Ran into someone I knew at the grocery store
By ElicBxn
@ElicBxn (63643)
United States
October 24, 2012 4:41pm CST
I told Maggiepie that I preferred to go shopping today instead of yesterday. For one thing, I was already getting late when she asked me, I probably could've done it, but it would've been tight to also get her lunch done. So, I went to the store today.
I normally shop at that discount seller who is loved or hated about equally. Today, however, I went to HEB because they sell the cheapest scoop able cat litter.
There are a couple that might be a bit closer, but I don't like the clientele at those stores, and I find the prices a bit higher because of the shoplifting, so I went to one that might be a trifle further away, but has better shoppers.
It is also the HEB, well, the LOCATION of the HEB, that my Mom used to shop at when I was growing up.
It probably doesn't hurt that I sometimes run into people from where Mom used to live there as well - but not today.
Now, when Mom moved into the Health Care Center she had a roommate named Ruth. For over a year they were pretty amicable roommates, with Ruth maybe a bit too willing to answer Mom's phone, but otherwise pretty nice.
Mom became weaker and Ruth became... more... confused? It got to the point that Ruth was yelling and not calming down unless her daughter was there. She didn't want to get up and she didn't want to get dressed.
It was quite upsetting for Mom when Ruth would do these things, because she wasn't always able to properly express herself either because of the stroke related dementia she had.
It got to the point that Ruth had to have a single room and a sitter so that the staff could handle her without having to have her daughter leaving work and coming all the time.
After that, Mom had a couple of roommates who were sicker than Mom, but more - there - then Mom. They both passed away far to soon.
We still would see Ruth's daughter when she came up to visit her Mom and it was pretty apparent that Ruth was also failing.
I actually saw Ruth's daughter once in the courtyard after Mom died, but I was in a rush and couldn't detour to visit.
Well, so obviously I ran into Ruth's daughter at the HEB.
She asked after my brother and sister, said to remind them to vote and we just visited for a while. I probably added time to my shopping trip, but if I had gone back I'd've probably spent that time on Maggie's computer anyway.
She says she lives in that area, I told her where we used to live and why I came there to shop today.
I told her that I didn't recognize her without her hat! 
So, have you run into someone you haven't seen lately in a place you wouldn't have expected them?
So, have you run into someone you haven't seen lately in a place you wouldn't have expected them?6 people like this
12 responses
@Kashmeresmycat (6369)
• United States
24 Oct 12
Awww, it sounds like it was kind of a nice little visit. So, is Ruth still alive or did I miss this somewhere?
What is with the hat? Was it a wide-brimmed hat or something different? I haven't ran into anyone for a long, long time that I haven't seen for a while. They live on the other side of town it seems, so I never see them. Or, if I do, I don't recognize them for one reason or the other.
3 people like this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
24 Oct 12
No, Ruth has since passed on. I don't name people unless they have - my little quirk you might say. Don't know if I ever really knew her last name...
Yeah, she wore these wide brimmed hats all the time, says she normally wears them in the winter - kind of surprises me, they look like sun hats. Said she started wearing them Oct 1st, but forgot it today!
Austin is a BIG city, so I can go weeks without seeing anyone I know, and then I will run into scads of people for a while!
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Yeah, I expect less to run into folks I know on the other side of town, actually, on the south side, any of the south side - Austin is a big city... like 13th http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin,_Texas
So, actually, statistically speaking, running into anyone you know is pretty low!
1 person likes this
@bunnybon7 (50973)
• Holiday, Florida
25 Oct 12
i wish
the problem is i hardly ever go any where any more due to feeling bad. since i moved back to az, i havent seen any of the many, many people i knew 5 yrs ago. if i went back to my home town in ohio though id likely run into a few since i have a little over a hundred cousins there
the problem is i hardly ever go any where any more due to feeling bad. since i moved back to az, i havent seen any of the many, many people i knew 5 yrs ago. if i went back to my home town in ohio though id likely run into a few since i have a little over a hundred cousins there
@Hatley (163776)
• Garden Grove, California
24 Oct 12
wow ElicBxn no I just do not g et ou t enogh to meet pld friends but wish I
did. I was just thinking we had two people here who were like uth and this one lady attacked her roomie phy sicallysos then these owner idiots realized the woman was senile and also looeny too and sent her to a mental fac iliktyl she cou ld
have really injured her roomie who was smaller and less strong gut i t was just'
bruises but the metnat part that was uncalled for.Pearla had told them and told them her roommate was acting really weird and they just blew her off. the othero ne wandered back on the streets and the police never found her. I think really she was killed as Santa Ana is a place m osttly illegal m exicans and you thg gangs who do drive by shooting so she probably was in the wrong p lace at the wrong ti me./se was safe here but she liked the stree life.
Ruth's daughter sounds like a loveluy person for taking such good care of her poor mom. oh myG If I ever get like that I pray fthe good lord will take me. lol.
2 people like this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
24 Oct 12
Its sad that you can't get out, but I do understand it. I have met a lady at an assisted living place in New York who is totally blind, but she goes out for walks around the grounds with a friend and sits outside on nice days. Won't be nice for too much longer up there. Probably just starting to get nicer around your parts - like here.
1 person likes this
@GemmaR (8517)
•
25 Oct 12
I always like running into people who I haven't had the chance to see for a while, because it is always nice to be able to tell them about all of the things that you have been up to, and ask them what they are doing with their life now. I have changed quite a lot recently though and this means that there aren't all that many people who are able to recognise me anymore from my days at school. But I can recognise most of them and I introduce myself again and once they know who I am we can have a good chat about the old times.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
27 Oct 12
I don't really see too many people that I haven't seen in a long time, so it was nice to run into this lady. Mainly because we really got on well when our mom's shared a room. I think she might have more in common with my sister and brother, but I know we always had nice visits when we were all there together, I mean her and her mom and me and mine.
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Ha, I did run into someone recently that I hadn't seen for a few months and I thought she was someone else! I even introduced her to another person as the person I thought she was! There was a whole conversation before I realized it was not the person I thought!
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
27 Oct 12
That's kind of odd. I've seen people I hadn't seen in forever and wasn't sure how I knew them, that was sad, but since I've resigned myself to not knowing anyone, I just admit I don't remember exactly who they are - like I didn't recognized this lady - but it was the lack of the hat!
@Canellita (12029)
• United States
30 Oct 12
Well, the person I saw is a friend of a friend and I don't know her that well. I am used to seeing her on the other side of town at a different place. I mistook her for another person because of where we were and because her hair is longer and she looked like the second person.
I saw her again a few weeks later in the same place and we laughed about it.
1 person likes this
@deazil (4730)
• United States
25 Oct 12
I very seldom go out anymore (mostly late at night) but the last time I ran into somebody it was my next door neighbor. I was in a store at the plaza 3 blocks from my house. I walked right by him. I didn't recognize him outside of his driveway! After I walked past him I thought "Jeez, he looks familiar".
I turned around and he was looking at me. I just said "Oh, hi Mike. I didn't recognize you". And when I was working I saw a guy from work in that same store. Did the same thing but he said "Hey, how are you?". I turned and said "Hi. I didn't recognize you outside of work". Funny how that is when you see somebody in a place that you don't usually see them so you don't recognize them. I mean, it's not like their physical appearance has been altered by being somewhere else. I think somebody above (BarBaraPrz) mentioned that, too.
I turned around and he was looking at me. I just said "Oh, hi Mike. I didn't recognize you". And when I was working I saw a guy from work in that same store. Did the same thing but he said "Hey, how are you?". I turned and said "Hi. I didn't recognize you outside of work". Funny how that is when you see somebody in a place that you don't usually see them so you don't recognize them. I mean, it's not like their physical appearance has been altered by being somewhere else. I think somebody above (BarBaraPrz) mentioned that, too.1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Yeah, that happens to me too - they in some place that I don't expect to see them, and I probably won't.
Always amazed me that I realized who the "new" neighbor was just by her profile the first time I saw her across the street! Mind you, that was about 20 years go!
@deazil (4730)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Pretty good eyesight, Elic! But, can you do it now???
I live on a street with a grass island up the middle so it's wider than most. I can't see faces clearly, let alone profiles. Speaking of recognition from across the street, one day I was walking one of my cats (all black) and usually he only wanted to walk around way at the top of my backyard where the trees and bushes are. This particular day he walked down the side of the house to the front. My neighbor across the street was out and came walking over because she said she wanted to see what kind tiny DOG I was walking! From across the street that's what she thought he was. Of course as she got closer she realized it was a cat on the end of the leash.
I live on a street with a grass island up the middle so it's wider than most. I can't see faces clearly, let alone profiles. Speaking of recognition from across the street, one day I was walking one of my cats (all black) and usually he only wanted to walk around way at the top of my backyard where the trees and bushes are. This particular day he walked down the side of the house to the front. My neighbor across the street was out and came walking over because she said she wanted to see what kind tiny DOG I was walking! From across the street that's what she thought he was. Of course as she got closer she realized it was a cat on the end of the leash.1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (160952)
• United States
25 Oct 12
I run into people that I do not really know but I recognize. I drove a bus for years and every morning I met this particular woman driving the other way on the same street. She always waved and yielded to me. I then ran into her in the grocery, and then I ran into her at work, we are working the same place.
1 person likes this
@AmbiePam (93898)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Do you like running into people you used to see? I think it would depend. If it were people from the last church I attended I don't know that I would be happy. Well, that's not fair. 90% of the people from the church I used to attend, I would happily greet. I remember years ago running into a girl I used to go to school with who was absolutely horrible to me. I was very displeased to see her and her mother, but we both said hello civilly.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
25 Oct 12
Yeah, that happened to the roomie.
She used to live in this small town before being recommended to go to the Blind School by a nun there. But before that, she was tormented by the small town kids, even shoved in front of a truck once... so, when she went off to college, one of these kids, one of the RINGLEADERS of these kids came up to her seeming all happy to see here - she dropped out shortly after.
@BarBaraPrz (47667)
• St. Catharines, Ontario
25 Oct 12
For the third time:
I count on people being where I expect them to be in order to recognize them.
1 person likes this
@ElicBxn (63643)
• United States
25 Oct 12
I kid you not, if she had her hat on, I would've known her, she's the ONLY person I know who wore hats besides the roomie - and the roomie wears them because the light bothers her eyes (its a vision thing)
I so seldom saw her without the hat anyway!
1 person likes this
@zhpshql (693)
• China
25 Oct 12
well,I think that must be very interesting..run into someone you knew but haven't seen each other for a long time...I don't have similiar experience with you...as the place now I am living is so far far away from where I used to live...that must be very excited for me if I run into someone I knew..
1 person likes this
@mariaperalta (19073)
• Mexico
25 Oct 12
Sounds good, maybe youll see them again. its great to run into old friends sometimes. Have a great day there.
1 person likes this
@leeandrew (1225)
• Philippines
25 Oct 12
Nice story. I happened to see someone at a grocery store near our place too. But this someone and I become strange in a way. She my classmate in college and then we became thesis partner, she's a Chinese citizen and I am a Filipino. She came to study and happen we enrolled at the same school.
We get along at first but during the thesis completion something happen to us co's we argued and so did not get along well as we try to depend out thesis. We were not able to depend our thesis well and it ended up for a revation. I was frustrated and depressed and blamed her in a way.
She was also feeling the same as me. She talked to our professor and I don't know she happen to pass the subject as I was not.
Then... we did not see each other for five years. I did not bother talking to her about our papers works or I just simply want to forget here. Then one time as I was doing a grocery..ing I saw her. My first reaction was to call her of course but then I got reminded of what happen.
So.. instead of saying and ended up hiding and leaving the grocery store the quickliest possible. I did not bother to say hi co's something not nice might come up again. SO I just live it that way... anyways, we are not super close. It is sad I know but it's okay with me as well. Things not good really happens in life.
Thanks for sharing your story and happy mylotting.
