Memorable folks you only met once

In My Humble Opinion
1

Something suddenly reminded me of some old friends I haven’t had contact with (except for a Christmas card from them last month) in years. Our acquaintance was fairly limited, I doubt if we’ve spent a total of three weeks’ time together, and since we live 500 miles apart our meetings have been arranged and planned. Not like when we lived in the same town and got together for good times, card games and their cooking.

But this isn’t about old friends as such. It’s about those people you only met that one time, shared a bit of time and space with, then have never seen or heard from again. It’s been said that every person we have contact with affects our lives in some way. If that’s true, describe your person/people who have made that sort of impact on your life.

The ones who, for no other reason than that they share the label “human being” with you, have left an indelible impression of themselves on your memory.

2

When I was 18, I worked for one week as a temp in a college language lab, and on one day a student came in and asked me to deliver a letter of introduction of his to one of the professors in the department. We chatted very briefly, and then he left.

But there was something so charming about him (and I don’t remember what he said or even what he looked except that he wasn’t especially good-looking…it was just an aura he had or something) that I felt a click with him. When he had gone, I opened the (unsealed) envelope around his letter to find out his name. This was 10 years ago and I still remember his name, even though I’ve never seen him since.

3

As a child, my Mother took me by the hand across a store in the mall and introduced me to Senator Everett Dirksen, a very elderly man she apparently held in high regard. This was probably in about 1965, four years before his death.

A few years later, my parents gave me the opportunity to meet and shake hands with the Rev. Billy Graham in North Carolina, IIRC.

In both cases I was a small boy but I remember them clearly to this day.

4

I met a guy at a friend’s christmas party years ago. I really got along with him well. We both worked for the same company, but different branchs, so had something in common to start.

I ended up hanging out with this guy for a month straight, going to clubs, drinking and hunting for women. He hated the job and decided to move back east. I actually lent him some cash for the move. He took off and that was that. I got a check in the mail for the money I lent him.

He visited one time for a day or two and I’ve never seen/heard from/tried to contact him since.

I’d still call him one of my best friends. Neat guy.

5

When in my last year of school I went to a university open day, where a chemistry professor gave such an entertaining and informative talk that I almost switched courses and preferences. And I didn’t even “meet” him as such. Does that count?

6

I’ve had a lot of experiences like this, especially in the years before I met my husband. It was always a “one that got away” sort of feeling, where I’d meet a guy, know there was something special about him, lose all my courage to do anything about it, then let him slip away forever.

I love your story, Salad Fingers. You describe it so well. Some of my favorite memories are little, insignificant encouters with people that, for some reason, just stand out.

If I have to tell a specific story…I used to babysit for a family with two kids; I’d usually also be watching my yonger brother and sister. I was about 12 at this time, and very mature for my age (God knows what’s happened since). Having four younger kids under my watch made me feel quite the big-shot.

One day, the kids’ mom came home and decided to take all five of us swimming. She had a friend with a pool who lived across town. We all piled in the car. Now, like I said, I was a mere preteen, so there was a lot of confusion going on in my life. Boys were just starting to make me feel kind of nervous and funny, and I had begun to feel pretty self-conscious in a swimsuit. (Oh, crap! Am I getting a figure?!) When we arrived at the house with the pool, a boy about my age was swimming there.

I don’t remember his name, but I do remember the way I felt so comfortable making friends with him. Nothing actually happened (All my kids were right there!), except I do recall his grabbing my hand once to help me get onto a raft. I remember it so. Clearly. He wasn’t like the boys at school, who knew me already and thought I was a big geek. He wasn’t so absorbed in basketball or football to even pay attention to me. He was just eager to be a friend, and I had never been befriended by a boy before. He and I and all the kids splashed around and played in the pool for a while before we had to get back in the van and go home.

So I only knew him for an hour or two of my life, and I’m kind of glad. Any longer, and I’d surely have been disappointed in some way. This guy gave me hope that someday I’d grow into an age where I could be friends with boys, have relationships with boys, et cetera. I wonder if he remembers me sometimes.

7

I’d say “yes” to the question of “does that count?” since the main idea in this thread is to allow us to think back to people who have not become “friends” or even “acquaintances” (in the sense that we see them often enough to keep refreshing our impressions of them). The examples of Dirksen and Graham are (in my view) borderline cases since it’s quite likely that even though the face-to-face may have been a one-time thing, the exposure to those people’s personas on TV and in print might be enough to form stronger impressions of them over time.

Also, gatopescado’s situation was considerably more than a one-time encounter since “I ended up hanging out with this guy for a month straight, going to clubs, drinking and hunting for women.”

It’s really not my place to judge your interpretations of the intent of the OP. If the “only met once” concept is considered too precisely, I think we could all say we’ve only met anybody once so maybe my choice of wording was weak.

Better said, the OP should be more like “memorable folks you met once and never saw or heard of again.”

I hope that gets more to the spirit of what I was after.

8

Millit the Frail, your scenario reminds me of an encounter that I probably wouldn’t have recalled without some trigger such as yours.

I was maybe 14 or 15. Can’t remember enough details to pin down the year even. I do know that I had become very interested in getting good at springboard diving. (I had made a fool of myself the year before trying to do a front flip and had done such a hideous flop that it blistered the skin on my back and it was weeks before I even went swimming again. I warmed up to diving by doing trampoline drops and flips and such, so I got rid of my fear before trying things on the diving board.)

Anyway, my family had gone to the Redneck Riviera (Panama City for those not familiar with the term) on vacation and instead of swimming in the Gulf I found a pool with a 1-meter and a 3-meter board to spend my time at. My brother was along, as best I can recall, and we were going through our repertoire of dives, mostly on the low board. Pretty much out of nowhere this knockout blonde with a fantastic figure and a blue bathing suit began doing some dives that I had only tried a few times and was by no means good at. She was obviously in a league way above mine and had what (at that age) I would have considered Olympic skills. She wasn’t so much showing off or challenging others to try to keep up, but there was something about the way she looked at my diving that gave me the nerve to try stuff I wasn’t familiar with.

We never spoke. I ogled her a lot. I think she may have smiled a few times or given some indication that she thought my diving didn’t outright suck. But it was just a period of maybe an hour trying to keep up with (and maybe impress) this gorgeous girl that helped me recover my nerve at diving.

Never knew her name nor saw her again, but I bet I could draw her picture (if I could draw!)

Thanks for the memory, Millit the Frail!

9

When I was a little boy, I got to meet Charile Pride. He picked me up and sang “Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling…”

He is really tall when you are about 3 foot nothing. And he sang me a song! With my name in it!

My grandparents still have the Charlie Pride LP that was autographed, “Grow up strong, young Danny - Charlie Pride.”

10

No, thank you! I’d forgotten all about that blue bathing suit I used to wear…

I keed, I keed! :wink:

11

Wouldn’t it be a hoot!

The only specific person I had in mind when I wrote the OP was a guy I encountered at a greasy spoon bar one night in my drinking days. That’s been a long time now. It was basically a “good ole boys” hangout with barbecue and Pabst on tap and grimy floors and pool tables and dart boards and a C&W jukebox played loud.

I was at the counter eating my BBQ and drinking my third or fourth mug of PBR when this black guy in street person clothes sat down next to me and ordered a mug and a sandwich. He wasn’t really out of place since the area of town had plenty of integrated bars and it was in those liberated days when it was uncool to make much out of racial situations.

We started talking about one thing or another, the day’s news, the weather, bullshit in general and finally got to the general area of prejudice and bigotry and so on. For a guy whose appearance would lead one to think he had been a grade school dropout and whose latest “job” was on some corner selling things to passing cars, this man had plenty of savvy of some fairly abstruse political and philosophical concepts. And it wasn’t just the beer that made it appear that way.

We talked for at least an hour and when we decided the conversation had gone as far as such things can we shared a big hug and a “be cool, man” farewell. I don’t really remember the reactions of others in that bar. I wasn’t paying much attention to anybody but him the whole time. But since we kept our voices low and didn’t draw much attention anyway, I suspect it was just two guys in the pub to anybody looking on.

A meaningful evening and one I still think about on occasion. No idea who the guy was, where he went or anything else. But I remember him.

12

New Orleans, 1987, in the courtyard of a bar in the French Quarter. I lock eyes with a handsome stranger on the other side of the courtyard. We walk toward each other continuing to stare, some force pulling us together. Finally, we meet in the center of the courtyard and dissolve into the most passionate kiss I’ve had before or since. We part, go our separate ways, and I never see him again.

I never even got to hear his voice. I always wonder what happened to him. It’d be funny if he was a member of this board.

Honey - Who doesn’t even kiss on a first date. :wink:

13

I went to this concert in April of 1995 to see the opening bands. After they were done, my friends and I left the venue because we didn’t care about the headliner (Danzig, if you’re interested). Outside, I got to talking to this guy who said he was a huge Danzig fan but didn’t have tickets. I gave him my ticket stub and said that if he could get in with that, enjoy.

About 20 minutes later, we were still hanging out outside and this guy comes back up to us. The ticket stub was missing, but he had a green christmas ball ornament shoved in his mouth (it was too big for him to close his mouth, but small enough to kinda fit). He tried to explain what happened, but my guess is that he went off, took some illicit substance of some kind, and then came back because he made little sense.

I have a picture of this guy somewhere with the ornament in his mouth.

14

Oh man, the above post reminded me of a good one.

Years and years back, when I was a Senior in high school, some friends and I had a couple days to go visit another friend who’d recently started classes at Evergreen State College in Washington. Shortly after arriving, wanting to get into the spirit of the place, we had consumed some, uh…substances known to alter perception, and decided to go to one of the little restaurants or cafeteria or whatever it was and grab something to eat before we were in no shape to.

There were about 5 of us sitting at this long table, picking at our food, starting to feel a little bit strange, when out of nowhere this guy comes up to us, stands at the head of the table and announces very loudly “I have 48 sheep and a ram named Hercules!” That caught our attention. It turns out this gentleman, I even remember his name: Jeff, was a stand-up comedian who had recently opened for the actor who played “Skippy” on Family Ties. He went through his entire stand-up routine, very little of which I remember, but he had all of us rolling on the floor laughing at the jokes and just at the absolutely crazy appropriateness of this guy coming along right at this second. I assumed Kim, the girl we were visiting, or one of her roommates must know this guy, because why on earth would he single out our table in a cafeteria full of other students?

Anyway, he finished, thanked us and walked off. “Who WAS that guy???” we started to ask. Kim and her friends shook their heads. “I have no idea,” she said.

I have never, ever forgotten him. :smiley:

15

“Man, this has been a weird day.”

“Yeah.”

“Why is that guy not wearing any shoes?”

“No idea, but I feel like joining him.”

“Yeah, I would go into the dumpster, but I’ve still got some pride.”

“You should go. We all should go.”

“It’s just books.”

“True, oh well.”

“Yeah”

16

Did I miss something?

17

In 1982 or 83 – long, long ago when I was in high school – I went on a trip to a Key Club convention in Orlando, Florida. One day was for Disney World and one for Epcot, which had opened very recently. On the afternoon of the DisneyWorld day, I glanced at a boy as he walked by, he glanced back, I turned and looked, he turned and looked, and then we started talking. We arranged to spend the next day together at Epcot. We spent the whole day together, had a great time, and I never saw him again (although we wrote letters a little bit.) Most of these types of things seem to happen in our teens and early twenties. Why is that?

18

I met John Wayne in my dentist’s office, Mike Tyson in a casino, Muhammad Ali in an elevator, Gene Kranz at my work, Courtney Love in a rehab, and a bunch of other people who no one would recognize, probably. Lots of pro athletes and a few musicians.

All the above happened in SoCal or Manhattan. Figures.

19

When I was about 20, I was flatting close in the city and going to uni.

I was down at the local dairy buying some corn chips cos I was making nachos for dinner that night, and from outside I could hear this ‘thwap thwap thwap’ sound, like someone was kicking the corrugated iron fencing outside. Didn’t really think that much of it.

Then I heard some angry shouting, this guy going “you want them to lock me up again? you want them to lock me up”?

I went outside and there, doubled over, was a woman, about my age. I realised the sounds I had heard had been the guy punching her up.

I went to her and helped her up (the man had gone by this time) and tried to talk to her. She was clearly drugged up, quite incoherent, and I had never encountered anything like this before with my sheltered upbringing.

I sat with her for probably ten minutes, telling her that she didn’t deserve to be beaten, that most men didn’t treat women like this and that it wasn’t right. I tried to convince her to come back to my flat to call women’s refuge and got her walking with me, but then she faltered and said she just wanted to go back home.

The sad thing is that she was saying stuff like ‘i just want to let him kill me, i’ve had enough’. I tried and tried and tried to convince her to come back with me, saying things like I wouldn’t phone the refuge, she could just stay for a few hours and have a rest. But I couldn’t convince her and eventually I had to let her wander back down the street.

If it had happened to me today, I probably would have dealt with her better and had the language to convince her to come with me, but I was so young back then, I just didn’t know what to do.

So even though that was 12 years ago, it still comes up in my mind every now and then. I wonder about the woman and whether she is still alive.

20

When I was 18, I travelled to England and attended my aunt’s wedding. The night before the wedding, I went out with the man my aunt would be marrying and a group of his friends for a night of clubhopping.

I met a woman who was part of the group. She went out of her way to make sure I met her, in fact. Anyway, we hit it off, and at about 2 a.m. the whole group went to someone’s house to crash. Somehow, she managed to secure us the only bedroom, and everyone else had to sleep in the other rooms.

As it turned out, the woman and I never went to sleep. For about six hours, we talked and laughed and got to know each other, and while we did briefly get naughty a couple of times, for the most part we just had this amazing time talking.

She was just a friend of a friend of the guy who was to become my uncle, so she wasn’t at the wedding. In fact, I never saw her again, but I never forgot her, and I never will.

By the way, I was so tired that at the wedding party, I kept my mirrored sunglasses on and fell asleep on a chair in the corner. I wonder how many people tried to talk to me.