Indignities

My trip to Dallas last week had us waiting in a few Midwestern airports. I made the best of it and bought Adam lots of regional junk food in Milwaukee, Dallas and Cleveland. The following is a reconstructed conversation with a young man, a freshman in college:

Freshman: Hi, are you guys on the flight to Boston?

plasticann: Yes we are. Are you?

Freshman: I'm going home to Concord. You guys must go to OSU!

plasticann: [pause] Hmmm, what's OSU?

Freshman: Ohio State University

plasticann: We're not in college, I live in Boston and we're on a business trip. What brings you to Ohio?

Freshman: I'm in college at Dennison.

plasticann: What year are you?

Freshman: I'm a freshman. Did you go to school in Boston?

plasticann: Actually in Providence, I went to Brown.

Freshman: Oh, a buddy of mine goes to Brown...do you know....

plasticann: [interrupts] Actually I'm 32 and I just went to my 10 year reunion, probably not.

Freshman: My mom went to Brown.

I thought to myself, I might know actually know your mom. Just kidding, there's no way I know his mom, I'm not that old. As someone pointed out wisely, it way worse to be mistaken as significantly older. Probably true, but I still contend that mistaken for college age is still a problem.