Hi Eskie --

I do that, too. Sometimes I wind up saying, "Yes ma'am," to someone who is younger than I! Living in the South makes it a lot easier, bec. yessir and yes, ma'am remain standard forms of address. So a good solution might be to move to Louisiana. Jest kidding.

This is the biggest booboo of my life in the "inappropriate forms of address" category: One of my oldest friends, who is 60 or 61, is the romantic interest of a man who is 70. Let's call them Jack and Jill. They've been a couple for years.

Some of his adult children still live in the home where they were raised, so he mostly stays at her small apartment. Memories of mom in the house and all, privacy issues, etc, so Jack and Jill never sleep there. When I visited her, I was thus put up in the Big House with his children. I am 56, and they are in their mid-30s to late-40s.

I had spent time with Jack and Jill, and of course, I called him Jack. One morning, at the Big House, Jack, who is a prominent official in that state, had apparently gotten home late from some event and came down the stairs of the Big House for breakfast.

"Good morning, Mr. Jones," I blurted out. I could have died. Well, fortunately, he is so prominent that he is used to having people call him "Mr" and "sir," and the old smoothie didn't say anything. I wish there had been an elevator to the basement, though.

Most of the time I believe, I probably inhabit these incidents far longer and more acutely than the other person. "Angels fly because they take themselves lightly." That's what I need to do more often.