I attract literally all kinds. I'm a freak magnet, which I love! I also attract intellectuals, who always end up boring me to tears, and pitiful victim types, who leave the same impression on me as the intellectuals. I don't think I like people much, unless they have some really odd quirks. LOL I guess I like the way Elwood P. Dowd put it in "Harvey:" "....I've tried smart. I prefer pleasant."
I try to have a cheerful disposition most of the time. It's not surprising then that I tend to attract jolly people and a lot of them have remained my true friends all these years. I'm also lucky that these funny people with their own healthy outlook in life turn out to be loyal friends as well.
Practically such a situation never happened to me while I was young, time at which I used to wish something like this happened to me, and therefore attending as many parties and events as possible. Overtime I found more enjoyable spend time alone and discovering the world by engaging in "solo" adventures. Then later, let's say from the starting of this decade of my 50s, I found that people just comes and casually starts a conversation, not just in reunions, but going aboard the public transport, at the supermarket, down the streets... I go through and people smile at me, salute me, and may start a conversation anytime, anywhere! Young people, senior people, children, men, women or else. I don't know why, but such a situation it's rewarding to my spirit.
I laughed at that part when store customers would mistake for an attendant, hahahaaa. No offense, I just remembered an incident where my husband was also mistaken as an attendant of a convenience store. We were browsing in the rack of candies when someone asked my husband if there is available ice in the cooler and if so can my husband get 2 packs. The old woman seemed amiable so my husband went to the cooler. Fortunately, a real attendant came and did the chore of assisting the old woman. When we were about to leave the store, that's when my husband noticed that his shirt has the same color of the attendant's.
That happened to me in a supermarket once. I was wearing a blue fleece that was a little, though not very, similar to the ones worn by the staff and a woman asked me where she could find something. I can't recall what it was, but it was something meaty and being a vegetarian, I had no idea. I replied, "Sorry, no idea," or something along those lines and she gave me a look that threatened to defrost the freezers behind me. I realised what had happened, explained I was merely out shopping and she went a bit red and apologised. The other time I had something similar was when I was waiting for a train late at night. I was wearing a black overcoat and some chap evidently mistook me for somebody who worked at the station and asked me what platform he needed for a particular train. As it happened, I was familiar with the station and pointed him in the right direction. I wonder if he went away thinking how helpful the station staff were!
I have an "outgoing" type personality, so I have no trouble talking to people. However, there are those people who think that "outgoing" people are just plain weird. I try to stay away from them. I was raised in a small town in Indiana and we knew farmers all around us and people in town. It was pretty cool to know that the Butcher knew exactly how to cut our meat and cashiers would say "hi" to us. Knew the people at the bank and the own/workers where we got gas. My wife has more of a "reserved" type personality, until she's had a couple of beers or a strong margarita. After that, look out! I remember, some years ago, my wife and I went to a Christmas Party at a co-workers home that my wife knew. When we walked in the door, you could hear a pin drop.......it was that quiet! It seemed like everyone was whispering to each other. Music so low, could barely hear it. Well, that wasn't going to happen at a party I go to! I said, fairly loud, "I thought this was a party!" Same thing Kevin Bacon said in Footloose, when he came downstairs to the Senior Dance and everyone was just standing around. Well, what I said must have worked. People started talking louder, the host turned up the stereo and I thought, "let the party begin". When we left, the host said "thank you" to us for coming and said "thank you for getting my party going" to me. I looked at her and said "no problem".........with a smile.
Strange things still happen from time to time. I am a vegetarian and have been for some 36 years, yet it was not so long ago that somebody said to me that I "didn't look like a vegetarian." Quite what they were expecting, I have no idea. Floppy ears, perhaps.
When I was living in Chicago, IL I went to a college there. I had a roomie and a few good friends. Woody Allen was appearing at Second City and we decided to get tickets and go to the show. After Woody left the stage, another stand-up comedian was introduced... his name was Jackie Mason. Not well-known at the time. My three friends and I were sitting in the middle of the room and enjoyed the show -- laughed like crazy. After the show, we left the building, and an older guy was chasing us down the street and asked us to stop. We did. The guy pointed at me and said "Jackie would like to meet you". OMG, what! I was stunned. The guy convinced me that everything was on the up and up. So I gave him my phone number. I surely didn't expect to receive a call, but the next afternoon I did, and Jackie and I talked for hours. I agreed to let him take me out. He picked me up in a long stretch limousine and we went to a club. Sparks were flying between Jackie and I. We were very attracted to each other, but that's another story. He gave me the key to his room and for the two weeks he appeared in town we spent a lot of time together. While going out and about, I met and hung out with some of his friends. Mort Saul, Lenny Bruce, Woody, Oscar Levant, and some other people I can't recall. When I was still in high school, a girl I knew lived one block away from me, and she became a member of the Serendipity Singers. We hung out together, because we lived so close and our parents were friends. Another girl and I were close friends when I was a teenager, and she went off to New York to became a singer -- appeared on the Johnny Carson show. She was terrified and did poorly. Johnny took sympathy upon her and invited her back for another appearance and she did very well. From that appearance she was able to stop waitressing and started getting good gigs. And, when I was living in Chicago after college, I was introduced to someone, and we became roommates in our own apartment. Her name was Joyce Cohen. We were together on the day Jack Kennedy was killed. We went our separate ways after rooming together for three years. We kept in touch, but both of us moved to different parts of the country. But, she stood up for my wedding, and then a few years late I stood up for her wedding. After that, we lost touch completely. She became a state senator for Colorado. Joyce Foster So, last year when it was the 50th year anniversary of Jack Kennedy's death, Joyce was reminiscing about that fateful day 50 years ago. She recalled our friendship and how shocked we were, and decided to look me up on Facebook. She sent me a message, asking if I was the same Toby Lee who she roomed with that year. We became friends on Facebook, and exchanged phone numbers, and email addresses. So, that's another person I drew to me.