brand recognition

This morning we ran some errands. It was the perfect day for it, since Jonah was very mellow and able to sit still in his stroller for quite a while. One of our stops was at the bank. Jonah sat quietly for a long time while I dealt with the teller. The bank began to fill up with people, forming a long silent line behind us, seemingly not noticing there was a child in the room. After some time, a man wearing a bike helmet walked in. Suddenly Jonah exploded with excitement, shouting "Helmet!" at the top of his lungs. Everyone burst out laughing. It was excellent comic timing. Such a random, yet meaningful utterance from such a tiny somebody.

One of our other stops was the post office. I have only taken Jonah there maybe three times in his life and not in a while. He has been obsessed with things that go lately. These include dump trucks, diggers, bulldozers, big rigs, fork lifts, cranes, mail trucks and the like. He is so good at identifying them around the city that he beats me in the race all the time. What shocked me the most today was when at the post office, no mail trucks in sight, he noticed the post office logo, the blue and white eagle, on the envelopes they were selling. He pointed and unequivocally stated: "mail truck." I couldn't believe it. That's logo, even brand recognition if I've ever seen it. That's how they get them so young.

I remembered a long-lost friend whose two-year-old would see a Starbucks logo somewhere random while riding around in a car and say: "daddy's work" because his dad worked at Starbucks. Incredible!