It’s amazing the people you can learn about, if you just ask the right questions

For the folks who know my wife of 36 years, this next statement won’t come as much of a surprise.

For those who don’t know her — well, welcome to my world. Let me explain. I don’t know whether it’s her gift of gab (verified by actually kissing the Blarney Stone), or the way she smiles and nods as she attentively listens while people talk with her, but for some reason, Peggy has this unique ability to get people to talk — and boy, do they talk.

That ability was on full display last month during our family vacation. Peggy, a geography school graduate and trained cartographer, noticed a map store shortly after parking in the Crossroads Arts District near downtown Kansas City, Mo.

We were on a mission to kill a little time before we could chec k into our vacation rental, so I was fine when she wanted to pop into the store for a minute to look around. That minute stretched into an hour-and-a-half as she examined every artifact in the place. She didn’t just peruse the collection of maps, which varied in size and age from an 1870s map of the old Dakota Territory to a Bah Relief art piece featuring downtown Kansas City.

She did all this while talking with the owner and a customer about everything — I mean everything — from maps, to history, miniature toys, food, jazz, architecture and baseball.

Yes, the place — Gallup Map and Art Company — was fascinating in itself; after all it’s had a national reputation of making quality maps since 1875, but these two characters made it truly a special stop. They’d get started on famous Kansas City landmarks, then quickly weave their way into a new conversation about art museums, baseball, restaurants and ice cream. Oh, and I can’t forget the play-by-play — recited in unison — of the final seconds of the Chiefs’ win in the Super Bowl. The awesome photo of the Super Bowl celebration in front of Union Station was a special find.

The information was so prolific, I started to take notes on my phone. At one point, the owner of the store, Pat, asked what I was doing. When I told him, he asked me to text my notes to him.

The man was born and raised in Kansas City and hadn’t heard of half of the places his well-traveled customer was talking about. By the way, we took the recommendations of our new friends, and had a drink at the old, restored Savoy Hotel Bar and art gallery and ate supper at The Majestic Restaurant, a great place for a Kansas City Strip and jazz horns.

This was indeed quite the entertaining conversation, but it’s nothing compared to the one Peggy started last summer while we were on vacation in Ireland.

We took a three-hour train ride from Dublin to Althone. Despite the long journey, the trip flew by as Peggy talked with a gentleman next to her about the language, pronunciation of parts of said language and the history and culture of just about everything Ireland.

We not only got quite an education on the history and landscape of Ireland, but got some detailed instructions on the sights of Galway, in particular the Catholic (Ka-to-lic) Cathedral (Ka-tee-dral); the best restaurant, and the parts of town to hear authentic Irish music.

This all goes to show you that as our new-found Kansas City friend, Pat, discovered, it really doesn’t matter if you know someone or not, a smile and a nod can bring about the best conversations, with the nicest people and a great start to a family vacation.