On a recent Saturday, Gene Tichacek took a spill in his garage.
The 86-year-old Korean War veteran — he was a Marine — fell off his motorized scooter.
It was bad.
“Blood coming out of head. My wrist to armpit on one arm was ripped right open,†he told me. “I was laying there bleeding, and I luckily had my telephone.â€
Within five minutes, police, firefighters and EMTs made it to his home in Town and Country. He credits the fast response, and their diligent work, for saving his life. On the day we spoke, he was buying a case of wine to deliver to the public servants who helped him.
Tichacek has lived in ºüÀêÊÓƵ his entire life. He attended ºüÀêÊÓƵ University. He tells me he used to drive union boss Jimmy Hoffa around back in the day. He’s the grandson of Louis J. Tichacek, who founded Tichacek Bros. Painting Co. in ºüÀêÊÓƵ in 1875.
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Tichacek reads the Post-Dispatch daily. He writes the occasional letter to the editor. He sees the bad news that too often graces the pages of the newspaper, and he called me, he says, to let me know that there are really good things that happen to people in this region, too, even in difficult circumstances.
“I think the world needs to know that there are some damn fine people out there,†Tichacek says.
Sarah Duffy agrees.
She lives in the city, in Tower Grove South. She tried the suburbs once, but it didn’t take and moved back. She loves her neighborhood. Duffy came to ºüÀêÊÓƵ in 1963 to study at Washington University. She started in engineering and switched to art history. Neither of them really stuck, but she did, and she’s been here ever since.
On the same Saturday when Tichacek took his fall, Duffy was driving south on Kingshighway Boulevard near Arsenal Street. She was headed to watch the children of a friend compete in a robotics event. Duffy had just passed The Royale restaurant and bar when she noticed a bit of a commotion out of her peripheral vision in the Conoco parking lot ahead on the right.
A big, orange SUV barreled out of the gas station parking lot and T-boned her on the passenger side of the car. The collision pushed her into northbound traffic on Kingshighway, which in the middle of the day can be heavy in that area.
Duffy was hurt, but the Nissan Maxima and its airbags and seat belt did its job protecting her. As she sat in her car facing oncoming traffic, stunned from the sudden turn of events, something amazing happened.
“Immediately, five people came to check on me. They came from both sides of the street in scary traffic in the middle of the afternoon,†Duffy says. “Somebody had orange cones and put them around my car. Somebody brought me a cup of water. Two of the people stayed around.â€
Duffy called me for the same reason Tichacek did, to talk about the kindness of strangers. The police and firefighters and EMTs in the city all did a fine job, too, she says. Duffy didn’t need to be transported to the hospital. But in her case, she was amazed at how quickly people who saw the accident decided to step in and help, even before police could tame the traffic.
There’s an addendum to the story. On the day I talked to both Duffy and Tichacek, there was a report in the Post-Dispatch about 911 response times in the city. They’re still too slow, though interim Public Safety Director Dan Isom is trying various strategies to decrease call times, and progress is being made. People are often placed on hold. That’s happened to Duffy, she says. Tichacek wonders if he’d be alive today if he had been placed on hold when he called 911.
It’s a fair question that should add urgency to the 911 problem. But that’s an issue for another day. Today, at least, let’s celebrate the goodness around us in the ºüÀêÊÓƵ region, including the bystanders in the city who stepped in to help before 911 could even be dialed.
“I was astounded,†Duffy says of her experience. “They don’t know me. They took risks to walk across that traffic on Kingshighway to get to me. I have no idea who they are, but they were so wonderful. With so much going on in the world, it just struck me: People are thoughtful and kind.â€