I would take it more as a sign of the people and place. Time may have diminished helpful spirits in many places but I know I feel much more at ease on the road in rural America than I ever do in a city. The rule seems to always prove itself.
The more people you see, the less help you can expect. In North dakota where I grew up and in many places of the country, a strangers help on the road can mean the difference between life and death.
I doubt this instinct is cultivated much where children grow up in 4G bubbles filled with tow trucks and credit cards and triple A discounts. But I think it's alive and well deep down inside, under the judge Judy and Justin Bieber. I don't think a few generations of abysmal social parentage can deny genetic memory her due.
