There’s something ironic about the fact that last night I wrote about having a coke at Denny’s with someone and then today I actually DID have a conversation with someone at Denny’s half a continent away from my home.
We had gone to church with our daughter and her family and then off to breakfast afterward. As we were waiting for a table, a 30-something (maybe) gentleman got up to offer me his seat and I plopped my butt down next to a beautiful woman I assumed was his wife. I struck up a conversation with her and found her to be very interesting.
I told her we were here in Maryland to see our new grand daughter and we talked about that for a few moments. She explained she has been a Washington D.C. police officer since 2007. Totally didn’t see that coming. Turns out she’s not very happy with her job. In fact, she is considering quitting and moving to Atlanta with her two children, one 7, the other 14, and going back to college to become a geriatric nurse. She shared with me that she has a fondness for older people. Ah! Something in common we could have continued talking about except that they came to get us just then.
I wished them good day and we all had breakfast. Then on our way out, we passed their table and she caught my wrist, so I stood and talked a few more minutes while Drollery paid our bill.
I asked the gentleman (who turned out to be her boyfriend) if she was planning to take him with her when she left. He laughed and said he hoped so. As it turned out, he was a security guard on Vice President Biden’s compound at the United States Naval Observatory!
The subject of how police work has changed since they’d both gotten into the business came up then, and to my surprise, we were suddenly talking about Ferguson and I was asking them if they’d heard of Sue Bradford Edwards’ book Black Lives Matter, a young reader’s book that hasn’t even been released yet, but which is being attacked by Fox news simply for the title. (At this point Brandon thought I’d lost my mind!)
(Sue has a blog on Word Press. It’s One Writer’s Journey. This has been a very stressful time for her. She was given this subject to write about by her editor, and it just so happens she lives in Ferguson. For more information, see her blog.)
By then Drollery was done and ready to leave. I wished her luck in her career change, she said she hoped the rest of our trip was good. The entire conversation (both pieces) couldn’t have been more than five or six minutes long. It just goes to show you how much you can learn about someone in a very few minutes if you know how to ask good questions.
You know the sad thing about it, though? The one thing I forgot to ask was their names! But then they didn’t ask mine either. I guess in a short-term conversation like that names aren’t nearly as important as our stories.
So don’t be afraid to strike up a conversation with someone you don’t know. You might be surprised at how your life could be enriched.
Impromptu Promptlings 
I love what you said, Jane, about treating everyone like friends we have not yet met. Because so often, it can happen anywhere, you strike up a conversation with someone, and you get on famously, as if you’d always known them.
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I figure it’s always worth it to make someone feel SEEN, know what I mean?
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Yes! That’s a perfect way to put it. During this year, while at the market, buying Greek Yogurt, I met an elder woman, and we struck up a conversation while waiting for the stock clerk to finish, and by the end, when we parted, we gave each other a hug! I didn’t learn her name, but that seemed unimportant. We shared a kinship that is about where we are in our own turning wheel, and appreciated that another bothered with us. As we enter these years of growing dim, we come to realize, that we begin to become invisible to a bigger part of the world. Perhaps more so in real time. That isn’t necessarily so in virtual, since what people see in us is from that inner fountain of our youth.
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As we enter these years of growing dim, we come to realize, that we begin to become invisible to a bigger part of the world. Now there’s a WHOLE POST waiting to be done on that! Would you like to do it, or shall I?
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This may fall into your hands. I’ve been struggling with writing, in an even bigger way. I keep looking at the Story A Day Prompts and I see some that sound great, but then nothing happens… I don’t do them, and I’m just, for some reason, not writing, except for my Monday event, and your Sandbox writing event. So, I know you’ll do that subject great justice.
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We’ve gotta figure out how to light a fire under you. Could we start a round robin story?
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I’m in agreement with Jane…..when we moved here we didn’t know a soul….there’s a local coffee house that’s open May through October that i/we frequent on weekends (great mochas!). I/we would sit at the same table, and we started noticing this 4-some of elderly folks…..we’d see them every week….Final eventually one of the gals and I started chit chatting…that was 9 years ago…..that gal, Judy, has become my adopted mother…we have coffee/therapy almost every Tuesday……her his and and the other couple quickly became friends as well….but she has a special place in my heart ❤️
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We sure miss a lot of blessings when we don’t step out of our comfort zones and reach out. AND everyone’s story is important.
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Or how much you may enrich someone else’s life. If we treated everyone like friends we have not yet met, the world would be a happier, friendlier place. We lose some of our inhibitions as we age, and that can be a good thing.
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Yes, we do. We may also become less reactive. I love what you sated about treating people more like friends. So true.
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I’d love it if I was sitting in Denny’s right now, and you came in and we struck up a conversation. i wouldn’t whether we would walk away without either of us realising who the other was. You wouldn’t recognise me from my photo, because I look different now.
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You know, I’ve probably met ten or twelve of my epals over the years, and there was not a one of them I didn’t recognize. But then I was EXPECTING to meet them. Might be different if it were just a surprise? Bet it wouldn’t take me very many words to figure out who you are! 😀
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I write better than I talk, although I’m improving all the time!
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