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My mother and I went to a mower shop to get a new [professional] brush cutter, considering Daniel is a farmhand and all; preplanned and everything, so I knew exactly which one to get. One salesman spoke to my mother and me in the usual helpful way, asking what I plan to use it for and such, and I did my best to describe the brush and how I'll also need a blade for it, as the cord isn't enough. He showed me the workings of it in regards to the fitting of the two heads (cords and blades), explaining in a nice and point by point way with minimal fuss or emotion in his voice, just pure business. As that was done, I walked away with it as my mother paid, and he told her, 'I have a son like that.' 'What do you mean?' She replied. 'Autistic, but he's younger.' 'Yeah.' (I don't know how the rest of the conversation went for the most part, but it was a positive one.)

Obviously, the lack of eye contact, monotonous voice and funny postures/mannerisms pointed to it; it's interesting how a parent of such could notice it, but he also knew how to "handle" me in a way that makes interacting easier than usual, well, actually possible. He knew how to interact with me perfectly.

I suppose to know such is to understand such [in many cases].

I have a customer who comes in to work about every two weeks or so who's autistic. His mom won't let him go to any other store now cause I'm the only one who can understand and relate to him well enough to shoot down his outlandish ideas without freaking him out, and also give him tips for the ones that just might be possible.

She had me pegged within 5 minutes. Freaky.

but that's not being 'outed' that's being spotted. Now if they ran down the block pointing to you and screaming 'Autistic' that would be outing.

I swear I can sit in the engineering building at my college and spot the autistics... one in a hundred, at least... and more among the professors!

daniel - kinda exciting and weird at the same time. "autistic, but younger." did you feel a lot better understood because of it?

it is incredible how being on wrongplanet has made me sensitive to autistic features. (being obsessed with autism could contribute too.) every time i see any human being i am quietly, mentally, going through that autism spectrum checklist!

"is that stimming?"

hehe.
haven't been to engineering for a while, maybe it would be worth checking out! my faculty and the departments around me are, unfortunately, probably low in autistics. (psychology/counselling/speech language/audiology).

He sounds like a nice guy, and probably a good father to his son.

As for what some others have mentioned here, I don't usually see people and think, "They must be autistic." There is one acquaintance who I have some suspicions about. I also have a friend (not someone I see regularly in real life though) who I know has AS, and I had suspicions about him before he told me. (And he knows I have it, but we've never really discussed it. He doesn't know the whole story behind mine.) That's it.

With all the engineers and scientists at my university it would seem logical there are a lot of us around but I never notice anyone. Then again I tend not to notice the people around me if they're strangers.

I actually felt...positive in some way (I can't really define it); I mean, there was someone who actually knew how to interact with me and who immediately recognized my "problem". I'm betting that my mother would be the same way for other individuals with ASDs. He wasn't confronting, he didn't stand face on to me [as I don't stand face on to people], and he just explained how this and that worked, without talking about anything else or trying to be and do social things like probe and make jokes, which are things I can't respond to. I feel dead around people, but I feel alive around my mother; this was the closest I've felt to being "alive" around someone else before, other than little children (I' m good with young children).

'This goes here, turn this, etcetera,' and I can answer, 'Yep.' Too easy.

Going from my mother, he has a teenage son with autism, and who is outwardly the same as me. They were talking about the problems we all have (how much harder it is for us to do things that normal people take for granted), but also how we can teach people many things that they'd never know if we weren't here; which lead on to coexistence and understanding, rather than hiding us away from society like they did in the past, because we are so "different"*.

*Higher-functioning individuals can probably blend in a bit better, but it's easy for the highest functioning individuals to start showing their behaviour outwardly if the environment is right.

Anyway, it's far better than being stared at because I do weird things or felt sorry for due to the same.

If he didn't let everyone else hear that you were autistic, etc... that is GREAT! He figured your situation, and treated you like you knew what you are doing. I guess you DO have a good relationship with your mother. I know a lot of machines like that can cost a lot!

sinsboldly is right. Outing is usually a NEGATIVE term indicating that one spreads a fact that is EMBARRASING about another.