6/14/22 Running Into People From Our Past?

     I really hate running into old acquaintances, people I should maybe know their names, but it's been 20 years and a couple hundred pounds since I last saw them, so I have no idea who they are.  It happened to me last night at the party for our nephew.   A guy came up to me and said very bluntly "you don't remember who I am, do you?"  I was focused on watching my Wife and Mijo dancing and having a good time laughing, so he also caught me off guard.  I was like "Nope."  I wasn't rude about it, and quickly focused my energy on him, but I could not place him.  He started talking about my brother and I guess he is related to the people who sold the house to my brother, which were people who we grew up with.  I was even trying to figure out if this was the older guy who lived there, when we were growing up, but he was older and a tad slow.  This guy said he went to school with my brother-in-law, and I guess my brother.  He then rattled some names of his cousins and while we talked, I thought he said he was one of the cousins, those guys I remember.  The older dude was kind of a bully when we were little, but then after high school, I ran into him, and he was only 5ft 5in and not big at all, so I remember thinking why was this guy a bully?  I was classmates with his brother and him I always liked, he was more subdued and could hold a conversation.  There were a few more brothers, but it was all kind of a blur.  I got into the conversation, he asked about my brother and family, told him we were all doing good, but I didn't get into any specifics, it was loud and hard to talk with the music.

    After a while, he referenced his cousin again and then I was confused because I thought that was him, so now I had no idea who I was talking to.  I kept it pleasant and eventually he moved over to get a drink or something.  I just hate encounters like that, it is probably the biggest reason I hate going down and visiting my folks.  I left my hometown in 1991, and every time my mom or my siblings start into some story it's "you remember Chucha or Tacuache" (it's always some stupid nickname).  I calmly say no, they repeat the name, like maybe I didn't hear it, then it's "well, it's because you're stuck up and live in the big city."  The idea that I haven't lived there 30 years doesn't seem to matter to anybody.  Not to mention if they show me a picture on Facebook, it doesn't help because when I moved away in 1991, we were all barely out of our teens.  Everybody has a gut and grey hair or balding, but I'm the ass who can't remember anybody.

    This is what I like about the big city, anonymity.  Nobody recognizes me, I feel free to walk around the HEB without being recognized by someone from my past.  I was recognized a couple months ago by one of Girlie's friends, but she did it smartly by saying her name and who we both know.  Of course, I remembered her that way, I've still got pictures of her in Halloween costumes somewhere in my phone.  But some assholes come up and insist you remember them, but won't give you any clues, those people can go play in traffic, for all I care.