Reunion Crasher

I spent this weekend as a 'spouse' at my wife's twenty-year reunion. This basically meant being relegated to the spouse pool table, and occasionally being pointed at by my wife as she told people we were married.
Early on, I decided that since no one knew who I was, (and many times they didn't recognize each other) I might as well pretend that everybody knew me. So, I started greeting people (actually just my wife and her friends) like I had known them for twenty years. Eventually, a few other of the alumni realized that I was a poser, and one of them came up with a persona for me. I was dubbed Mike Potratz. Mike was not going to be at the reunion, and no one had seen him for twenty years. Although everyone remembered his name, few people had a clear idea of what he looked like.

So, I began to introduce myself as Mike Potratz, and greeting people at the reunion. The charade generally broke down a few exchanges into a conversation, and when it didn't, I stopped them and reintroduced myself as Kevin. Most of the alumni thought it was funny. A few of the inebriated alumni were left a little confused. The reunion organizers thought it was a good joke.

The next day at the formal event, the organizer had gone out and made a nametag for me as Mike Potratz, with his yearbook picture on it. His picture happened to look a lot like my own high school yearbook picture. I met a lot of the people in the class, got a lot of hugs, and fooled probably 75% of them for a short period of time. I was part of the official reunion group photo. Later, during the presentations, I was introduced as "someone they didn't expect to make it today" and then I got up in front of the group and said a few words as Mike Potratz.

By the end of the night, the joke was wearing thin, but it was a good run, and we had a great time.