Talking to strangers

I had a hospital appointment recently, and the nurse doing my various tests told me lots of things about herself - she started the conversation. I used to be a community carer and kept many secrets that patients had confided in me.

Yes. I was in a supermarket queue a few years ago and the woman behind me told me she had just taken a call to say her son had hung himself. I asked her if I could call anybody for her or give her a lift home but she refused.

It’s always happening to me.

Yes, I often speak to strangers, once at an airport in Canada, a much younger lady sat next to me for 15 minutes and literally told my husband and myself her entire life story!

Talking to strangers.

It's what we do here, isn't it?

Life is tough. People need reassurance sometimes.

I always talk to strangers, in fact my grandkids used to say ‘who’s that nan’ and I d say ‘well I don’t know’
I ve made good friends on journeys or bus stops etc in fact I ve got two good friends who I met from just a casual chat with a stranger
That’s what makes my world go round

My DH often asks me how I know the person I’ve been chatting to - the one I just met on the bus or in a queue. I usually know as much about them as I do about my own family after a quick conversation. My dad actually used to call it “talking yourself related”.

Many years ago on the bus with 3yr old son I was chatting to a lady, son asked do you the lady when told no he said you shouldn't talk to strangers he had just had a talk at nursery about strangers.

I will chat to people in shops / supermarkets. I think when a stranger tells someone they have never met something very personal, they are needing to offload. If that happened I would listen, wish them well and move on.

Just before Christmas, friends and I were having a meal out. The waitress came over very bubbly took our orders then read them back to us and announced she forgets things as she's going through the menopause. I immediately said " Too much information, thank you". I was a bit shocked that she would just say that to customers she is serving. We all had a giggle when she had gone away but still feel it was unnecessary for her to share that and very unprofessional.

ixion

^Talking to strangers^.

It's what we do here, isn't it?

Good point, well made.

I can recall my mother complaining to the family about me.
She said that she hated going shopping with me because we couldn't walk to the busstop without the world and his wife talking to me.
Mum was a very quiet and private person .
Since she passed - people have described her as an introvert and sometimes a recluse .They don't know that she was actually lonely and depressed.
It's true though -I do talk to people a great deal .I think that I find them fascinating -no matter how old they are .
If they are foreign I'm longing to know where they come from.
And people tell strangers all sorts of private things about themselves.
It's off loading.

I’m quite happy to chat to people I don’t know, I don’t think anyone will run off with me these days.
In these days of machines and tech I could be the only person they speak to all day.

I live by a long stretch of disused railway line which has been converted into a pleasant three mile walk, safe, in nature, with lots of wildlife. Walking from one end to the other I must have passed at least twenty people, not one said hello, smiled, or acknowledged my passing by. I now ignore people too. It's easier that way.

It’s easy to tell strangers things, knowing that you’ll probably never see them again.

‘A trouble shared’ type of thing.

On buses, yes, also trains, but never planes. Wonder why not?
More stress, being on a plane?

But did you smile or speak to them Goodafternoontea ? Perhaps everyone, being reserved Brits, was waiting for the other to speak first.
I find myself smiling at everyone I meet, not on purpose, it just happens. If Iwas passing on a wildlife path like you I be saying good morning or something whether they did or not
Bet they would have all answered if you d have said ‘lovely day’ to them

I generally smile and say ‘good morning’ to anyone I meet if out walking.

Most reply, some just look blank.

The latter I assume are newcomers to our little market town, and are not accustomed to eye contact.

It used to puzzle DH that we couldn’t go anywhere without me striking up a conversation with a total stranger. I used to tell him it was a Yorkshire thing, but he was Welsh and from my experience over the years, it also seems to be a Welsh thing!

Greyduster

It used to puzzle DH that we couldn’t go anywhere without me striking up a conversation with a total stranger. I used to tell him it was a Yorkshire thing, but he was Welsh and from my experience over the years, it also seems to be a Welsh thing!

I think it’s a person thing. You either do or don’t. Most people in our small town will say ‘Good whatever’ when they pass and we are in England. Doesn’t cost anything to be pleasant.

I remember in the 70’s my aunt came from rural Ireland for a family wedding. She was in her 50’s at the time. They were farmers in quite a remote area and it was her first time out of Ireland.

I took her for a walk and every person we passed my aunt said “morning sir/morning m’am/it’s a grand day” etc. She received the odd smile or mumble in return but several times she was blanked and she just couldn’t understand it. It was alien to her that people didn’t chat.

Greyduster

It used to puzzle DH that we couldn’t go anywhere without me striking up a conversation with a total stranger. I used to tell him it was a Yorkshire thing, but he was Welsh and from my experience over the years, it also seems to be a Welsh thing!

It is a bit of a Welsh thing. Things have changed for the worse since Lockdown - as pre-Lockdown it was rare to get off a long bus trip without having had a reasonable conversation with a total stranger and people are noticeably less likely to do that now than they were pre-2020 darn it.

But, thankfully, things are still more that way than I've been used to - cue for a friend of mine, for instance, is someone I had two hour-long or so chats with in the street and another one is a shopkeeper I've had many long chats with and (though I'm now a "familiar face" in my own little area) it's rare to even walk as far as the corner shop for something without a "good morning" or two being exchanged en route.

There are pluses and minuses to having moved here - but I regard it as one of the "pluses" of this area on the whole that it's pretty chatty.

It's a Scottish thing too! Particularly the West Coast. It was common to speak to people as you pass them or at a bus stop etc. I think it's less common nowadays because people hide behind their phone.

ixion

^Talking to strangers^.

It's what we do here, isn't it?

🤣 🤣

True. And then the whole shop comes out to join in!