Cold Case Moments

 I'm often surprised when people recognize me. Several years ago, I was walking downtown, passed a popular restaurant, and about a block and a half later, an exhausted old grade school friend tapped me on the shoulder. "Buns" had been having lunch with his wife and another couple, and in a slit second had recognized me as his old pal, Ferrerman. How did he do that? I hadn't seen him in a couple of decades. I probably had looked right at him in the window, but nothing registered on my end. Later I remembered that Buns and his same wife had seated themselves at the bar in the town I was working, years ago, and greeted me by my name, a trick often used by customers to fake familiarity because the house forced us to wear name tags. Had he not introduced himself, I never would have spotted him. It was a "Cold Case" moment, if you recall that show. 

Most recently, I was in a nearby store and saw one of my cousin's kids and his wife, a few feet behind me. I smiled, said hello and put out my hand. He ignored it. He mumbled something but seemed to have no recognition of me nor desire to chit chat further. The wife, who is the brains of that operation, seemed to make me, but she didn't say anything either. He's an odd duck. Maybe he just doesn't like me. That does happen. I figured he was high. I wished them a good day and moved on. Saw them two days later for Xmas at his mom's house and said hello and mentioned that I hadn't seen them in a while. I lied. Or perhaps they had not seen me in a while? I saw them at Easter, and they were in the midst of a conversation where someone else in the family had seen someone else and not acknowledged them- again in a store. Ironically, perhaps, my cousin's son said that the unacknowledged person could have taken it upon themself to acknowledge the person they thought might be ignoring them. Apparently, no greetings had been extended in that situation, just visuals. I kind of agreed with that (silently) but I wondered if that conversation had been for my benefit. I'll probably never know, and that's fine.

I just don't go through life thinking I'm that memorable. For some people I am though and that's great for them. If you can age-progress someone from grade school to middle age or beyond, that's a real talent. I can't do that. And yet, I feel like I'm always people-watching and studying faces. Well, not staring at people- that's rude! But I think that everybody looks like someone else- usually an actor or an actress- but those are my perceptions, not usually those others. My friend, Michelle, is the woman who knows me best in life, but neither of us is much on putting up recent pics on Facebook and could probably pass each other on the street without knowing. Similar with rival blogger, Maggie. She long ago sent me a pic, but that was several laptops ago and I lost it. We've all aged. Maybe Buns could ID us? That fucking guy, BTW, quit me on Facebook several years back because I didn't share his stupid thoughts on the North Carolina Bathroom Bills which he thought were important because, if they saved one kid from getting molested in a bathroom by a guy dressed as a woman... YEESH! Had no idea ol' Buns would grow up to be an idiot conservative. Keep my name out your mouth and my face out your memory banks, ya weirdo!

I have all I can do in life to remember the names of people I meet. But faces too? Tall order. Maybe it would help if everyone wore nametags?