![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DMT-L-AUTOMfriends-0624_2.jpg\")
The Hudson\u2019s Bay Company department store in downtown\nCalgary
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n
I happened to tune in to CNN recently, just in time to catch the end of the \u201cSmerconish\u201d TV talk show. I\u2019ve watched Michael Smerconish\u2019s show before. He is well-informed and I find much of what he discusses interesting.<\/p>\n
According to his website (https:\/\/www.smerconish.com\/about\/), Michael Smerconish is the host of a daily radio program heard nationwide on SiriusXM\u2019s POTUS channel. He is also the host of CNN\u2019s \u201cSmerconish\u201d, which airs Saturdays at 9 a.m. ET. He was a longtime newspaper columnist for the Philadelphia Daily News and Sunday Philadelphia Inquirer, and his columns were routinely re-printed in newspapers all across the country. He the author of seven books, and\u00a0 donated all of the proceeds for four of them to charity. He is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Lehigh University and the University of Pennsylvania Law School.<\/p>\n
Sometimes Michael and I do not share the same opinions on matters, but often we do. This day I was intrigued to discover that he and his guest were talking about a subject near and dear to me.\u00a0 Their dads tended to embarrass their tablemates at restaurants by catching the attention of, and then initiating conversations with, total strangers enjoying their meals at the next table, while they were minding their own business. Does this social behavior of loved ones sound familiar to you?<\/p>\n
My dad used to do that too, 50-some-odd years ago when I lived in Calgary, Alberta, and frankly anywhere else that we happened to be. He even became friends with employees of the restaurants, harmlessly chatting and kidding around with them. He was on a first-name basis with the waitress who served him on a regular basis at the restaurant in the Palliser Hotel in Calgary. Dad often took me there to have breakfast. I still remember her last name, even though I was just a kid at the time.<\/p>\n
The Hudson\u2019s Bay Company department store in downtown
\nCalgary
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n
Likewise, dad was on a first-name basis with the owner of our favorite Chinese restaurant (the Jade Palace) in downtown Calgary. I remember his name too, and one of my parents\u2019 favorite foods that they ordered \u2014 dried spareribs. These fond memories have stuck in my mind over the decades since then.<\/p>\n
My dad worked in the clothing industry. He was a manufacturer\u2019s sales rep. for several men\u2019s clothing lines, and he co-owned a sweater manufacturing company in Calgary. His territory was all over Western Canada, where he visited stores and took their orders.<\/p>\n
Sometimes dad would take me along with him on his sales calls. It never ceased to amaze me that wherever he and I walked into the men\u2019s clothing departments of one of these stores, not only did lots of people know him, but they would cheerfully greet him \u2014 by his (embarrassing to me) nickname: \u201cWaggy!\u201d Our family name is Wagner. Where \u201cWaggy\u201d originated, I do not know.<\/p>\n
Needless to say, Dad was not shy. I remember one particular time when we walked into a big retail chain department store that he sold men\u2019s clothing to (the Hudson\u2019s Bay Company, in downtown Calgary). He went there to buy me a watch as a present. After we identified the watch, he asked the salesclerk \u2014 a total stranger to both of us \u2014 and in a matter-of-fact way (making an \u201cassumptive close\u201d \u2014 an effective sales technique), for a DISCOUNT \u2014 and he got it! Imagine asking for a discount in a major department store! There seemed to be no limits to my dad\u2019s social skills. He was a genuine character and absolutely amazing. I miss him.<\/p>\n
![\"Front](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DMT-L-AUTOMfriends-0624_3.jpg\")
Front gate of the 2026 San Diego County Fair
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n
Over the years I seem to have incorporated that character trait into my social behavior too, even though at the time I was quite embarrassed by his behavior. Just this past week at the San Diego County Fair, I struck up conversations with a total stranger who was sitting beside me at the rooftop \u201cspeakeasy,\u201d overlooking the kids\u2019 Midway and the Toyota Summer Concert Series outdoor stage, where Chicago was performing; and earlier with another total stranger who was seated beside me to watch a drone soccer demonstration, in one of the exhibit buildings. They exchanged their contact information with me, and we may well become my friends. Such can be the very positive result of talking to strangers.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/DMT-L-AUTOMfriends-0624-01.jpg\")
The kids\u2019 Midway, as seen from the Speakeasy in the grandstand building
\n(Jan Wagner)<\/p>\n
To explore a wide variety of content dating back to 2002, with the most photos and the latest text, visit \u201cAutoMatters & More\u201d at https:\/\/automatters.net. Search by title or topic in the Search Bar in the middle of the Home Page or click on the blue \u2018years\u2019 boxes and browse.<\/p>\n
Copyright \u00a9 2026 by Jan Wagner \u2013 AutoMatters & More #933r1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I happened to tune in to CNN recently, just in time to catch the end of the \u201cSmerconish\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[310,1002,74,76,75,77],"class_list":["post-373389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-del-mar-times","tag-del-mar-times-opinion","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}