JumpStart by Robb Armstrong for November 28, 2022

Wouldn’t Marcy have seen the good doctor in the market wearing a face mask during the pandemic?

Context is everything, as we say in the religious studies biz. See a person you know well, but not in the location/situation where you usually see them, and the brain slips into neutral.

An interesting way of drawing Marcy in that second panel…

When I worked at the Philly Zoo, we had a Halloween party once and one of the administrative assistants came dressed in a zookeeper’s uniform. Not one of us recognized her!

Both of these medicos should be wearing a mask just to be on the safe side.

Nice running into a colleague at the store.

I have had this happen. You meet someone someone outside of the work setting, they are dressed down and not in a place to expect them (usually a grocery store-keep it clean folks) and it takes a minute to recognize them.

I was shopping once and a lady with long hair came up to me at the grocery store and said, “Hi Captain.”. Hhmmm, she called me Captain so I mush know here from the Air Force. Mentally went up and down the hallways trying to think who I knew that would look like this in regular clothes (not baggy fatigues) and had their hair pulled up. She laughed and told me her name. She was used to it.

Whadda hoot! Happens to me any time I see someone out of context!

Yo! Mask up!

While at a supper club one evening, had some ‘stranger’ offer to buy my wife and me a drink. Sitting here, cleaned up and ‘disguised’ in a button-down shirt, nice pants, and a sports coat, I had no idea who I was talking to. Turned out to be one of the guys who worked in the shop – usually wearing dirty bib overalls, a tee shirt, and cap. We had just been working together a few hours earlier.

It worked the same way for me when I delivered mail. Context is everything.

I have the same problem. I don’t recognize people out of context. I recognize the face as one I know but can’t place where I know them from. Nurses look so different without scrubs and without their hair pulled back and contained.

As an amateur astronomer, I can recognize fellow astronomers by their voice. Many I’ve never seen in the daylight.

That happens to me a lot at the grocery. I see students and parents but sometimes struggle to remember their names. Seeing them outside of a school context throws me off.

Unmasked by masking.

I was in a carryout place when I ran into one of my church members. I spoke and she spoke back but didn’t seem to recognize me. When I saw her at church, she said she didn’t recognize me at first because I wasn’ t wearing a hat like I usually do. I am one of the few who wear Sunday hats. LOL

Context is everything. I’ve done the same

Seeing my fellow reenactors in 21st century dress instead of 18th/19th has the same effect,

When I worked at the elementary schools, kids would have a fit when they saw me at the market. They must have thought all teachers lived at the school.

I can absolutely see this happening.