cool story

[ChrisCantSkate]

Many years ago, a lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston, and walked timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge."We want to see the president," the man said softly. "He'll be busy all day," the secretary snapped. "We'll wait," the lady replied. For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally become discouraged and go away. They didn't and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted. "Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave," she said to him. He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn't have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus." The president wasn't touched.... He was shocked. "Madam," he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery." "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly. "We don't want to erect a statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard." The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun suit, then exclaimed, "A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard." For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don't we just start our own?" Her husband nodded. The president's face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about. You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who they think can do nothing. ----- A TRUE STORY ----- by Malcolm Forbes

[Kyle]

haha, nice!

[mt.biker]

dam, screw harvard!

[Rob]

Wow....so true how at one point or another we are all guilty of judging people by how they look, dress, etc....but you can never truely know someone until you talk to them and find out who they are on the "inside".....I myself have met alot of people just for a brief amount of time and actually took the few minutes I had to talk to them and it amazes me how far off my first impression of them really was.......

[ebpda9]

touching. :yes:

[a96710]

Wow...interesting story. I never knew that

[slowEJ6]

thats pretty damn interesting. :thumbup:

[DsBlu01CivEX]

I've read/heard that before. I dislike Ivy league schools because of the reputation they have for treating people like that.

[Quist]

I had a buddys uncle that was just like that. He always dressed in old ragged clothes and never showed off how much he was worth. Then one day he was at the airport with his nephew and saw a plane that he wanted to buy, he asked the man how much he would sell his plane to him for. the man just kinda laughed and said that it costs $$$$$(dont remember how much it was) so he grabbed a piece of paper from his pocket and started to write this man out a make-shift check. the man laughed at him and walked away. later that day he bought a plane from one of his friends with that same piece of paper. You see checks can be written on anything as long as it is signed, also the bank knew that he was in the habit of doing this because he hated to carry around a check book.

[monkut]

snobby people upset me. i love a story with a good ending:yes:
:|

[ChrisCantSkate]

Originally posted by Quist
I had a buddys uncle that was just like that. He always dressed in old ragged clothes and never showed off how much he was worth. Then one day he was at the airport with his nephew and saw a plane that he wanted to buy, he asked the man how much he would sell his plane to him for. the man just kinda laughed and said that it costs $$$$$(dont remember how much it was) so he grabbed a piece of paper from his pocket and started to write this man out a make-shift check. the man laughed at him and walked away. later that day he bought a plane from one of his friends with that same piece of paper. You see checks can be written on anything as long as it is signed, also the bank knew that he was in the habit of doing this because he hated to carry around a check book.
thats so cool. i've known about the check thing, but thats awsome. i still want to try that one day, i fianly got a check account. im going to buy something much smaller though

[ShEaNy]

never knew....nice story:eek: