Strangers You Remember

[D3M0N5]

There's this boy at my school that I believe is 2 years younger. He once sat at the same table as my friend and I during lunch. We didn't say anything other than replying "yes" When he asked if he could sit there. Anyway. He had a burger from our cafeteria for lunch and before he ate it, he took off the lettuce and tomato off  of his burger. After lunch my friend and I named him, "Salad Boy". From then on, whenever we saw him, we'd look at each other with a smile and say "Salad Boy!". Never spoke to him again after that but he's always been a funny inside joke between my friend and I

[alexela64]

I have a couple, but my favorite one (and one of the most recent) is who my friends and i call 'banana man'. We had traveled to the inner city for the day to have some fun, and while crossing the street we passed a businessman in a formal suit with pants and all (it was like 90 degrees out!!) holding a briefcase in one hand and a banana in the other. We joked that that was his work phone, and it became an in-joke every time we go to the city.
i'm going again tomorrow, i wonder if we'll see him 

[bugholder's epiphany]

There's two I remember, one from working retail who was nice, and the other was just a weird encounter me and a few others in my family had lol

First one was this old lady who would go around in an electric scooter shopping, she was always very jovial and happy, singing loudly and banging this tamborine thing as she went around the store. Helped her out to her car a few times and she was always pleasant to chat with :)

Second one was this guy who came up to me and my brothers while we were waiting for the rest of our family. He was some guy who claimed to be some rapper and was acting all like "YEA HEY I'M THE COOLEST" or some shit, acting like he was big and popular or something. Even told us to look him up on instagram before he left.

If i remember right he did not look like the guy on instagram.

[rigel]

last summer me and two friends attended an anime convention (my first time ever going to one), though we had to take trips on the bus and the train in order to get there since where we were staying was a little far - that meant having to walk out in public in cosplay though on the first day it was scary to me at first. i'm not fond of public attention! so the whole time i felt very self-conscious being with a bunch of people with my appearance sticking out like a sore thumb. however somewhere along the way while we were on the bus this young woman sat near our seats and actually complimented our costumes - it turned out she's a cosplayer as well! we managed to maintain a friendly conversation with her the whole time until we had to get off, she was a very energetic and fun person and she even showed us some of her own photos! talking to her really relieved some of the anxieties that i had at that moment, it reminded me there's people out there who may share similar interests that i just don't know about. i hope she's doing well 

another person i remember was this cashier from a goodwill. i was buying a bunch of glass jars + mason jar screws for an art project and when it was my turn to purchase we were both very quiet and stoic towards each other initially. it wasn't until he looked at me again and went "what does ur shirt say" and i was like "oh" and opened up my jacket a little to reveal this "save humans. save cats" shirt i got from uniqlo. immediately the guy let out the biggest smile and laughed, saying how cute it was and in turn i laughed with him. he was a chill dude! the cherry on top of this interaction was me saying "i don't know how to you're going to charge me for these (the mason jar screws)" after he scanned everything else and he went "man just take them." it's a sweet silly conversation i had that i still think about from time to time

[Plasmon]

• When I was first getting into physics back around 6th–7th grade, I bought The Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics by Byron and Fuller. I had no idea what the hell I was getting into, only that I was eager to learn everything in that book—and in case you're wondering, I still haven't actually done any of that book's problems. Anyways, I was sitting in the mall on the day I bought that book, and this guy around his mid 20s goes "if you keep reading that you'll end up going to Harvard." I haven't gone to Harvard, but every time I doubt myself, I think of that guy
• I sprained my ankle going down my uni's stairs about two months ago, and a few people got up and helped me walk to the building's entrance—they didn't have the time to walk me to my car, but just the fact they took the time to help out meant a lot to me.

[Memory]

When I was maybe six years old I was at school pick-up talking to my friend and their mom. the kids mom asked what I was doing after school [I think her kid wanted to hangout]. I told her I was going to a dentist appointment and she handed me a life-saver [the candy] and told me I should have it since I won't be able to have hard candy for a while. I have no clue why I remember her.

[wodaro]

It's very common for people to just come up to me and chat while I'm walking, especially older folks! I think part of it is how I tend to dress, a lot of the time they'll compliment my outfit and then a conversation will start from there!

One of the most memorable was a woman who initially complimented my bag, and then we got to talking about our lives. I told her I was on my way to my waitressing job and she told me waitressing was how she met her husband when she was young! She had been working on her birthday and a group came in also celebrating a birthday. Her and the birthday boy got talking over the coincidence and he ended up asking her out and they had been together for decades since! Then she lamented how her and her husband hadn't been able to take their yearly summer Brazil trip - apparently her husband helps out at a donut shop his girlfriend owns there!

At first I was worried the girlfriend would be a negative cheating scenario- but no, the woman also loved to take the yearly trips to visit her, and seemed quite sad that she couldn't travel that year. It was cool to see an older, open polyamorous couple! I'm not polyam but I am queer, so maybe she could tell lol.

[Wildcat]

I don't remember a lot of strangers off the top of my head, except for two.

The first one was a woman who asked about my well-being while I was working the cash register at one of my old jobs. I don't remember what she looked like, but I do vaguely remember her words. Something about things getting better eventually. At the time it touched me, and sort of baffled me as well, because my line of thought was, "My exhaustion and depression is THAT obvious?"

The second one was a stranger at a grocery store when I was in high school. He gave me and my sister a dollar each out of kindness, because he got good news about his cancer progression. I hope he's doing okay out there.

[Paprika]

People from online videogames mostly. Two of 'em exactly.

#1 : JackyBobby, the Death Knight Dwarf on World of Warcraft, a few months after the class was available. I was leveling un a hunter and entered a dungeon ith a bunch of randoms. That JackyBobby dude was jumping everywhere, making aggro and being overall a terrible player. At some point we reach a part of the dungeon where you can cut by making a jump but it was far from being the norm. We told him "don't do it" he said "no worries I can do it". He activates frost walk, allowing players to walk on water and he jumped. Except Frost Walk made the water count as solid matter, thus making him die from fall damage.

I stared at my screen for a few seconds and I burst out laughing, I could hardly breath. I was kicked from the instance since I was laughing so much I couldn't play at all. It's been many years and I can't forget that person.


#2 : Overwatch (first game) I'm in a ranked random match and I queue for a bit. We start to play, we struggle to stop the enemy team from advancing the payload and our Genji pops up in vocal, calling us names. Then our healer, Mercy pops up in audio and it's a woman. They argue a bit, then he seems to cool down and we start playing better. Genji sounds weirded out and he ends up asking to Mercy :

- Excuse me but do I know you ?
- Uh, why ?
- Your voice sounds familiar.
- Really ?
- Yeah.

Long silence, then we start hearing some music, it's "Baby Hit Me One More Time" by Britney Spears and the woman has a rather spot-on voiceover. Genji starts yelling in his mic "OH MY GOD, OH MY FUCKING GOD WHAT THE FUCK", girl starts laughing and I'm thinking for myself "No way, absolutely no way, that's impossible, I refuse to believe it. We"re on EU servers, nope, not buying it."

The game kept going on, we managed to win and before leaving the woman says "See you guys, gotta rehearse" and leaves.

To this day I still refuse to believe it but I can't forget that moment, the singing was really uncanny-tier accurate so props to that person.

[Fish]

Every year my city has this big festival at one of our parks. Pretty big event with lots of stuff but I mainly go for the elephant ears 

Anyways, I have this vague memory of when I was maybe 5 or 6 being at this festival. This clown came up to me and was talking to me about SOMETHING but I can't remember.

Typing this out I realized this kinda sounds like a creepy encounter but he was very nice and theres a bunch of clowns at these types of events so dw I don't think I was about to get kidnapped 

There was also another clown who I would see at our farmer markets. Pretty nice lady who made some impressive balloon animals. Man, clowns are neat

[petrichoran]

when my mom and i rode the city bus for the first time the only other passenger called us "wonderful people of the universe", i assume because we were making an effort to use public transit more. i genuinely hope i'm as eccentric as her one day.

[alexela64]

A man walking by my friends and I, dressed super formally with a monogrammed briefcase in one hand and an unpeeled banana in the other.

One time my brother and I were in the airport and saw this person on an electric scooter, blasting music super loud and flying down the hall. My brother said, "it's his world and we're just living in it." And i still think about that to this day.

The first woman i ever mistook for my mother. I less so remember her and more remember that she was a stranger and not my mother. I have the exact frame of what I saw in that moment perfectly frozen in my memory, down to the angle from which I was looking up at her. Really eerie memory that I'm not sure why I still remember.

Edit: I forgot that i replied about banana man already! I never ended up seeing him again 

[wygolvillage]

I remember once when I was a preteen my parents took me to a larger city on vacation- we rode on public transit. I couldn't find a seat near my family but there was an open spot next to this beautiful woman, and she kindly scooted over to let me sit down. She was dressed in a black and white striped dress and her hair was dyed an almost white platinum blonde- it all looked very coordinated. I thought to myself, wow, this is the most stylish woman I've ever seen! She's so pretty! I don't think we talked at all on the ride but for some reason I remember it really well.

[Lukas]

I have a heavy rotine, i have to take 2 bus for going to my school and more 2 for come back, it take more than 2/3 hours of my day, i guess, because of that, it ends up that i see a lot of things and i talk to a lot of people, generally old ladys, its pretty cool, i listen to their stories and bro, sometimes they give me advices, tell me their stories of life, problems of their lifes or just trashtalk with me, i have some stories that i end up leaving my bus with a shocked face, because of the stories that the old people tell me. I was thinking about tell one of those stories, but i dont know if have some rules against dark topics or something, so i will tell one thats a quite funny, dont know if its fits in the topic, but is funny.  

Some weeks ago, i was in my second bus to come home, it was something close to 5:45. I was waiting for this bus in specific because this bus has refrigerator, when i entered there, he was almost empty, i sit in the front, and about something like a 10 minutes, the bus already was full, i see a old man up and leave my chair for he sit, after that i was stand out in the middle of the bus next to some guys from other school, these guys were quite weird, looks like the kind of people who would assault the bus, with a shit talk and very loud, looks like that they want to make trouble. I dont know if the bus works in the same way that works here in my country (Brazil), but when the bus has refrigerator, he has a hammer as a emergency exit, to break the window and escape, one of these guys literally break the box that keep the hammer and put into his bag, i heard him saying that he wil use in a asshole of his street. Until here, everything normal, i was kinda scared, i dont wanna lose my phone that day, my simple motorola  . So after a time,  the bus had stopped and he doenst move cause off a trafic jam. And stayed like this for hours and i was quite far from my home, it was already getting darker, i was already considering get out of that bus and walk til my house, that til i see one of those guys litteraly putting a duct tape in the camera of the bus, was in this point that i made the sinal for the motorist of the bus open the door for i get down.

It was already night, something next to 6:20 pm, got down me and a little girl that was coming back from school too, I started the subject saying that I was afraid of being robbed, she said that her too, after that she sayed that some of her friends are in that bus and she dont want that they be robbed (logic), after she sayed that her mother was thinking in put her in other school because "she walking had some boyfriends", its kind impressing seeing that a little girl has dated more than you and go to more parties than you. After, we discovered that the traffic jam was caused because of a truck that had crushed, i sayed to the girl that she still was a child and shouldnt worrie about boyfriends and this kind of thing, she was too new, she said that she dont care, she also said that i looks like with her older sister, cause she never had kissed a guy, the urge to laugh is great but the urge to cry is greater. 

After that, her mother came to pick up her, and there was i alone, in full night, far from home, i walk 6 km til my home, i dont know how much this in miles, but have in mind that its a lot, climb some dark and empty hills. After a long time, when i was in the center of my neighborhood, the bus that i was passed and the strange guys saw me, they appointed to me and started to laugh, and i stare them back and make a expression like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, like what should i do? ya know, its kinda funny cause after some time, others buses  passed by and I didn't just take them out of anger (thats a brazillian slang that i have sure that i transleted wrong lol).

I came back to home something like 7:00 pm, sweaty, tired, sad, screwed, laughing with urge to cry, painful in the back and legs. After that, i eat 2 salgados( like coxinha, i think that only exist here) and i put a lot of ketchup, i literally stayed with hiccough for three days after that.

That my story, i have more interesting stories in my opnion, probaly no one will read this, i really appreciate if you read til here, God bless bro, sorry about my bad english, that huge text was almost entirely writed whitout the google transletd B). If someone wants a storie of mine more interesting, or just want read me trashtalking, something that i doubt, i will be glad in tell others stories              

 

[Pinklady]

I remember this girl so well. I was in the 2nd grade and I went to this summer camp, and when we were using our local pool I met this girl with a dark brown bob and a purple bathing suit on top of the slides. I remember her being an anomaly to me and my peers because of her accent, she had us try to guess where she was from and I guessed she was French and I was right.

She spent the most time with me that day, the English she did speak was janky at best, and other times she’d just speak to me in French, I never knew what she was saying so I’d just either laugh or nod my head. Then me and the rest of my camp had to go back and she stayed with her family an probably ultimately went back to France. For that one day she was my best friend in the world, Kinda wish I’d see her again.