No Longer Strangers

It was thirty below zero yesterday morning when the phone rang. "How cold is it up there?" asked the caller.

Assuming it was someone I knew but too sleepy to recognize, I said, "Colder than I've ever been!" The conversation went on for several sentences before I finally realized it was a wrong number. "The folks you want to speak to don't live here," I informed him, "but we're sure having a good conversation about the weather." To my surprise, we continued to chat for a few minutes and he explained he was a Maine farmer who spent his winters in Florida.

What I find interesting about all of this is, there we were, strangers talking on the phone like we were neighbors. He thought he was calling friends and instead he got me. I thought he was someone I knew and as it turns out, we've never met. Despite our absence of acquaintance, we enjoyed a few moments of company.

As I hung up, I chuckled to myself and thought, rural life and farmers. The fact that I lacked the giveaway southern Maine accent and therefore, am obviously "from away," as they say up here, didn't matter. He was a farmer, and I live on a farm; that, coupled with a chance wrong number, brought us together.

You just never know how things are going to turn out. He'll return in the spring and I may discover we actually are neighbors. But whether that happens or not, yesterday's call reminded me that we aren't all that different -- people, I mean. The potential connections between us can be surprising.

Oh, I forgot to tell you how the conversation ended. "I'm on my way to Florida where it's warm," he said.

"Sounds like a good idea," I replied, "have a good trip."

"Yep, well, I'll be seeing ya." And maybe he will.