Don't you remember?
I went to a Boston Market to grab some dinner tonight. This lady came up next to me while I was in line and said, "Hi. Do you work here?" I thought that was odd, so I said no, I'm just in line. She followed up with "Well, can I stand in line behind you?" Uh...sure. I'm thinking this girl is a little weird and is making me uncomfortable.
She continued with, "Don't you remember me? That's ok. I've changed, gained quite a bit of weight. I used to be really tiny. But I sure remember you."
Now, the last time I got in a situation like this, I got in trouble. This guy came up to me at a conference and said, "Hey, I remember meeting you at _____ conference in May!" (I wasn't at that conference.) I responded with, Oh. It's, uh...good to see you again. How have you been doing? I hoped he'd give me something to work with, a story, a name, SOMETHING I could small-talk about. Instead he responded with, "Oh, same as before." Big help. Fast forward to tonight. I still had no clue who this girl was, and I wasn't falling into that trap again.
I'm sorry, I don't remember. What's your name?
"Jen!" Oh yeah, THAT narrows it down. There are only a bazillion Jens in the world.
Ooookay. Where did we meet?
"In school!" Great. Another big help.
"In elementary school! You don't remember when we used to do ____ and _____ and ______?"
I still had no idea what she was talking about. I placed my order and said, Well, it's good to see you again, and I'm sorry I can't remember you.
"That's fine. It was great to catch up again Tommy!"
...Tommy? Oh, you've gotta be kidding me. I guess my face gave it away.
"Wait, your name is Tommy right?"
No. No it's not. Sorry. Have a nice night.
I took a seat, looked back up and she was gone.