Probably just a handful of you know how gregarious I am that person who talks to strangers on the train, in the supermarket queue or as yesterday in the street.

So walking Flora half a mile from home and heading for town, I slowed to discreetly see why an elderly lady and and a young man were standing in the middle of the road. Out came a phone in the hands of another young man, just as good looking as the first. Meanwhile, the lady straightened her sari and responded to my smile with one of her own.I stepped closer to hear her saying ’35 years’35 since I’ve been here’.

Now I had to rein in my list of questions,

Where have you been, what brought you here originally, are you moving back here?

Now her English wasn’t too strong, but it was the house where we stood, right on the corner at the top of the road, in Newtown, where the family had a shop, ‘right there, right there’!

I would have liked to sweep them home with me and chat for the day, but I could see that her sons were in a bit of a hurry, it was was day two of their trip, down from Manchester, a tedious motorway drive.

I learnt that they were Sikh and originally from India, her sons had barely any memory of Exeter, but they had a bit of a look around and liked it here.

I guess the photos are for the family history , and I would so like to have heard more. We parted with a mix of tears and smiles

Do YOU talk to strangers and can you get them to tell you their stories?