I have to say I must have missed my parents memo when I was growing up about not talking to strangers- tbh if I didn’t my business networks wouldn’t serve me well would they? However outside of business I still grab every opportunity to chat to others. At the end of last year hubby and I popped over to Weston Super Mare to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary with some good ole beachside fish and chips and couple of nights away. Over the course of the weekend these are some of the lovely strangers we met:

We met a family of three in the fish and chip restaurant and learnt how they lived locally so the restaurant was a firm favourite of theirs (Papa Joes if you fancy a visit too)
We met a family in the arcade whose child was chuffed to receive our winning tickets for the prize shop.
We met some lovely young ladies who took our photo and chatted to the great staff in the restaurant we ate in.
We met an assistant in the beachside gift shop who explained she will be finishing up soon for the end of the summer season. She then works in the hotel owners above who are also the proprietors of the shop which is closed for the winter.
We then chatted for ages to the young gentleman who looked after the donkeys on the beach (anyone who knows me well knows how much I love donkeys!) They too are retiring soon for the winter season, if only we had room to look after them alas our garden is a tad too small!
And
Finally we meet a young waitress in the pub we stopped off at on our way home who had just got engaged. The same day we sat next to a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary. We had a great conversation about weddings having just celebrated our first and my parents celebrating their 61st, I could talk weddings all day.

Each one of the above had great conversation skills and interesting stories, it was a pleasure learning about their lives and chatting to them all. So do you spend time chatting to strangers? After all surely each of us are just strangers when we first meet so I guess all could be friends in disguise.