch curb.
It might as well be the Great Wall of China. Penny can't lift her feet 3 inches.
So, at a snail's pace, she shuffles 150 feet down to the end of the parking lot where the ramp begins and 150 back to the hair salon door.
Rain or shine.
"I'd watch her and think that's just not right, we had to do something for this lady," Hay said.
A man of many talents, Hay takes a woodshop class
over at Pierce College one night a week with his pal Larry Shaw."What are we making tonight?" Shaw asked his pal a few weeks ago.
"A ramp," Hay said.
"Why?"
"You'll see."
A couple of Thursday's later when Penny showed up 45 minutes earlier for her standing 1:15 p.m. hair appointment, a crowd was waiting outside.
"What's the matter, someone die?" she asked, finally noticing a ramp - Penny's Plank - pressed up against the curb.
"That's for me?" she asked.
Yeah, that was for her, everyone nodded.
It's Karma, says Anita Krueger, who does Penny's hair.
"We save all our old newspapers and magazines for Penny because she likes to cut out the coupons," Kruger says.
It's part of her physical therapy, Penny says. Working her hands with a pair of scissors so she can spend a couple of hours at her local Ralphs where they treat her like royalty, Penny says.
"They're so nice to me there, too," she says.
The reason why is pretty clear whether you're in the grocery business or running a hair saloon. All that shuffling along at a snail's pace has given Penny a lot of time to think and look around.
What she sees are people like her, except they can walk faster and don't live in so much pain.
They're having trouble making ends meet like she is, so what's a person to do? Well, if you're Penny Mosinski you spend more time doing physical therapy.
More time clipping coupons. Buy one, get one free. On the way home you knock at a door where you know people are out of work and their unemployment check died months ago.
"I've got a couple of extra cans of soup and an extra head of lettuce I can't use," Penny says.
They promise to return the favor, but seldom do. Penny doesn't care. She just keeps on clipping coupons for anyone who needs them.
Her only extravagance is that standing hair appointment every Thursday. It's become like magic, she says.
"Penny's Plank is here for me when I pull up and when I leave it just disappears."
Stored in the back of Jacques Hay's trophy shop - "Award Winners" - until next Thursday at a quarter to one.
Some guys watch a scene like this develop and just shake their heads and move on.
Some guys - the winners - take action.
Magdalena Wróbel Mariah Carey Anna Paquin Alicia Keys Sienna Guillory
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