I Know I Know Him! But How?

Have you ever been in a crowd and see someone who you think you know but can’t bring forth his/her name or circumstances that you know them? This happened to me a couple of weeks ago at a memorial service at Saddleback Church. In the Plaza Room where the service was to be done Ann and I went to the far side in order to get room for her electric scooter next to the rows of chairs. Just before the service started, I looked at the row behind me and over to the aisle. There was a man sitting on the aisle that I knew I had seen him and thought maybe I had even met him somewhere but couldn’t bring it forward. I asked Ann and she said he sure was familiar too but couldn’t think who it might be.

All during the service I kept going through my “filing cabinets” of my brain trying to figure this out. So when the service was over, I made tracks to catch him and find out how I knew him.

Well, his name is Bob Johnson and he was the football coach at El Toro when the son of the deceased was there. He moved over to Mission Viejo High School and has been there for a number of years. How did I know him? By seeing him on the field through my binoculars! I told him I didn’t think I had met him but he was very familiar and I needed to know where I had seen him. He was very nice about it. I told him my connection to the football games was through my grandchildren who played in the Marching Band. We attend all the games because the band did the half time show.

Another related story happened a few years ago. At one of the football games, I was standing in the back at the top of the stairs in the stadium and started talking to a man just making conversation. I told him I had a grandchild in the band and asked if he was there because of the band or football. He said football. I guess I should have known who he was because of the number 6 on his cap but it didn’t register. He was Mark Sanchez’s dad. Mark was the quarterback who eventually went to USC and last year was the quarterback for that great football team. Mark has since let himself be eligible for the football draft and will undoubtedly be picked up by a team for many bucks.

You never know who you are talking to!