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<p>While most interactions with strangers fade into the abyss of our minds, there are some strangers that leave a lasting impression.</p><p>Sometimes, they&#39;re someone so bizarre and distinctive we return to their memory in order to theorize about what their daily life looks like.</p><p>Other times, strangers show up in times of need like mysterious guardian angels, only to disappear back into anonymity.</p><p>In many ways, memories with strangers feel more romantic to return to, without the mundane details of their lives they can easily become mythologized as a side character in our lives.</p><h2>In <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/e29hsi/who_is_one_stranger_you_remember_to_this_day/" target="_blank">a recent Reddit thread</a>, people shared the strangers they&#39;ll never forget, and a couple of them figured out the identities with the help of the internet.</h2><p><span style="font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Droid Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(74, 74, 74); font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">1. </span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/vip3r-cia/" style="font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Droid Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 1.5em; letter-spacing: -0.01em;">vip3r-cia</a><span style="font-family: BlinkMacSystemFont, -apple-system, &quot;Segoe UI&quot;, Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, &quot;Fira Sans&quot;, &quot;Droid Sans&quot;, &quot;Helvetica Neue&quot;, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(74, 74, 74); font-size: 1.5em; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: -0.01em;"> hopes the man from college is having a nice day.</span></p><blockquote> <p>My sophomore year in college I would always see this older man on my walk to my math class he always went out of his way to said good morning and ask how I was doing that day. We never exchanged names just two people checking in on each other.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>2. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/mindfeces/">mindfeces</a> wonders how their stranger running buddy is doing.</h2><blockquote> <p>The girl on my running route who asked if she could run with me sometime and I said &quot;sure&quot; and didn&#39;t give her my number or get hers.</p> </blockquote><h2>3. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/igotbigballs/">igotbigballs</a> thinks about the singing man.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was waiting at the subway station when I hear a man approaching, bopping his body as he sang &quot;Watch me do me... Watch me do me...&quot;. After exchanging pleasantries he looks to the gloves I was wearing. He proceeds to take one off my hand saying &quot;ooh wow those are nice gloves! Are those suede?&quot;. He takes the glove to his face and takes a deep sniffing inhale, gives it back saying &quot;yeahhh that&#39;s suede. Nice nice.&quot;</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He then looks over my shoulder toward the station security guard, takes a small step to the right so I&#39;d block him from view and pulls a bottle of vodka from his jacket. With the biggest grin on his face takes a huge pull and again bops off into the night singing &quot;watch me do me... Watch me do me...&quot;</p> <p>10/10 would watch him do him again</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>4. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/emsquad/">emsquad</a> will never forget the gum wall man.</h2><blockquote> <p>One time, I went to the gum wall in Seattle. My friend put his chewed gum on the wall and this guy came up behind him, plucked it off the wall and started chewing it. He told my friend &ldquo;any gum you put on the wall is MINE.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t even look like a crazy homeless guy, he was well groomed and wearing a suit. Never been more unnerved in my life, and I was just an onlooker!</p> </blockquote><h2>5. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/badjuju824/">badjuju824</a> will never forget the woman who helped name Muffin.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was waiting for my mom to finish the paperwork to adopt my first dog when I was 4. I looked at a random lady in the waiting area and told her I was going to have a puppy and pointed at the dog. She said &ldquo;what will you name her?&rdquo; I told her I didn&rsquo;t know. She said &ldquo;well she&rsquo;s very fluffy, hm, a muffin is fluffy. Why don&rsquo;t you name her muffin?&rdquo; I smiled at her and walked away to tell my mom. I had my dog Muffin until I was 17 and I&rsquo;ll never forget the nice lady who gave me her name.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>6. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Subliminal_Image/">Subliminal_Image</a> still thinks about Larry.</h2><blockquote> <p>When I was a kid there was a man who would hang out at the side of the playground, not because he was being a creeper but because he was really far into special needs and he had a mind of a child. He would stand there as the kids went running by and blurt out &quot;HI! I AM LARRY!&quot; He did this for all 5 years of grade school. I think about him often to be honest. He was so happy yet all he wanted to was play with us when we would play kick ball or what ever but wasn&#39;t allowed to step onto the play ground.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Edit for answers: so to answer some frequent questions. Larry wasn&rsquo;t allowed on the playground I am sure for liability reasons and Larry was about 30 years old. Also for those wondering this took place in Seattle in the late 80&rsquo;s making Larry about 60/65 years old I&rsquo;d guess. This is a total guess though.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>7. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/ctc_celtic/">ctc_celtic</a> hopes wallet man is doing well.</h2><blockquote> <p>Great question and it triggered a memory I haven&#39;t thought of in years. When I was 18 I moved to London, didn&#39;t know anyone and used to spend my free time wandering around the city, one night I was probably out too late and in the wrong part if town, got beaten up pretty bad and ended up in hospital.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>The next day a man arrived with my wallet that was taken during the beating, he must have stayed taking to me for 2 hours, just general chat and asking me how I ended up like this, about my family, homeplace etc. It was the most company I had had since I moved there and it was at a time I really needed some human contact and I think he knew that. I did thank him but he probably didn&#39;t realise just how much I needed him there that day.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>8. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/strawberryblink/">strawberryblink</a> is thankful for their sober guardian angel.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was really drunk trying to find my way back to a friends new house after we got separated walking back from the bar. I was in a dress and heels with no coat in the middle of a Canadian winter. A guy was randomly walking and notice how drunk I was and offered to help me find my friends. He stayed with me all night, walking at first and then driving in his car until I sobered up, trying to find my friends house.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I didn&rsquo;t have my cellphone on me and no money. It could have turned out a lot worse. He gave me a pair of pants and a jacket and when I finally sobered up around 8am I realized that my friends house was on the street behind his house. Thank you kind stranger for staying with me and making sure nothing happened to me.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><h2>9. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/CallMeHelicase/">CallMeHelicase</a> needed a kind pat on the head, and a stranger delivered.</h2><blockquote> <p>I was in a bad car wreck in Boston. I crawled out of the other side of the car and had a panic attack on the side of the busy road. A crowd of people came over to help me, but this one woman stroked my hair and gave me her drink until I calmed down. It sounds weird but it was exactly what I needed at that moment.</p> </blockquote><h2>10. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/percussiveness/">percussiveness</a> hopes the strange man&#39;s daughter is okay.</h2><blockquote> <p>A few years ago, I was waiting to buy a drink at a concert, and this Russian guy next to me said something to me. I responded, he instantly realized that I was American, and suddenly starts yelling &quot;you&#39;re American!! You&#39;re going to f*ck my daughter!!&quot; I calmly reassured him that I was not, in fact, trying to f*ck his daughter. He seemed satisfied with that, then handed me a shot of really bad vodka and disappeared.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I think about that guy a lot.</p> <p>I also feel bad for whoever eventually f*cks his daughter.</p> </blockquote><h2>11. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/terminallyamused/">terminallyamused</a> now realizes the older couple was looking out for her.</h2><blockquote> <p>My sister and I were in middle school at the time, eating mall food with our mom. Mom decides to get a couple things from the food mart real quick as we&#39;re eating and goes to do so; we were in view of the window so she could just look over and see us.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Sister and I noticed an old couple at another restaurant, they looked like they were maddogging us while we were eating. Made me uncomfortable but I tried ignoring them.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>My mom popped back out for a moment to check on us, and now the old couple started to throw their own food away and head out. My mom then headed back in to finish shopping; the wife patted her husband&#39;s shoulder, pointed back at me and my sister, and they both sat back down and continued watching us.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>They finally left when they saw our mom at the check out and my sister and I simultaneously went <em>Ohhh, they were watching over us this whole time</em>.</p> <p>Thanks, wherever you guys are. Not enough people like you two.</p> </blockquote><h2>12. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/faceintheblue/">faceintheblue</a> misses the bus driver in Cardiff.</h2><blockquote> <p>I am Canadian. When I was 17 --more than half my life ago now-- I got a six-month working holiday-makers&#39; visa and moved to the Forest of Dean on the Welsh border halfway between Cardiff and Gloucester. My mother had a childhood friend who lived there, and she said she could get me a job as a shepherd for the summer, but that fell through. I ended up working as a labourer in a factory that crushed rock into powder for obscure and exotic purposes in an industrial park outside Cardiff.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>I will never forget the rural bus driver who picked me up and dropped me off going to and from work, even though I&#39;ve long since forgotten his name.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>It was the same bloke both ways, which means he must have been working a 12-hour day, although I imagine maybe he got a few hours off in the middle of his shift when everyone who had to get to work was there, and no one was heading home yet. This was not a bus for tourists. It hit all the small towns once in the morning and once again at night to shuttle people to mines and factories and mills. When you got a job, you called the bus company to let them know you needed a ride. He freely admitted he knew everyone on his route well enough to know when he could pull over and take a catnap.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>He made models out of matchsticks. He was always rubbing down matchsticks with sand paper to make little bits and pieces for ships or trains or bridges or houses or furniture. He showed me pictures of his finished work. It was quite impressive. Some of it he sold, and some of it he donated to museums.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>My work was dirty. When your end product is dust, you end up black like a coal miner. This guy found an army surplus greatcoat somewhere, and he used to wrap me in it when I boarded the bus at the end of my shift so I wouldn&#39;t mess up his upholstery. Sometimes I fell asleep against the window and smudged the glass with the dust in my hair. He started keeping a bottle of windex under his seat just to clean up after me.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>My favourite memory of him was of him yelling at the sheep that would stand in the middle of the country roads. He&#39;d start by honking, then yelling, then revving the engine, then finally he&#39;d get out of the bus and ask the sheep very nicely to move. If they still wouldn&#39;t, he&#39;d come back on the bus and say, &quot;Right lads, we&#39;re here for a bit. Take a nap if you like. I&#39;m going to fiddle with my matchsticks.&quot;</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I have a picture of him somewhere: White collared short-sleeve shirt with a dark tie; he was middle-aged, round without being fat, bald without it being his defining feature --those were his bold dark eyebrows-- and he had a smile that told the world he&#39;d figured it all out, found his comfortable niche, and wanted no more from life. He had no strife or troubles. He just took people to work, took them home again, and in between he napped, did a bit of model-making with matchsticks, and yelled at the sheep.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>To me, he was the very soul of rural England, but as there&#39;s a 50/50 shot he was Welsh, I don&#39;t know if he&#39;d like me saying so.</p> <p>Edit: Slight rewording of a sentence.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>Edit 2: So, this blew up overnight. Thank you everyone for your kind words, and thank you as well to those of you who have made this the most gilded and silvered comment of my almost ten years on this site. I will add a few things. First, <a href="https://www.reddit.com/u/DasCapitalist/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">u/DasCapitalist</a> has almost certainly identified my stranger as Bill Tucker, a noted matchstick model-maker and retired bus and taxi driver in the area. Second, yes, anyone who wants to send this to a local paper is very welcome to do so.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Direct message me if the paper needs information from me. Third, yes, I am a writer. What I write for a living probably wouldn&#39;t be of interest to most of you, but as a hobby I write historical fiction. I&#39;ve published five novels so far, and I like to joke the royalties cover my bar bill. Rather than pitch you a bunch of different things, there&#39;s a post pinned to the top of <a href="https://twitter.com/faceintheblue" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">my Twitter account</a> that has links to the different books. Fourth, a lot of you were curious where exactly I was in the F</p> </blockquote><h2>13. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/pathemar/">pathemar</a> will never forget their Uber driver in Austin.</h2><blockquote> <p>Was in an Uber in Austin a few months ago and my driver was this super chill ex-hippie dude that was forced to flee WA because he ratted out a crime syndicate or something, so then he moved to CA and sold shoes while not actually having an actual residence. He would just flirt with the women that would come into the store and shack up with them for a while until they got sick of him (this was like the 70/80s).</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Then he meets this one girl who he crushes on real hard, but she calls him a man slut and wants nothing to do with him because yeah facts he is. They become best friends, she watches him go thru relationship after relationship and one day they joke about moving to Alaska to sell ice (apparently that&#39;s a thing?) and they&#39;ve been married ever since. Now they have a bunch of boys in college at UT. I was in Austin for 6 hours but this dude made my week with his storytelling.</p> </blockquote><h2>14. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/iVapeME/">iVapeME</a> hopes the man from the convenience store is still doing well.</h2><blockquote> <p>This Indian dude who worked in a convenience store just down the road from where I live.</p> <p>I went there with my cousin one time just to pick up some snacks and alcohol.</p> </blockquote><blockquote> <p>We ask him what we should buy, he picks up this bottle of super strong stuff. My cousin says &quot;Oh my God, I&#39;m not trying to die&quot;. He responds with &quot;It&#39;s good when you die, you know?&quot; (His Indian accent made it sound pretty funny)</p> <p>I was lowkey creeped out at first, until he started talking about how he had a near death experience on LSD, and how he takes all kinds of psychadellics, sometimes even when he&#39;s on shift.</p> <p>For some reason I felt really sad for him, even though he seemed like a super happy guy.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>I sometimes wonder where he is now and how he&#39;s doing.</p> </blockquote><h2>15. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/gameboyellie/">gameboyellie</a> loves their sandwich angel.</h2><blockquote> <p>My credit card got declined at Subway and the lady behind me paid for my sandwich. I thanked her profusely, and then sat down and almost cried. This was months and months ago, but I&rsquo;ll always be grateful for her kindness.</p> </blockquote><h2>16. <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/AlternativeNarration/">AlternativeNarration</a> hopes Rose made it.</h2><blockquote> <p>A girl named Rose. She was a SUPER shy 7 year old girl with cancer. I got to hangout with her at a outdoor camp for one of the days we were both there. After a couple of hours, she began to open up. She never let loose like a child would, but stayed very reserved and told me about the things she could still enjoy doing. At 7 years old, she had read every Harry Potter book. For the rest of the day, I listened to her talk about NOTHING but Harry Potter.</p> </blockquote><div className="ad-splitter"></div><blockquote> <p>Im not big on Harry Potter, but It was one of the best days of my life.</p> </blockquote><h2> </h2><div className="ad-splitter"></div>

16 people share the interactions with strangers they'll never forget.

While most interactions with strangers fade into the abyss of our minds, there are some strangers that leave a lasting impression.Sometimes, they&#39;re someone so bizarre and distinctive we return to their memory in order to theorize about what their daily life looks like.Other times, strangers show up in times of need like mysterious guardian angels, only to disappear back into anonymity.In many ways, memories with strangers feel more romantic to return to, without the mundane details of their lives they can easily become mythologized as a side character in our lives.In a recent Reddit thread, people shared the strangers they&#39;ll never forget, and a couple of them figured out the identities with the help of the internet.1. vip3r-cia hopes the man from college is having a nice day. My sophomore year in college I would always see this older man on my walk to my math class he always went out of his way to said good morning and ask how I was doing that day. We never exchanged names just two people checking in on each other. 2. mindfeces wonders how their stranger running buddy is doing. The girl on my running route who asked if she could run with me sometime and I said &quot;sure&quot; and didn&#39;t give her my number or get hers. 3. igotbigballs thinks about the singing man. I was waiting at the subway station when I hear a man approaching, bopping his body as he sang &quot;Watch me do me... Watch me do me...&quot;. After exchanging pleasantries he looks to the gloves I was wearing. He proceeds to take one off my hand saying &quot;ooh wow those are nice gloves! Are those suede?&quot;. He takes the glove to his face and takes a deep sniffing inhale, gives it back saying &quot;yeahhh that&#39;s suede. Nice nice.&quot;  He then looks over my shoulder toward the station security guard, takes a small step to the right so I&#39;d block him from view and pulls a bottle of vodka from his jacket. With the biggest grin on his face takes a huge pull and again bops off into the night singing &quot;watch me do me... Watch me do me...&quot; 10/10 would watch him do him again 4. emsquad will never forget the gum wall man. One time, I went to the gum wall in Seattle. My friend put his chewed gum on the wall and this guy came up behind him, plucked it off the wall and started chewing it. He told my friend &ldquo;any gum you put on the wall is MINE.&rdquo; He didn&rsquo;t even look like a crazy homeless guy, he was well groomed and wearing a suit. Never been more unnerved in my life, and I was just an onlooker! 5. badjuju824 will never forget the woman who helped name Muffin. I was waiting for my mom to finish the paperwork to adopt my first dog when I was 4. I looked at a random lady in the waiting area and told her I was going to have a puppy and pointed at the dog. She said &ldquo;what will you name her?&rdquo; I told her I didn&rsquo;t know. She said &ldquo;well she&rsquo;s very fluffy, hm, a muffin is fluffy. Why don&rsquo;t you name her muffin?&rdquo; I smiled at her and walked away to tell my mom. I had my dog Muffin until I was 17 and I&rsquo;ll never forget the nice lady who gave me her name. 6. Subliminal_Image still thinks about Larry. When I was a kid there was a man who would hang out at the side of the playground, not because he was being a creeper but because he was really far into special needs and he had a mind of a child. He would stand there as the kids went running by and blurt out &quot;HI! I AM LARRY!&quot; He did this for all 5 years of grade school. I think about him often to be honest. He was so happy yet all he wanted to was play with us when we would play kick ball or what ever but wasn&#39;t allowed to step onto the play ground.  Edit for answers: so to answer some frequent questions. Larry wasn&rsquo;t allowed on the playground I am sure for liability reasons and Larry was about 30 years old. Also for those wondering this took place in Seattle in the late 80&rsquo;s making Larry about 60/65 years old I&rsquo;d guess. This is a total guess though. 7. ctc_celtic hopes wallet man is doing well. Great question and it triggered a memory I haven&#39;t thought of in years. When I was 18 I moved to London, didn&#39;t know anyone and used to spend my free time wandering around the city, one night I was probably out too late and in the wrong part if town, got beaten up pretty bad and ended up in hospital.  The next day a man arrived with my wallet that was taken during the beating, he must have stayed taking to me for 2 hours, just general chat and asking me how I ended up like this, about my family, homeplace etc. It was the most company I had had since I moved there and it was at a time I really needed some human contact and I think he knew that. I did thank him but he probably didn&#39;t realise just how much I needed him there that day. 8. strawberryblink is thankful for their sober guardian angel. I was really drunk trying to find my way back to a friends new house after we got separated walking back from the bar. I was in a dress and heels with no coat in the middle of a Canadian winter. A guy was randomly walking and notice how drunk I was and offered to help me find my friends. He stayed with me all night, walking at first and then driving in his car until I sobered up, trying to find my friends house.  I didn&rsquo;t have my cellphone on me and no money. It could have turned out a lot worse. He gave me a pair of pants and a jacket and when I finally sobered up around 8am I realized that my friends house was on the street behind his house. Thank you kind stranger for staying with me and making sure nothing happened to me. 9. CallMeHelicase needed a kind pat on the head, and a stranger delivered. I was in a bad car wreck in Boston. I crawled out of the other side of the car and had a panic attack on the side of the busy road. A crowd of people came over to help me, but this one woman stroked my hair and gave me her drink until I calmed down. It sounds weird but it was exactly what I needed at that moment. 10. percussiveness hopes the strange man&#39;s daughter is okay. A few years ago, I was waiting to buy a drink at a concert, and this Russian guy next to me said something to me. I responded, he instantly realized that I was American, and suddenly starts yelling &quot;you&#39;re American!! You&#39;re going to f*ck my daughter!!&quot; I calmly reassured him that I was not, in fact, trying to f*ck his daughter. He seemed satisfied with that, then handed me a shot of really bad vodka and disappeared.  I think about that guy a lot. I also feel bad for whoever eventually f*cks his daughter. 11. terminallyamused now realizes the older couple was looking out for her. My sister and I were in middle school at the time, eating mall food with our mom. Mom decides to get a couple things from the food mart real quick as we&#39;re eating and goes to do so; we were in view of the window so she could just look over and see us.  Sister and I noticed an old couple at another restaurant, they looked like they were maddogging us while we were eating. Made me uncomfortable but I tried ignoring them.  My mom popped back out for a moment to check on us, and now the old couple started to throw their own food away and head out. My mom then headed back in to finish shopping; the wife patted her husband&#39;s shoulder, pointed back at me and my sister, and they both sat back down and continued watching us.  They finally left when they saw our mom at the check out and my sister and I simultaneously went Ohhh, they were watching over us this whole time. Thanks, wherever you guys are. Not enough people like you two. 12. faceintheblue misses the bus driver in Cardiff. I am Canadian. When I was 17 --more than half my life ago now-- I got a six-month working holiday-makers&#39; visa and moved to the Forest of Dean on the Welsh border halfway between Cardiff and Gloucester. My mother had a childhood friend who lived there, and she said she could get me a job as a shepherd for the summer, but that fell through. I ended up working as a labourer in a factory that crushed rock into powder for obscure and exotic purposes in an industrial park outside Cardiff.  I will never forget the rural bus driver who picked me up and dropped me off going to and from work, even though I&#39;ve long since forgotten his name.  It was the same bloke both ways, which means he must have been working a 12-hour day, although I imagine maybe he got a few hours off in the middle of his shift when everyone who had to get to work was there, and no one was heading home yet. This was not a bus for tourists. It hit all the small towns once in the morning and once again at night to shuttle people to mines and factories and mills. When you got a job, you called the bus company to let them know you needed a ride. He freely admitted he knew everyone on his route well enough to know when he could pull over and take a catnap.  He made models out of matchsticks. He was always rubbing down matchsticks with sand paper to make little bits and pieces for ships or trains or bridges or houses or furniture. He showed me pictures of his finished work. It was quite impressive. Some of it he sold, and some of it he donated to museums.  My work was dirty. When your end product is dust, you end up black like a coal miner. This guy found an army surplus greatcoat somewhere, and he used to wrap me in it when I boarded the bus at the end of my shift so I wouldn&#39;t mess up his upholstery. Sometimes I fell asleep against the window and smudged the glass with the dust in my hair. He started keeping a bottle of windex under his seat just to clean up after me.  My favourite memory of him was of him yelling at the sheep that would stand in the middle of the country roads. He&#39;d start by honking, then yelling, then revving the engine, then finally he&#39;d get out of the bus and ask the sheep very nicely to move. If they still wouldn&#39;t, he&#39;d come back on the bus and say, &quot;Right lads, we&#39;re here for a bit. Take a nap if you like. I&#39;m going to fiddle with my matchsticks.&quot;  I have a picture of him somewhere: White collared short-sleeve shirt with a dark tie; he was middle-aged, round without being fat, bald without it being his defining feature --those were his bold dark eyebrows-- and he had a smile that told the world he&#39;d figured it all out, found his comfortable niche, and wanted no more from life. He had no strife or troubles. He just took people to work, took them home again, and in between he napped, did a bit of model-making with matchsticks, and yelled at the sheep.  To me, he was the very soul of rural England, but as there&#39;s a 50/50 shot he was Welsh, I don&#39;t know if he&#39;d like me saying so. Edit: Slight rewording of a sentence.  Edit 2: So, this blew up overnight. Thank you everyone for your kind words, and thank you as well to those of you who have made this the most gilded and silvered comment of my almost ten years on this site. I will add a few things. First, u/DasCapitalist has almost certainly identified my stranger as Bill Tucker, a noted matchstick model-maker and retired bus and taxi driver in the area. Second, yes, anyone who wants to send this to a local paper is very welcome to do so.  Direct message me if the paper needs information from me. Third, yes, I am a writer. What I write for a living probably wouldn&#39;t be of interest to most of you, but as a hobby I write historical fiction. I&#39;ve published five novels so far, and I like to joke the royalties cover my bar bill. Rather than pitch you a bunch of different things, there&#39;s a post pinned to the top of my Twitter account that has links to the different books. Fourth, a lot of you were curious where exactly I was in the F 13. pathemar will never forget their Uber driver in Austin. Was in an Uber in Austin a few months ago and my driver was this super chill ex-hippie dude that was forced to flee WA because he ratted out a crime syndicate or something, so then he moved to CA and sold shoes while not actually having an actual residence. He would just flirt with the women that would come into the store and shack up with them for a while until they got sick of him (this was like the 70/80s).  Then he meets this one girl who he crushes on real hard, but she calls him a man slut and wants nothing to do with him because yeah facts he is. They become best friends, she watches him go thru relationship after relationship and one day they joke about moving to Alaska to sell ice (apparently that&#39;s a thing?) and they&#39;ve been married ever since. Now they have a bunch of boys in college at UT. I was in Austin for 6 hours but this dude made my week with his storytelling. 14. iVapeME hopes the man from the convenience store is still doing well. This Indian dude who worked in a convenience store just down the road from where I live. I went there with my cousin one time just to pick up some snacks and alcohol.  We ask him what we should buy, he picks up this bottle of super strong stuff. My cousin says &quot;Oh my God, I&#39;m not trying to die&quot;. He responds with &quot;It&#39;s good when you die, you know?&quot; (His Indian accent made it sound pretty funny) I was lowkey creeped out at first, until he started talking about how he had a near death experience on LSD, and how he takes all kinds of psychadellics, sometimes even when he&#39;s on shift. For some reason I felt really sad for him, even though he seemed like a super happy guy.  I sometimes wonder where he is now and how he&#39;s doing. 15. gameboyellie loves their sandwich angel. My credit card got declined at Subway and the lady behind me paid for my sandwich. I thanked her profusely, and then sat down and almost cried. This was months and months ago, but I&rsquo;ll always be grateful for her kindness. 16. AlternativeNarration hopes Rose made it. A girl named Rose. She was a SUPER shy 7 year old girl with cancer. I got to hangout with her at a outdoor camp for one of the days we were both there. After a couple of hours, she began to open up. She never let loose like a child would, but stayed very reserved and told me about the things she could still enjoy doing. At 7 years old, she had read every Harry Potter book. For the rest of the day, I listened to her talk about NOTHING but Harry Potter.  Im not big on Harry Potter, but It was one of the best days of my life.  