THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 7, 1994 TAG: 9408040282
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 58 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Ron Speer
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Every once in a while something happens that revives our trust in people, even in these trying times when we walk warily through what seems too often to be an untrustworthy world.
Thank Charlie Gibson of Elizabeth City for showing once again that good and honest people are still out there.
There are lots of people like Charlie Gibson, of course, people who do love their neighbors, who practice the Golden Rule, who believe that being nice to others makes the world a happier place.
But sometimes we hear so much about the bad people of the world that we forget that most men and women and kids are decent folks who care about others and wouldn't steal a dime.
That's why I was so delighted to hear from a good friend about Charlie Gibson.
Charlie and his wife, Kim, own the Gibson Service Center in downtown Elizabeth City. It's a full-service operation where Charlie pumps the gas and washes the windshield and checks the oil and chats with customers.
People who patronize the place, like my friend who stops in every month or so, say it's like going to an old-time gas station.
Last week my friend drove into Gibson's Service Center, talked for a moment, and asked for $10 worth of gas.
Charlie Gibson grabbed the pumped and remarked, ``This is going to be the cheapest tank of gas you ever got.''
``How's that?'' asked my friend, Charlie Huff, our advertising director. ``What do you mean?''
``Well,'' replied Charlie Gibson, ``this tank is going to be free - and you can't get much cheaper than that.''
My friend was startled, so he asked again what was going on.
Charlie Gibson explained that about a month ago when Huff pulled in and ordered $10 worth of gas, he handed over a $20 bill, forgot that he had change coming, and drove off.
``I didn't know your name, but I remembered your face and your car, so I've been waiting for you to come back,'' Charlie Gibson said.
Huff said later that he was flabbergasted.
``That's an honest man,' he said when he told me about the incident. ``I couldn't believe there are still people like that out there.''
There are, of course, but not often do you see them featured on television or written about in the papers.
So I called Charlie Gibson and asked why he didn't pocket the money.
``I couldn't do that,' Mr. Gibson said. ``He gave me a twenty and I only gave him ten dollars worth of gas. It was his money.''
But in the gas station business, don't you ever get ripped off?
``Lots of times,'' he replied. ``But that doesn't make it right to do it to somebody else.
``I clipped the man of ten bucks, because he forgot about it and drove off. So the next time I saw him I gave it back.
``That's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it?''
You bet it is. But unfortunately, it doesn't work that way all the time. Would Charlie Gibson do it again?
``Hell, yes,' he said. ``It don't cost nothing to be nice to people.''
Thank you, Charlie Gibson. You've made the world a better place.
And you've upheld something that a fellow named George Berkeley wrote some 250 years ago, when even then the world was a skeptical place: ``He who says there is no such thing as an honest man, you may be sure is himself a knave.''
I think most of us have met honest people. I'd like to hear about them.
Write me a letter (Box 10, Nags Head, N.C. 27959) or send me a fax (919-441-8895) and share with me and our readers your favorite memory of an honest person.
We'll run 'em all, to let Charlie Gibson know he's not alone. by CNB