MEM BE RS’ CO NTRI BUT I ON
A LITRE OF PETROL by Life Member Louis A Coutts
I found myself in an outer suburb of Melbourne and pulled into a petrol station to fill my tank. There was a car in the first bowser set and I pulled in behind it and started to fill up. The driver of that car returned from the payment counter and got into his car and drove away, leaving the space in front of me. Then a small old looking car drove in from the opposite direction facing my car and stopped at the bowser. My immediate thought was “how am I going to get out, with that car facing me?” A lady alighted from the car and as though she read my mind, waved to me and with a pleasant smile and said something to the effect of “Don’t worry”. She placed the nozzle in the tank, and I kept filling mine. A minute or two later, I saw the lady return to her car from the payment counter, get in and drive off. I was still filling my tank. It occurred to me that she must have only put one or at the most, two litres in her tank.
from hand to mouth in this rich country Australia. I couldn’t imagine what it must be like to live on the financial edge. I was then reminded of the story of the woman in the supermarket with her child, who was buying stuff for the evening meal. At the check out counter, she had to stop the check out clerk because she didn’t have enough money for everything she had in her basket and had to hand some stuff back. The guy behind her then told her not to hand the stuff back as he would pick up the cheque for the balance. If I had been more attentive, I would have told the one litre lady to fill her tank and I would pick up the cheque. But she had gone.
I then went into the shop to pay, only to discover that I had left my wallet at home and didn’t have any money. Sadly, that is not the first time it has happened to me and I am almost certain it won’t be the last. But I couldn’t get that lady out of my mind and wondered how many more people in this rich Do you know, I felt terrible? The poor woman must country simply don’t have enough for their day-tohave had to watch every cent and must be living day needs. 24
