The Good Samaritans of the West Side

It's a short West Side story with everlasting effects.

If you happen to be driving through the West Side of Red Bank when your car breaks down and couple of guys roll up on bikes and gently wrap on the window with assurances of good will, it could just be two genuinely good Samaritans named Al and Shay.

It happened to this editor not too long ago. And these two gentlemen came right over to assist, ensuring that even though "sometimes these little kids get a little bad along here," they are always on the lookout to help someone in need and keep the "bad kids" at bay.

They are Shay Bland and Al Durham. They work at Foodtown in town, they're proud to be from the West Side and they're eager to boost its sometimes tough reputation to triumphant over the adversity of a few bad raps.

The two are good friends always trying to do the right thing. "We don't want people to be afraid around here," said Durham. "And we know these kids sometimes do bad things. So, when we see that someone needs help, like with the car, we're happy to come over and do what we can."

The two went right to work under the hood of this Patch editor's car that came to a dead halt on Shrewsbury Avenue, replete with typical best pal banter on the diagnosis, every bit of their good nature in it all the way.

When they couldn't quite fix the car, they apologized, taking the task to heart, and waited around until the tow truck arrived to see that everything was alright. They even had to be convinced to accept a few bucks for their trouble.

Now, that's what most would call the sincerest of good Samaritans.