Jul 21, 2010

 This is a picture of my mom taken in the late 1940s.  Longtime readers have seen it before.

I was paged at work yesterday that I had a phone call waiting.

When I answered the call, a woman on the phone asked me to get her a can opener.

Thinking that she wanted the price of a can opener, I asked her what type of can opener she was looking for. 

Just a plain old fashioned one.

I asked her to hold, while I checked the prices and just as I started to push the hold button, she said, "Do you have enough money to buy it?"

Now, I was totally lost.

"Who is this?"

--Huge sigh of exasperation--

"Merle, it is your mother."

"Uh, my mother died in 1988, ma'am."

"Who is this?"

"Who are you looking for?"

"Merle Wilson."

"I don't know who that is."

"He's my son and he is at your store shopping."

"Hold on, I'll try to find him."


So, I put her on hold and made an announcement of the PA system that Merle Wilson should go to register one to answer a phone call from his mother.

As it turned out, he had already left the building.

I walked up to the front of the store to ask the cashier why he referred Merle Wilson's mom to me.  He said that he couldn't remember my last name and figured it must be for me.

I give new meaning to forgettable.







Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky

11 comments:

mouse (aka kimy) said...

what a great story - thanks for the chuckle.

love the photo, she looks like a very lovely woman - i hope the confusion triggered some fond memories.

The Bug said...

Oh that's VERY funny. I think you just keep a low profile...

Mommy, I'm Home said...

Oh, that is too funny!

Kurt said...

I once moved into an apartment and I got phone messages from "Mom" pretty regularly for months. I guess the person who rented the apartment before me couldn't be bothered to tell his mom he'd moved. It was disconcerting, so I finally made a new message that said "If this is my mom, please note: my mom is dead."

Coffee Messiah said...

hi larry us..........

wish some of my co-workers would forget who i was ; )

Steve Reed said...

Ha! It's kind of disturbing that Merle Wilson's mother didn't recognize from your voice that you aren't her son!!

Steve Reed said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
alphabet soup said...

What a story!! I know about people shopping and phoning people outside the store to discuss their purchases but not some-one phoning in to request a purchase. And doing it through the store phone!!

Truth is stranger than fiction...

Ms Soup

Bella Rum said...

You need a name tag.

Megan said...

My dad sends my mom out for stuff occasionally. But not real important stuff like this. He'd never trust her to get the correct can opener all on her own. She'd come back with some newfangled thing that only opens "communist" cans...

Barbara said...

I hope Merle's mother got her can opener. Did you for just a moment wonder if your mother was calling from the other side?!