Conversations with Strangers

Before I turned 40, plenty of random people came up to me on the street/in the classroom/in the workplace to strike up conversations: all male. At the time, I thought that they were just talking to me because I was so obviously smart and intriguing. Ha! In truth, I looked much cuter then, and they were interested in sex. One blatant example: A young guy in San Francisco came and sat next to me on the bus. We were chatting amiably, but the second I told him I was gay, he literally got up and moved to another seat without any appropriate segue!

Cut to today: I'm now middle-aged. Young men don't make passes at me. But what I discovered this past week is that fellow middle-aged women have now apparently acknowledged me as one of their own and we're now bonding: When I got my Covid shot at the supermarket pharmacy, I had a lengthy fun conversation with an ultra-supportive middle-aged mom there for her flu shot. And I've had a couple of other 50-something women smile broadly at me in passing in the past couple of days. (In the olden days, the only people who would smile at me were men, both younger and older.)

Are the smiles of other 50-plus women a recognition of our current shared state? If so, I welcome them. I would like some friends.