Have I got a family for you...

I have fun with people, trying to figure out if we’d met before and things like that. I joke that I’ve already met everyone on the planet once and that now it’s just a matter of remembering where and when we’ve met. This past week we had a fellow check our A/C unit, mostly to see if the first company was on the level when they told us that we needed to replace one that was still working. Lucy wrote about that in her blog, “Are You Kidding…I’m not going to pay that!”

Dave was the name of the second A/C repairman and as soon as he introduced himself my mind was working on where I knew him. His voice was familiar and his name hit a chord also. The more he explained about things, his mannerisms caused me to insist that we go over some brief history so that I could figure it out. We established that we didn’t go to high school, college, church or any of the simple things that would explain how I thought I knew him. I was glad to hear that my A/C unit was in acceptable working order and that the other company was trying to do a scam on us when they insisted that we needed to spend a huge chunk of change to buy their new improved A/C unit. I still have no idea where I knew Dave from; maybe it will come to me.

When I go shopping similar casual recognitions happen with people in the store, customers or salespeople. Once in a while I will see a fairly young person and mention that they remind me of someone’s children. I explain that if they ever want to get adopted into a family, “Have I got a family for you.”, and then go about telling them who they look like. It makes for a nice conversation; special attention makes most folks feel good, even if only for a few minutes.

One evening Lucy and I were shopping at a local Ross clothing store. The young woman behind the cash register ringing up our purchase had a familiar look about her.
I immediately led off with my, “Have I got a family for you.”, line, explaining that if she ever wanted to get adopted she could become a “Murphy”, a family from church that we knew had lots of kids and so one more might not even be noticed. I laughed and thought it clever.

“I am a Murphy.” Turns out it was one of the older kids back from college, one I had never met before. We all had a good laugh, how about that, I got one right.