Yet More Strange People

This has quickly become a favorite topic of mine. They just keep on coming! And this time, I wasn’t even in NYC, which is where you expect to see some oddballs. I was in Connecticut, not ten minutes from my house. I had stopped to get gas in the morning on my way to work. As I was walking in the door to the “Mart” to pay before pumping, I saw an older gentleman behind me, so I held the door for him. He looked at me happily and said, “Thanks! I’ll call ya tomorrow!”
I just smiled, wondering what this guy was talking about, and let him in the door. I couldn’t tell whether he was joking or serious. Maybe he thought I was someone else. It almost sounded as though he were finishing a conversation with someone else—except that there was no one else around him and he was looking right at me (and he didn’t have a bluetooth in, either). Anyway, we went in, and I decided I would let this guy go ahead of me in line (I try to stay out of the way of the oddballs), but he insisted on letting me go first. “Go ahead, I’ll let my grandmother serve you first,” he said. The cashier, to whom he was presumably referring (but who knows?), was definitely a good ten years younger than him, at least. She glanced at him and the look on her face said, “Oh, great. He’s back.” And I still couldn’t tell whether he was just a jokester or was legitimately confused about the circumstances of his location and the people around him. My first impression was that he was joking, but what an odd thing to say, even as a joke. Usually a jokester isn’t quite so random. But he was funny, I’ll give him that.
I think I attract these people. I think I have a sign that is invisible to me but clearly visible to them, saying, “Calling all weirdos! Dispense your ramblings here!” For some reason or other, they feel they can trust me, or relate to me, or that I’m one of them. I’ve got my quirks, don’t get me wrong, but I’m not quite in that league yet.

I know I’m not the only one to whom this happens. My former college roommate told me a story while we were living together. He was in the dining hall eating lunch and trying to read his engineering textbook. He was a very busy young man, being an engineer as well as an R.O.T.C. officer, so his time was very valuable to him. So there he was, sitting in the dining hall, engrossed in his text, when who should sit down across from him but a total stranger. “Hi, I’m a freshman; I’m trying to meet people.”
He stared at her in disbelief, looking around at all the empty tables in the area. There were a hundred other places she could have sat down. He had not anticipated this.
“Well, that’s nice, but I’m trying to read,” he said, attempting to be polite.
“What are you reading?” she asked.
“Engineering.”
“What’s the topic?”
He hastily spat out some words.
“Oh, that’s interesting. Tell me more.”
“Look, do you really understand any of this?” he asked. “Is it really going to benefit you to hear me talk about it?”
“Well, no, I’m just trying to meet people.” She introduced herself and extended her hand. He shook it reluctantly and introduced himself.
She stayed at the table and talked to him until she had finished her lunch. He got no reading done.
Back at the room, after he had related the story to me, he said angrily, as though speaking to her, “How dare you presume to think you have the right to steal my time! That’s bullshit!”
Then he asked me rhetorically, “Do I just attract these people? Do I give off something that says, ‘Come talk to me! I’m looking to chat’?”
I was laughing so hard I was crying. Personally, I rather enjoy talking to strangers and observing their idiosyncrasies, but I think if I had been trying to squeeze some reading into a packed-solid schedule, and someone came up to me wanting to meet new people and wouldn’t take the hint and leave, I’d probably be a little irritated, too.