WEST VIRGINIA — Two local men who had spent the previous three weeks questioning each other’s intelligence online enjoyed a pleasant conversation Tuesday morning after meeting at a polling place without recognizing one another.
Witnesses said the encounter began when one man held the door.
“Appreciate it, buddy.”
“No problem. Sure is warm for November.”
From there, the men reportedly discussed rain, deer movement, and whether the parking lot had always been that rough.
Neither mentioned that their most recent online exchange had ended with the phrase “people like you are the problem.”
The failure to recognize each other was attributed to profile photographs.
One man’s account featured a pickup truck parked beside a creek. The other used an eight-point buck photographed from a position that did not clearly establish who had harvested it.
“In person, neither one of them had antlers,” an observer explained.
The men had originally encountered each other beneath a community Facebook post asking where to buy replacement garbage-can lids.
Within eleven comments, the discussion had become a dispute over the future of the republic.
By Tuesday, each had written several thousand words assuring the other that he would not waste another second on the conversation.
At the polling place, however, relations remained cordial.
One man pointed out a shorter line. The other offered him a pen.
They discovered a mutual acquaintance and spent several minutes agreeing that his new garage was “a pretty good little building.”
Election workers described the interaction as ordinary.
“That’s mostly what happens when people have to use their actual faces,” one said.
The men parted with a handshake and a promise to take care.
Forty-three minutes later, both returned home and opened Facebook.
Their argument resumed beneath the garbage-can post.
At press time, one had accused the other of having no respect for his neighbors.
The other responded that he would not know common decency if it held the door for him.
The Holler Herald — West Virginia’s Least Reliable News Source.
