Dear Jack—
You know how it is when someone says to you they think they know you but they can’t quite place you? In truth, it more often happens to me that I can’t quite place them, even though I maybe worked with them or knew them well at one time. I rather embarrassed myself that way not long ago, not recognizing someone my husband had worked with for years, and whom I had even worked with on a project! So I try to keep an open mind now when someone says they think they know me.

But the other day it was a funny thing, I was at the Minnehaha Coffee Shop, I had just gotten a fresh cup of coffee and was settling in to work on the Sudoku, when this guy who had been sitting with another fellow at the next table stops by on his way to the door and says, “Excuse me, but I think I must know you from somewhere.”

Well, he doesn’t really look at all familiar to me, but I know better than to trust that, so I tell him my name, to see if that triggers a spark of recognition. He just gives me a blank look to that one. But he’s still game, so he asks me if I’m affiliated with some organization. Well, I’m not sure what he means by this, but I’m warming up to this guessing game now, so I get ready to start running through a list of whatever associations I have with what may be called organizations. But before I can even start, he just makes a hasty apology and departs. Maybe he was depending on his friend for a ride, but I thought he gave up a little too easily. I was ready to list off the school my children went to, the garden clubs I have been in, the co-op I belong to, and so forth.

Maybe he suddenly realized he had mistook me for someone else, but I felt a little like he had started a guessing game with me and then left without finishing it! Oh, well, at least I had my Sudoku to solve. And my coffee was still hot.
—M