“Paying It Forward” In Bismarck!

I love the weekends! Who doesn't? The glorious attempt of sleeping in always fails because my two hungry cats decide they are hungry at 5:43 am. One of my favorite things to do is head over to the City Brew Coffee in my neighborhood, which is exactly what I did yesterday - a sunny morning with caffeine waiting just for me. There were two cars ahead of me who probably had the same idea. Then something happened, I had heard about this little fun game for a long time, but not once have I ever been involved. As I inched forward towards the window, Lydia handed me my large coffee with a smile and then had this to say " The car ahead of you bought your drink".

Well, will you look at that - I was now a player in the "Pay it forward" game. The complete rookie that I am, I realized that I guess it's my turn now - you know, to keep the tradition going. "I'll go ahead and pay for the car behind me!" I said as I eye-balled the single woman sitting in her car directly behind me. "Awesome, that will be $19.95 please" Lydia responded.                Ooops.

NOW, what would you have done in that predicament? All I had left at that moment was a ten-dollar bill, so in order to keep the flow going so to speak, I just said to put my money towards what the lady behind me was getting.

At this point I became intrigued, I wanted to know more about this fascinating generous-people-paying-for-strangers-behind-them ritual. I walked in and talked with Nate, the assistant manager. I was pretty sure now that there had to be some kind of structure behind all of this "Pay it Forward" fun, and I was right. Nate told me, that he and the other workers on duty - Bailee, Brady, Lydia are not to ask a driver in line if they intend to keep the streak going - that's strictly on their decision, whether they are feeling the love, OR they just want to be a scrooge. That was my next question - When does the game end? It's over when the customer fails to accept the nice free offer and clearly wants to pay for their own order - that puts a sudden end to the love fest. So, what's the longest you have ever remembered a "Pay it forward" sequence lasting? Two hours was the answer. The First thing that popped into my head was "Man, that's a ton of North Dakota Nice"

To put a capper on this whole affair, there are some hidden, not talked about rules to this fascinating "Pay it Forward" event - You just have to experience it for yourself! I will say that City Brew Coffee has extremely courteous and efficient employees that genuinely love to take care of you.