I got to talking to Ginny tonight at work about being mistaken for other people. Strangers who think she's her sister come up and talk to her all the time. My Dad always knows someone whenever we go out anywhere - in fact it got so bad that Mom & Dad would make $20 bets as to whether or not they would see someone they knew.

It doesn't happen to me often. But one time about 4 or 5 years ago, it wasn't just one person who thought they knew me....

I was going to Grand Junction with Mom & Dad and before we got on the road, we stopped at Wal-Mart on 8th Street to get snacks and such. While we were standing in line, the man in front of us kept looking back at me. Looking, looking, looking....finally he decided to change lanes and passed by us. He looked right at me, smiled really big and said, "Hey! How are you doing?"

"Good, how are you," I answered, mostly out of habit. I had no idea who this man was.

"Good, thanks. Well, great to see you." Mom looked at me, waiting for me to say, "Oh, that was Bob from work" but what she got was, "Hell if I know who that was!"

"He sure seemed happy to see you," she said. I had pretty much forgotten about it by the time we reached the McDonald's right across the street. The manager was in the kitchen and the whole time we were ordering he just kept a-starin' at me, just like the Wal-Mart guy.

Pretty soon he came up front and asked how I was doing and said he hadn't seen me in here in a long time. I played along, smiling and laughing. When we walked out, Mom looked at me again for the explanation. I had none. I didn't know him, either!

The only thing we could come up with was that I must look like someone who's from around that area. But considering the place where crazy people go to chill and pill is just up the hill, I'm not so sure that's a compliment!!

Labels: stories

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