Strange little flyers started popping up around Washington Square Park — the kind that look like they were made on a 1998 computer using the first font available. No logos, no design, no social media handles. Just one disarmingly simple line at the top:
“smoke a cigarette with me”
And beneath it, a grainy photo of an older man calmly exhaling smoke, looking half-mysterious and half-legendary, as if he’d stepped out of a forgotten New York novel.
People were confused at first. Was it a joke? A social experiment? A lonely man looking for company? No one knew — but everyone was talking about it.
Soon, curious park visitors began searching for the man in the photo. When they finally found him, he turned out to be exactly what the flyers suggested: a quiet, friendly grandfather who simply wanted to meet new people, share a smoke, and hear their stories. No agenda. No ulterior motive. Just human connection in its simplest form — something New York is famous for, yet people rarely slow down to notice.
The internet loved him instantly. Photos of the flyer spread, memes were made, and thousands of comments poured in from people wishing they could sit on a bench with him for a chat, even if they didn’t smoke.
In a city full of noise, this soft, strange, wholesome invitation felt like a reminder that not all connections need to be digital — sometimes they start with a cheap flyer, a quiet smile, and a man who just wants someone to sit with him for a moment.
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