Our next door neighbors have been foster parents for years. We have babysat in emergency situations, such as when the kids arrive home from school a few minutes before the adults do from their doctor's appointments.
When the phone rang as we were driving to the store, we did not recognize the phone number. Bill answered on speaker phone.
"Hello."
"Hey there man, how you doing on this fine day?" The deep, gravelly African-American voice sounded older than our neighbor.
"Doing just fine. What can I do for you?"
"Well that is exactly what I was going to ask you. You called ME, so I hit redial. What can I do for YOU?"
"Well I've been driving. I haven't used this phone. I didn't call you, Jesse. You called ME."
"This is John, not Jesse. Who are you?"
They got to talking. The man lived clear across town, was two years older than Bill, and both had retired the same year. They discussed everything under the sun. When I came out of the store, they were still gabbing about the world situation, the repercussions of telling the wife her cooking was bad. They agreed if they ordered out, the wife would appreciate it ...
My husband is a joker and has never met a stranger. You'd have thought these guys were best friends.
When I came out of the SECOND store, they were still yucking it up, laughing, and telling life stories.
I shook my head, smiled, and thought, "This is exactly what the world needs, friendly people forced by a pandemic to limit their in person interactions, making the most out of a random phone call."
In the back of my mind I wondered just how random that accidental dial was.
7 comments:
You are so right. Once given a chance, we discover our similarities are greater than our differences. :-)
The world has no lack of friendly people; it's politics and other such things that interfere and cause trouble, even among family members.
This would make a wonderful CS story. Do they have a pandemic one?
Only Sas could talk that long to a perfect stranger. Did he save the number, so they can talk again? ;)
I could imagine Hick doing that. A lady called ME to ask why I called her, and I just said that I did not, and that somebody must be spoofing my number. End of call. I'm not that chatty if I don't know you. I HAVE met a stranger. Hick, not so much.
January is my catching-up-in-the-world month and obviously, I needed to drop in here to read this post. Made me laugh out loud, Linda!
Wow, that was a strange thing that happened to your husband, but it turned out well, and maybe both of them needed a little male companionship. You told the story so delightful, Linda, and I really enjoyed every bit of it. Yes, ordering out.....I always appreciated that. We cook so much that a little break from cooking is nice. : )
~Sheri
My husband is a talker too. He can call a business and end up on the phone for half an hour talking about everything under the sun.
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