Talking To Strangers

Like many things I heard, I held in low regard two of the most common bromides taught to kids to keep us safe in public.

"Don't talk to strangers" was one. The other, related, was "Don't take candy from strangers."

What nonsense. Who is a stranger, after all? Everyone you don't know? Everyone you know was once someone you didn't.

Out on the street, you might eyeball 200 people a day. They all live around here. So they're probably alright.

Are they strangers because I don't know their names?

Well, guess what, I don't want to know their names.

But if they talk to me, I am going to talk back. What am I, an imbecile? Are they going to outwit me into doing something I don't want to do? There was not a single outwitting candidate around, that I had ever seen.

The warning about candy I considered more heavily, but only because I misunderstood it.

I didn't realize it was a follow-up to the first warning, that someone might use candy - like talk - as a lure to abduct you.

I thought it was a warning against being poisoned.

I knew there were a lot of adults who didn't like kids. "Hey, you kids! Go play where you live!," was perhaps the single most common comment from adults to children you could hear. Who knows how many times you heard that, screamed from an apartment window above your game.

So, I didn't know. Maybe the next step for a window-screamer like that would be to come outside with a bowl of candy they secretly stuck with poison, give, go back upstairs, and watch you drop dead on the street.

This I considered possible, so I did keep it in mind to at least check out any candy given by strangers: scrutinize it, don't just pop it down.

It was not a frequent issue. I can remember only once in my life being offered candy on the street.

It was from an old guy named Ice Cream Cone Joe. I knew him, so I wasn't too worried. He had no reason to kill me.

It was a piece of chocolate. It was wrapped in gold foil. I took it and said thanks.

When he looked away, I looked it over. No pin-pricks from a syringe? No problem. Now eat it before it melts.