My Sherlock Holmes Moment

I had occassion to be in a post office last night, around 9 pm (yes, there are still a few "major" post offices that keep late hours), and while I was waiting for the very nice clerk to return with an answer to my postal question, at the next station, noticed a woman purchasing an Express Mail envelope, and asking if something would fit, and confirming that if she mailed it tonight, it would get to Geneso by tomorrow. 

Ever curious me, I just had to look.

The customer took a box of Theraflu and a package of Hall's cough drops out of a Target bag, and as she was putting it in the Tyvek envelope, I just had to say:

"Your daughter's a freshman at the college, and she's gotten her first bad cold."

The woman laughed, and asked me how I could know that. 

After apologising for being so nosy, I told her "I knew that it had to be for your child, because you were so concerned about the package getting to Geneseo tomorrow.  I also know that there's pretty much nothing up there near the campus, so it had to be Mom to the rescue."  But she was really wondering how I knew her it was daughter, in college and how I knew she was a freshman.  I told her that was the easy part - there aren't too many reasons why a downstater would be in Geneseo, NY long enough to need an emergency care package unless s/he was going to SUNY-Geneseo, no self-respecting teenage boy would admit to being sick enough for a care package with just medicine, and given the climate and rough winters, a downstater returning to Geneseo would already have the cold care supplies - and it's too early in the season to have run out.

The funny thing is, I didn't deliberately even think about any of these things when I blurted out my original comment - it was only when I had to explain my deductive reasoning that all of the pieces fell into place.  I guess I could have really creeped her out and simply told her I hoped her daughter felt better soon, and that she should try not to skip too many classes.