Set-Up for a Math Joke

This morning at the gym, I noticed an older gentleman filling out membership forms and donning a John Deere baseball cap.

I walked over and asked, “Are you a geometry teacher?”

He paused in filling out the forms, looked up, and eyed me suspiciously. “Um, no,” he said skeptically.

“Oh, well, I saw your hat, so I just assumed that you’re pro-tractor,” I said.

The woman at the front desk chuckled mildly. The man didn’t even smile.

“I’ve been waiting a decade to use that joke,” I explained. “You’re the first person I’ve seen wearing a John Deere hat since I first heard it.”

He removed his hat and looked at it. Perhaps he had forgotten which hat he was wearing. When he saw the John Deere logo, he finally understood and gave a half-hearted smile.

“Well, I’m glad I could help,” he said, then tapped the top of my head good-naturedly with his hat.

(This story is completely true. I’m not normally the type to approach strangers at the gym and strike up a conversation, but this was just a little too perfect. When I later told my wife about the incident, her highly appropriate response was, “You are such a dork!”)