Temple student Dan Zubrzycki never expected to use the Web site’s questionable service, until it worked for him.
Some people check Craigslist’s Missed Connections every day.
Some check them in hopes of getting a laugh as part of their routine procrastination, and some like to see if they recognize anyone that’s been posted about. Others log onto Missed Connections, fairly certain they’ll find a post there about them somewhere – and some people, such as Dan Zubrzycki, have.
“I was walking around Center City, looking for a job, and she was standing outside of Lush, promoting some products,” said Zubrzycki, a junior psychology major, “and asked me if I wanted to play with bubbles. It had been a bad day, and I wanted someone to talk to.”
The girl he’s referring to is 20-year-old Maxine Kramer, an employee of a Walnut Street cosmetics shop, who was daring enough to post an ad on Missed Connections that very night.
“They make us go outside and promote soap when traffic in the store is slow,” Kramer said. “It was my turn, and I don’t like doing it because it’s boring, so I was just asking everyone if they wanted to play with bubbles.”
Her question, Zubrzycki said, was one he didn’t even think about turning down. He immediately approached her, and the two “bantered back and forth” while playing with bubbles for more than a half hour.
“But, due to the nature of that work, there tends to be creepers,” Zubrzycki said, “so her bosses got alarmed and switched her to work inside.”
Both Kramer and Zubrzycki laugh at this now.
“My coworkers thought they had ‘saved me,’” Kramer said. “But I didn’t even get his name.”
It was then that both parties used Craigslist to their rescue. Both went home, hoping to see an ad from the other in order to get in contact again.
In the end, it was Kramer who stepped to the plate.
“I checked first to see if he put one up, and he hadn’t, so I just did it,” Kramer said. “I didn’t have many doubts about doing it.”
But Zubrzycki, on the other hand, had his own preoccupations about posting a Missed Connections ad, which is why he hadn’t gotten to it before Kramer.
“I never did it before,” he said. “Part of me wondered about it. I feel most of them are weird, where the people didn’t talk or actually interact at all. What’s that really gonna do for anybody?”
Zubrzycki had even more doubts about how to respond when he saw Kramer’s ad. He was concerned about approaching her in the wrong manner.
“I sent an e-mail back,” he said. “I was going to go down to the store. I was debating it. But when you post, you want that wall there [to help the other person decide] whether or not you are the right person.”
Kramer and Zubrzkycki now both refer to one another as “Craigslist” when talking to their friends. Somewhat ironically, the female in the situation was more willing to post to Missed Connections, but enthusiasm and daringness seem to vary from person to person on the site.
“I don’t think [successful Missed Connections posts] happen nearly as much as people put them up,” Kramer said, “but I’ve definitely heard of a handful before.”
Carlene Majorino can be reached at c.majorino@temple.edu.
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