I guess I left a few things off my list....for instance, my little brother would go months and months without talking to anyone near us. Then come November (when people are planning Thanksgiving and buying Christmas gifts he would turn up). This was a joke in our family, oh, it must be time to buy Christmas here comes DA.
Old friends and cousins..... those are the ones that call to bullshit when they want to hunt your place....
Former players,.....they need a couch to crash on.
But there are some differences, if you have not spoken to them in longer than a decade or two....and suddenly you have a new best friend,.....then they want information. Or should I say, they want information on how they can financially benefit from something happening around you......
Have you had a recent death in the family....those "out of the blue" phone calls are the result of family members thinking, hmm I should have gotten something when she died. I'll reach out.
The last 11 years of my mom's life she was locked away in a nursing home, suffering from dementia. Before she went in a home life was hard, family members had stolen from her, taken advantage of her memory failure and mocked her very existence.
Yet when she passed the number of people crushed by her death (that had not seen or spoken to her in over a decade) was amazing. When they came to understand they would not benefit from her death....crickets. Her birthday in 2026 has come an gone....seemingly unmentioned by all those folks just a few months before saying how much she meant to their lives..... yeah right.
Young people reaching out....especially family members. Your first question should be, do you have a job? If you haven't spoken in months or years..... 10 to 1 says they are currently selling knives or vacuums door to door, or maybe the good ones are selling life insurance for their chosen path......
Who was the last person to reach out to you out of the blue..... and what did they want?
I love playing the guessing game with myself..... WTF do they want, and how long will it take them to getting around to asking? Uh,...I remember your dad had some nice guns do you still have those?
My favorite thing to do..... is wait a day or too, and then call them to put the screws to them. --hey the family is taking a collection to pay for mom's headstone. I knew she meant a lot to you, can I put you down for $500 or $1,000 to help? Just like that, one phone call will guarantee you years of peace....... Oh, for $500 you can pick the stone color..... $1,000 gets you a mention..... $1,500 and Mom won't call you a bastard on the rock.....
