I work at a grocery store. I was heading out to collect the carts from the parking lot when I saw a guy finish loading his groceries into a shiny, expensive car and shove the cart off in a random direction, instead of leaving it in the receptacle.

The moment he got into his car, the wind picked up and blew the cart into his bumper, leaving an impressive scratch across his nice paint job. There is some justice in the world.

My dad had a role as an extra for a TV show about the goings-on in the backrooms of parliament.

He was playing a driver for one government minister, and they were filming in and around Parliament House.

Waiting outside the main entrance, dressed the part, and in an official-looking vehicle, my dad waited for the scene to start shooting.

It turns out the delay was the current leader of the opposition coming out of parliament.  

Seeing the car my dad was in, he climbed in the back and directed my dad to take him to the hotel bar where the party members were known to stay when parliament was sitting.

The leader’s staffers and production staff for the TV show all bustled around, trying to get the leader out of the back of the car.

My dad let him know about the filming but told me that he was very tempted to take off and see how far he could get before the police tracked him down.

My partner’s father works for a multinational company that fits fire detection equipment, not your standard home or small business detectors but sophisticated multi-sensor systems for large companies, industrial complexes, etc. He’s worked all over the country in everything from steel foundries to naval bases.

He was recently tasked with fitting some new systems at one of the UK’s nuclear sites as part of a team of eight technicians. Due to some of what they were installing actually being inside the housings for a reactor, they were briefed ahead of time on the more unique dangers of working in a potentially radioactive environment. The one thing that stood out was a warning to consider removing wedding rings or other items of significant value; upon leaving the site, anything that registered as radioactive would be retained by the site and sent to deep storage as radioactive waste until pretty much the end of time.

There were eight technicians, seven went in wearing no jewelry, and one decided to carry on wearing his wedding ring. When they exited the site that evening, three of them had items flagged as very slightly radioactive. Two of them went home without their boiler suits, and one of them went home without his boiler suit or his wedding ring. His wife was not impressed.

I don’t remember this story at all, but my mother loves to tell it.

I’m four and my brother — my first and, at the time, only sibling — is a baby. We’re at the grocery store with my brother in the front seat of the cart and me “helping” Mom push it. Some old guy walks up and starts cooing over the baby — nothing new. Then, he turns to me and says, smiling and laughing, “If you don’t be a good girl and help your mommy, I’m gonna take your brother away!”

I react the way any responsible big sister would: I flip out! I push the cart as far away as I can, flail, cry, yell, stomp, and scream my head off, doing my very best to raise as much Hell as I can at my size.

Naturally, my mother’s first priority is calming me down. Once she’s assured me that no one is taking my brother anywhere and gotten me to relax, she rounds on the guy, demanding to know what in the h*** he was thinking saying that to a little girl! The guy just shrugs and says, “I thought she’d find it funny. Usually, whenever I tell little kids that, they always tell me to go ahead and take the baby.”

How much did this guy contribute to the Stranger Danger panic of the 80s and 90s?!

It’s worth noting that I have a fairly young face and, although I am 25, I am still a student and tend to hang out at bars frequented by students. I am in a well-known student bar with a group of friends and one of them has brought up the topic of Star Wars. Being quite the nerd, I get into an excited discussion with one of my friends speculating about the new Star Wars movie. While we are talking, a server comes up to take our orders.

My friends go around the table giving their orders. The server doesn’t bother to ID anyone because we are all obviously over 19. The server takes my order and then I dive right back into my discussion on Star Wars.

The server gets about three feet from the table and then stops, turns around, and comes back. She taps me on the shoulder and asks to see my ID. I am a bit bemused, not just because I hardly ever get carded anymore, but because I am pretty obviously the oldest person in the group.

Not wanting to cause trouble, I dig out my driver’s licence and hand it to her. She looks intently at it while I continue my conversation. Then, she hands back my licence and asks me if I have a second piece of ID!

I am having a hard time containing my laughter because the server is probably five years younger than me, at least. But I dutifully pull out my Health Card and show her.

She looks at it, checks that the names match, and gives it back. She grudgingly brings me my drink, but for the rest of the night I keep catching her watching me suspiciously.

I don’t know if she thought I was nervous because of how excitedly I was talking or if she just couldn’t comprehend someone over the age of 18 liking Star Wars. Either way, we all had a good laugh about it and tipped her well for her “diligence.”