Being Unacknowledged.

Oh it was a fine and a pleasant day...

And so it was today, and so I went for a walk after I’d done the majority of the jobs I’d set myself.

It was school run time and the lane was busy with parents reclaiming their wee’uns, mostly in cars but a few on foot. The mothers are generally a friendly bunch; they wave and smile, and occasionally even exchange a verbal greeting or short conversation. But there were two new ones today, or at least ones I hadn’t seen before. I made to smile and say hello, but they ignored me. Ignored me completely. Wouldn’t even look at me.

‘Funny,’ I thought, ‘funny...’ (With thanks to Pete and Dud.)

I came to a few tentative guesses as to what might have been amiss:

1) I was wearing my green overalls, so maybe they thought I was a farm labourer and too low on the social scale to warrant acknowledgement.

2) Maybe they’d heard that I’m the Village Strange Person who can’t be trusted to behave in a predictable way.

3) Maybe I was so innocuous that they simply didn’t notice me.

4) Or, contrariwise, maybe they were dazzled by my devastatingly boyish good looks and declined to risk the integrity of their marriage vows.

I know which one I’m going for. Yup.