I was cutting across Target heading for the restroom when a voice behind me said, "Hey, Claire, how've you been?"
I stopped and turned back to see a man with a really short buzz cut and a young girl a few paces behind him, probably his daughter. "Hey! Good thanks, how 'bout you?" The rolodex in my head was flipping, a continual spin, no hits.
The girl walked up and asked him a question calling him "Daddy."
"We've got to get a birthday card," he told her.
I looked at her, smiled, didn't get an introduction, gave a nod of my head and bailed. I didn't even walk down the rest of the aisle, I cut diagonally through the kids' clothes section.
It never seems fair that people (high school classmates or their parents) readily recognize me even from behind or from the briefest of profile views, but I reckon it'd be worse to see them head on so they'd be certain I didn't recognize them.
A possible name popped into my head but the voice was wrong. I kept flipping my mental rolodex in case I ran into him again. He wouldn't have to have been in my year necessarily which would widen the field substantially. Uf.
It took me about 20 minutes, but based on the voice, I thought I came up with the right name. When I got home, I looked him up on Facebook. I was right... although it took me a while. I did remember you!
To verify the identity of someone you don't recognize who addresses you by name in a store: Facebook's true purpose revealed.
6 years ago on TTaT: Lartigue: Album of a Century
I am horrendous with faces and names. I'll recognize that I should know someone but cannot recall their name. I have a deal with Katie that if I don't introduce her to a person we randomly meet, it's because I don't know this person's name and she should either ignore or save me by introducing herself and thus obtaining the person's name. Works very well.
ReplyDeleteI'm not too bad usually, but these ambush scenarios are always people from high school (or their parents) that I haven't seen or spoken to in over 20 years. Which in and of itself is bizarre. And I swear their looks have changed so much as to make them incognito to me while I am instantly recognizable to them. Urgh.
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