Wednesday, February 24, 2010

This one time? At work? Like seven years ago?

Inveterate Andy of Mayberry watchers (as well as many of the invertebrate ones) will recall the episode (episode #10, aired 12/26/60) in which, per Wikipedia, "Ed Sawyer, a mysterious stranger, arrives in Mayberry and disrupts the lives of the townspeople because he appears to know everyone's name, intimate details about their lives, and other startling facts about them."

Well, just call me Andy, or Barney, or something. Maybe even Opie - this is a photo of yours truly back in my rural youth. And it's not as if this is disrupting my life at all. But...

At work, a mysterious stranger keeps showing up in my path, and he/she (I won't get specific here!) knows my name, where I used to work (same agency, different assignment), noteworthy things about my flamboyant work history (but not The Floor Buffer Incident) and so forth. For example, "This must be just like over at the storeroom when the air conditioner drainpipe broke and liked to flood out the floor below!"

Now, mind you, I have no clue who this person is, where she/he works, beyond the greater scope of the entire department, and if you put me on the witness stand and asked me to name this individual, well, your honor, I can't help.

And there is nothing offensive about the person at all. None of the things said are derogatory in any sense, and I do not feel weirded out at all by this. In fact, it's sort of a compliment, making me feel that people pass along stories of my derring-do (and occasional derring-don't!)

Remember, it was the same way on Andy Griffith. Ed Sawyer was just a guy who so wanted to fit into Mayberry society that he took a subscription to the Mayberry Gazette (not the Mayberry Sun, the scandal sheet that Opie and Howie Pruitt ran briefly) so he would know all the whos and whats and wherefores and whys of America's favorite little town. My life is an open book; I write about it online every day, for crying out loud, so welcome to it, stranger.

Did I ever tell you about the night of the blizzard when we slept in the Jury Assembly room in the courthouse, and who snored and who was a sleepwalker? And what did you say your name was, again?

1 comment:

Peggy said...

Why don't you just ask this person his/her name? Wouldn't that be easier that wondering who they are? And, by the way, what an adorable picture!!! I've never seen that picture - where was it taken????