White Light Black Light

Whoever these guys are, there's no doubt we could use them here. An entire city is abuzz about the mysterious identity of two men who are as close to being living legends as you can get in this mortal life.

Welcome to a location so ordinary, it's actually called Plainville. But what happened in this small Connecticut town last Thursday was anything but plain. Like most cities around the world, the folks in the hamlet near Hartford are struggling to make ends meet due to the high cost of gas.

Several patrons were at a local Citgo gas station in the area contemplating how much they were going to have to pull out of their wallets as they filled their tanks, when two oddly dressed men suddenly showed up. Both were wearing matching green golf shirts, baseball caps and sunglasses to hide their identities. At first the customers feared they might be there to rob the place. And then they discovered they weren't dealing with robbing hoods but Robin Hoods, as one by one, the men went up to each motorist and handed them a $100 bill to help them buy their gas.

They also doled out a card to each person that read "Re-Fueling Our Community." It was signed "The Gas Men."

Gayle Kilburn was one of those lucky customers who met the pair. "I was like, 'Oh my God, I just got my gas paid for,'" she exults. She admits she thought at first they were handing out Monopoly money but when she looked down, she was shocked to discover it was the real thing.

In fact, everyone present was so stunned it took them a few minutes to realize what had just happened. They all went in to pay for their purchases, as the incredulous clerk inside refused to believe their stories. By the time they came out, the two men had disappeared.

No one is sure where they went, who they are or why they did it - and most importantly whether they'll be back.

But the like old ending to the Lone Ranger series, you can hear the five or six drivers who got handed the $100 bills saying to themselves, "Who were those masked (sunglassed?) men? I just wanted to thank them."

It remains to be seen if they'll ever get the chance.

// posted by Alice @ Monday, June 16, 2008