One of the few heartening things about the COVID-19 shutdown are the wonderful stories of neighbors helping neighbors get through it together.

Two students from Germany and three from France arrived in January for a semester long exchange program at Newton South.  Once the pandemic hit, like everyone, they are “social distancing” with their Newton host families until we get the all clear.

Last week, in the aisles of Whole Foods, 17 year old German exchange student Hans Richter had a very disturbing encounter.  While waiting in line, the woman in front of him whirled and yelled “six feet”, “six feet”.  Said Hans “I’m a fluent English speaker but I had no idea what she was talking about – I have only two feet. 

Passerby Scott Wilson heard Hans accent and immediately understood – “1.8288 meters, 1.8288 meters” and defused the situation.

The next day Wilson spoke to his boss at National Lumber and they have donated foot-to-meter measuring tapes to all the visiting exchange students to help them navigate our wacky body-part-based measuring system.