My FFL, Brian, operates out of his home. When I pay him a visit, it's very common for him to already have a customer or two lounging on one of his couches, and commonly, being an army city, it's someone from the service. I had a neat encounter yesterday, when going to pick up the weapon I'd ordered last week.
Straight from work, I go to Brian's house, still wearing my daily garb: slacks, dress shirt and tie, and a blazer. Brian has never seen me dressed like this before, as I usually visit him on Saturdays or during fall/spring/summer breaks. He gives me a ribbing for being overdressed ("you trying to make us look bad in here?") before introducing me to a late-20/early-30-something soldier hanging on his couch. The soldier eagerly shakes my hand. "What's with the suit, man?"
"He's a teacher," answers Brian, for me. "East side, right? Socorro district?"
"Oh, wow. That's awesome," says the soldier.
As is often the case, I can rarely just conduct my visit and leave; Brian loves to talk shop, and I admit, so do I. His other customers are also usually up for a good talk. His customer today is VERY knowledgeable, and compliments me on the choice of merchandise I am receiving. Naturally, shop talk ensues, and we spend a good deal of time talking about concealed carry. Then out of the blue, the soldier asks me this question:
"So how long you been teaching music?"
And I froze for a moment, and retraced the conversation we'd been having all the way back to my arrival. "Uh...a decade or so. How did you...uh...? I didn't say anything, and [Brian] didn't either."
"I didn't know you taught music," commented Brian.
The soldier smiled. "I know. I could tell. The way you carry yourself, the way you wear your suit, the way you explain things and construct your thoughts. But the giveaway was your hands, when we shook. I could tell by the condition of your hands, and the way you gripped mine, that you were a musician."
Uh, WAT.
I've had my hands described in various ways over the years, but how does anyone have a "musician's hands?" Even moreso, every musician's hands are different depending on the instrument they play. String players and guitarists have fingertip calluses. Woodwind players usually have a single callus on their right thumb. Pianists and brass players tend to not have calluses on their hands at all. Percussionists (especially four-mallet specialists) and drummers tend to have a couple of smoothed spots (that aren't callused) at their grip fulcrums.
It was just so weird how he knew SPECIFICALLY what I was, when the only information he was given was that I taught, and where I taught.