No, this is not a political post. I don’t do those. This is a story that takes place at a park where several friends and our children were gathered. One of my dear friends has an odd habit of accidentally calling me Becky when we’re in public, so, to get back at her, I’ll call her by the wrong name too.
As she was leaving, she waved and called, “Bye, Becky!”
Is this an obnoxious picture, or what? Well, it is free from pixabay, so…
I waved back: “See you later, Hillary.”
Only she didn’t look at me. Or wave to me. Or even smile at me.
Strange, I thought. About as strange as the looks our mutual friends gave me. Looks that said, “Don’t you know her name? I thought you guys were friends.”
Then I realized there was an actual Becky at the park, not just me, the fake one. That’s who my friend was waving goodbye to, which come to think of it, makes more sense since she’d already said her fond farewell to me.
Oh well. I just went back to eating. So I looked like an idiot. That tends to happen when I got out in public.
Motherhood and Martial Arts 
Correct names are highly over rated. It takes a lot of mental space to keep track of face/name correctness that I’d rather use for other things – like writing great wisdom or selecting an item from the lunch menu. Mostly I just call adults “dude” and children “George.” It’s about the only difference I normally make – age. Sometimes people a lot older than me I call “Sir” and people in their 20s, “Son.” Mostly it works fine, except some women object to being called “son” or “sir.” People can be so sensitive at times. Once people discover that I often don’t know my own name (damn, where is that name tag), then tend to just smile and back away slowly.
So, dude, great post!
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Thank you, ma’am!
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It’s easy to become disoriented when you go out in our world, so I wouldn’t get upset by this incident, Barbara. 😏
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Not upset by it, Sarah, but I appreciate your concern. 🙂
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I call everyone dear, hun, sweatheart, dearheart, sweetie, honey, darlin’,…, this has worked for me for years, sure, a few guys have gotten the wrong impression over, but they were easily let down. But now, even that is starting to offend some people.
I have come to realize you just can’t win for losing. If people are determined to be offended, they will be offended no matter what.
And those that I am COMFIDENT I have their name correct, I find out I have called them by the wrong name for 5 years and they never bothered to tell me. The embarasing, and hillarious story is how I found out. I hear another person continue to call her by another name, and having enough, and being my outspoken self, I finally said “are you going to let her keep calling you the wrong name?” Now if I had been wise i would have pulled my friend aside, but that wasn’t my style. So, imagine my embarrassment when she said “but that is my name.” I just started adding up the length of our friendship. I was mortified. LOL
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OMG, that’s awful! And funny. But also awful.
Yet still funny. 😉
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She was such a timid friend. I thought I was standing up for her. How awful she must have felt each time I called her by the wrong name. Luckily we weren’t close, but still.
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Yeah, I hear ya.
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Haha, I feel for you, because I could see myself doing the very same thing. 😄
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Ha! Yeah for us! 🙂
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oh, funny. and funny comments too.
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I do have some funny readers, don’t I?
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haha. Gotta love awkward! 😉
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Oh, indeed. Always good for a laugh if nothing else. 🙂
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LOL! I’ve done that. And the one where I know the person’s name, but it doesn’t come out quite right. And the one where I know the person, but damn it, I can’t for the life of me remember their name. And then the one where someone calls me by the wrong name, and I spend the next 20 seconds wondering if I should correct them–and of course missing everything they’re saying in the meantime 😀
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Oh, man. We should just go back to caveman grunts. That would cover everyone. And, come to think of it, everything. 🙂
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I am terrible at recognizing people outside of the normal context I see them in. You at least had an excuse you can explain.
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Too bad nobody asked me to explain. They probably just think I’m crazy.
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How very rude of them. 😀
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Or maybe they figured it out for themselves long ago… 🙂
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Okay PIF….I can relate. I ALWAYS get people’ names wrong. SO much so that I just start calling some people (who I get closer to) by the wrong name, on purpose. Like a nickname. So when their real names pop out my hand flies over my mouth thinking I used the wrong name. True story. True life.
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Love it. I used to work with a guy named… I forget what his real name was, but I told him I was going to call him Ed because he looked like an Ed to me. Whatever his real name was was just wrong. He said, “Okay,” and let me call him Ed from then on. Quite the agreeable fellow, Ed.
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I think I like Ed. I have quite a few people who tolerate me calling them the wrong name. 🙂 They are good peeps. They must be like Ed.
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The world needs more Eds.
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Amen PIF, amen. (How’s the baby boy sleeping? I know his name his Joseph, but I like calling him Baby Boy). 🙂
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I call him little man, though I’ve sometimes called him by his sister’s name. Yeah… what was I saying in this post? 😛 He’s getting better. Not quite there, but better.
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Good Boy Little Man. 🙂 And I call my kids by about 72 different names. 😉
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My mom would often say, “You in the pink dress.” No one was wearing a dress. Or pink. :0)
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Hahahahahahahahahaa! Seriously laughing!
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Is it only in public? So weird! I want answers.
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It is so weird. She agrees. Not even Hillary knows why Hillary does what she does.
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Funny. I forget names of people I know really well. Like my sister in law and grandkids, people I work with every day. I just called them “whatsername” and everyone laughs. “Hillary” and “Donald” are good ones under the… um… right circumstances. 🙂
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Ha! Yeah. My mom doesn’t know the names of her own children: Rebecca and Betsy have simply become Rebets for both of us.
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My grandmother would sometimes call me by my cousin’s name, Jason. Far more often, however, she would catch herself in mid-Jason and course correct by saying Michael. So I was called “Jamichael,” which isn’t all that bad once you get used to it.
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It makes you sound like a professional athlete. Not too shabby!
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Considering my athletic ability, I need all the help I can get.
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Heh.
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Been there, ah yes, so many times it doesn’t even phase me anymore. I look back like, “What did you miss over there?”
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Seems to happen to everyone then. No shame. 🙂
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Oh I m terrible at names too… or just recognizing people apparently. I jumped in the wrong car and the other day. Thought it was my friend picking me up. “Must be a new car”…. nop…
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Oooh. Ouch! That’s embarrassing!
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Yes it was but the person in the car was all nice and said “I’m sure this happens to everyone”…. lol, I’m not sure but thanks..
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Haha. That was nice of her. I should hope it doesn’t happen to everyone or there would be a lot more kidnappings!
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Haha omg yes !
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If it were me, though, I might do that to a kidnappers car and they’d be like, “Nah, lady. Wrong car.”
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Haha…I’m sure they would keep you. I was thinking to convince her to kidnap me… she seemed so nice. Ask her if she would mind a mid thirties woman that needs some time away from the family. Only a day or so..
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OMG, yes! I’d say, “Please take me home with you!” for those very same reasons. The crazed look in my eyes might be a turn-off however.
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