Perspective

There are a couple of songs running through my head of late, one is called "Fame" and part of the chorus goes as follows:

Fame -
I'm gonna make it to Heaven,
Light up the sky like a flame.
I'm gonna live forever
Baby remember my name

(For the record, the other song is the theme from Cheers - I'll get to that.)

If you believe what you see on television, then everyone feels like that. Okay, maybe not the throngs of autograph seekers and paparazzi, but wouldn't it be nice to be recognized everywhere you go - in a good way of course?

To tell you the truth, I'm not so sure...

First of all, let me say that I'm terrible at names. If I met you somewhere and we were introduced, I'd have forgotten your name within about 2 minutes. I'd remember whatever else was said during the intro, who you worked for or which friend of a friend we both knew, but I just can't connect names to faces. So it isn't unusual for me to run into someone whom I'm sure I know but I have no idea what their name is. You get used to it ...

Recently though I've been running into people whom I have no idea of ever meeting who address me by first name. I was at the store last week, as I was getting ready to go out to my car the cashier said "Have a nice evening Steve!" Okay, some of them are trained to read names off of credit cards or ID to be friendly - but I paid in cash and wasn't asked for ID. (Even though she should have asked as I was buying some pistol ammo ...)

Then a couple of days later, at the mall I run into a guy I used to work with who goes by "Reggie". That's fine, I knew who he was and all, but then a couple of minutes later I pass by the mall's Santa Claus and he wishes me "Merry Christmas Steve!"

If I had some idea why these people knew me, that would be one thing. But someone I wouldn't know from Adam ... really, it's disconcerting

The theme from "Cheers"? That was called "Where everyone knows your name", of course.