Quick rapport

(Submitted by Richard Cowan - December 2024)

I recently took my 13 year old daughter to a friend’s birthday party at a restaurant recently in Alderley Edge (Cheshire, UK).  When I drove back over to pick her up at the end of the evening, I arrived a little early so I pulled up nearby onto the pavement and sat in my car to wait.  I was parked along the pavement next to an estate agent. 

When my daughter eventually appeared and jumped into the car, we were about to pull away (off the pavement), where 4 chaps had stopped next to me to admire the houses for sale and presumably choose the one of their dreams.

As I pulled away, much to my daughter’s embarrassment, I pulsed down the window and said to the men, “sorry chaps but I’ve just put a deposit down on that £5m one you had your eye on”.

They found this rather amusing and it led to a short exchange of pleasantries and them introducing themselves to me.

As we drove away, my daughter turned to me and asked, “Dad, how do you just talk to people like that.  What’s the secret?”. She then explained that she would never have the confidence or knowledge to know how to make conversation with a stranger.  I assured her that you just needed to be human and find something interesting, even random, but often a little comical (or at least in my case), to disarm people and make them feel comfortable.

For a generation of children growing up with a world which begins and ends with a smartphone glued to their fingers, it made me realise that we must teach our children that the value of real human communication must never be lost!