April 28 is worldwide Pay It Forward Day.

In terms of the transmission of coronavirus disease, one way to pay it forward is to not pass it forward – be considerate of other people's health; in terms of material stuff, "sharing is caring."

But some time ago (in pre-corona times), this pay-it-forward spirit was amply demonstrated at a Southington Connecticut Dunkin' Donuts where one customer would simply offer to pay for the next customer's order, and on and on – all total strangers; customers who managed to keep this pay-it-forward streak going . . . for three and a half hours!

Again, this went on for three and a half hours straight, a time span which even outpaced that occurring at this Dunkin' location on the actual Pay It Forward Day itself, April 28.

Perhaps we've all had some type of similar experience. But these instances reminded me of a night out on the town with a buddy a while back; two episodes which involved two contrasting sentiments, involving two different races of people. There was the good and the bad.

First, the bad.

While heading out for the night's activities, we spotted a pile of stuff, which had been put out for the city garbage people to pick up. Planted on top of that garbage, in plain sight and seemingly purposely spread out, was a U.S. flag.

We asked ourselves, did we really just see that?

To make sure we weren't hallucinating, we circled the block to get a second view, and sure enough, the flag was there. So we snapped a quick photo and took off. See for yourself.

Latinos live here so we thought this might've been some sort of La Raza-type political protest – whatever. Or maybe they just didn't know any better. But that's doubtful. Anyway, we don't normally hyperventilate over political issues concerning the U.S. flag, but this just seemed a little over the top. You decide.

Now for the good.

Much later that evening, we stopped at a KFC for a dine-in snack. We took our food and sat down. An African-American man was watching us – two white guys – apparently noticing that only one of the two of us was really eating what was essentially just a single order of food and drink. The other one of us not eating was, at the time, in the middle of training for an endurance event – basically not eating – physically appearing like he had just walked out of a Bolshevik gulag.

So probably thinking the worst (that we were poor and starving), and taking pity on us, this dear gentleman proceeded to go back up to the counter and order another meal for us. He brought it to our table, setting it down, saying among other things, "God has just blessed you." We graciously thanked him and wished him the best.

So in today's challenging environment, find a way to . . . pay it forward.