You know that feeling when you see someone familiar, but you cannot recall their name or how you know them?

1993-ish, I was boarding a plane from LA to San Francisco.  As I stood in the aisle, inching along to my seat in the back half of the plane, I saw a guy sitting in first class that I recognized. I knew I knew him.  But I could not remember his name or where we had met.

Thinking I needed to acknowledge him in case he also recognized me, I said “Hello! How’ve you been?  Good to see you.” He smiled and returned my greeting as I thankfully hurried away down the aisle before our greeting turned into a conversation that made it obvious I couldn’t remember who he was.

It wasn’t long after I was seated that I remembered who he was; Richard Reardon, the newly elected Mayor of Los Angeles.  I had never met him.  I recognized him from the news.

No worries, he would certainly be off the plane and long gone by the time I trundled all the way from Economy when we landed.  No chance I’d see him again and have to explain myself.

Wrong.  As soon as I exited the jetway onto the gate area, There was Mayor Reardon waiting for me to apologize for not remembering my name or where we met.  As we started walking together down the concourse, he explained that as he was a businessman with no political experience before being elected Mayor, he wasn’t used to meeting so many people at all of the events he now needed to attend.  He didn’t want me to feel bad that I was among a few thousand people he had recently met whose names he could not recall.

He laughed when I told him why I had said hello, and how foolish I felt when I realized why his face was so familiar.  We parted ways.

But we did meet again later that year, and that time we recognized each other.  You’ll need to read the “Marathon” story for more….