Published on 12, July, 2020
Does anyone else struggle sometimes to do ‘appropriate’ greetings? You know, as the social skills textbook instructs, especially when hugely distracted by something else? Usually I can manage it, but this morning I may have managed to diversify!
I happened to need to pop to the Scout shop this morning to buy some badges for my Beavers. After I got out of my car I realised that there was what looked like a dead hedgehog by the side of the car park. So I had to stop for a few minutes to investigate whether a) it was actually a hedgehog, and b) it was actually dead. So after establishing those facts, I walked into the shop and rather than doing the textbook greeting, I just said “there’s a dead hedgehog in the car park!” Luckily they were fine with it, they even asked what group scarf it was wearing BUT this really isn’t the appropriate way for me to greet people who I haven’t seen for a few months!!
Ohh I've just remembered another one! When I was at uni I had a little 100cc Suzuki, and as I was about to get on it one autumn I noticed a wasp struggling to walk over the seat. When I got home to my student house with half a dozen student friends, I announced "The wasps are getting sleepy!" in very much the same way as your dead hedgehog anecdote. Everyone fell about laughing saying it was like a code, and they should have responded with something like "...and the clouds are drifting slowly in Birmingham" in order to gain access to some secret or other :-)
I think we just have a different filter as to what information needs to be imparted first. Clearly dead hedgehogs and sleepy wasps are far more important to tell people than asking them how their day has been!