Wednesday, September 28, 2011

In the dark

Working at the grocery store I meet a lot of people. Some, are the regulars. They always say hello and exchange pleasantries with me. The majority of them I don't know their name and they don't know mine. Casual acquaintances I call them. It is just as well. I am terrible at remembering names and faces. If you needed an eye witness to identify someone I would absolutely be your last choice. I wouldn't recognize even the biggest star in Hollywood. About as close as I could get would be he/she looks like that person. I think.
Well today a lady with a small child walks up to me and says hello. Naturally, I respond with a hello of my own. Then she calls me by name and asks about my son and family. At this point I have no clue who this person is. She then tells me she is back in town from Hawaii and she left town about the same time I did. Now I'm really confused. I left town ? When did that happen. I just smile and change the topic of conversation to ," who is this little girl ?" I'm told her name is Madeline. I remark what a cute little girl she is and explain I have to get back to work. Which was funny, as I was at work anyway. This young lady says goodbye and that she will be going to South Carolina soon with her husband. I wish her good luck and say goodbye. I still have no clue who she is.
After she left me I noticed she was talking with a co worker. As soon as possible I asked that co worker who was that lady ? My co worker says, I know her from somewhere but I don't remember her name." Great !
I did see her say something to my son. He is the manager of the store. I asked him and he said, her name is Sarah. She worked here a long time ago. I said, yeah, but I didn't and she knew me but I just can't place her. That is when he told me, she was a secretary for the town of Ridgely when you worked there. AHH, the light goes on. Sarah, from the office. Her husband joined the Navy and they went to Hawaii. She left the town of Ridgely about the same time I did. That is what town she was talking about. Mystery solved.
I hate it when that happens to me. And it happens a lot. I don't want to just ask the person who they are, seems rude to me. I didn't care enough to remember your name ? In one way I'm afraid I might offend them and in another I'm afraid that I should have remembered. Alziemers ? No, I've always been that way. Most of the time I can figure it out based on the conversation. Might not remember your name exactly but can put you in a place anyway. This time it was a blank. I have thought about trying those memory aid tricks to remember names but all I can see in that is a diaster waiting to happen.
What would you do ? Just ask and try to play it off or do what I do and try to make believe you know ? Maybe we should all wear name tags. That would make it a little easier. They do that at reunions don't they ?
Or in the modern vernacular, tag'em.

No comments:

Post a Comment