Talking to those people is always great. It either gives them a way to share their problems with somebody, or you find someone who has a really interesting past

Talking to those people is always great. It either gives them a way to share their problems with somebody, or you find someone who has a really interesting past and you can learn a lot. Best thing that ever happened to us was meeting a retired space engineer who worked on the Hubble telescope. My son was wearing a NASA sweater with an explosion drawing of the Hubble, and the old man explained on his shirt how the Hubble works and on what parts he had worked. I still regret that on another occation I did not talk to a man sitting next to me on a station platform. He looked exactly like a bum who had spent the previous night sleeping on the sidewalk in his own piss, but at second sight I noticed that his clothes were not only clean, but quite expensive (still looking shabby from distance), and he had a brand new expensive Rimowa suitcase. I would have loved to hear his story, but I had to catch my train.