small world, anyone?

[Ken Gargett]

wondering if any of us have small world stories? i'm sure everyone does. i have a cracker from the middle of africa which i'll get to, but meanwhile, forgive me for sharing this little personal moment which just happened, but I still have goosebumps.

The smallest of small worlds.

 

In Mornington Peninsula for the Pinot Noir Celebration. Fabulous event. Get into a lift post lunch to duck up to the room for a few minutes. A couple, bit older than me, get in as well. We start yacking, small talk. Usual thing. Are you enjoying it etc?

They ask where I am from?

Queensland.

I ask them as they have north American accents.

They tell me Virginia.

I say I used to live in Virginia. We are all blown away, of course. Imagine the chances of that.

They say they live in Arlington.

I say I used to live in Arlington.

In a lift in a hotel at the tip of the Mornington Peninsula. What are the odds? We all can’t believe it.

So I say, yes, I really enjoyed living in Vacation Lane, Arlington.

Stunned silence.

They stare at me. Yes, ‘we live in Vacation Lane’.

And no, it was not the same house, but about three houses along the road.

I did get goosebumps.

 

[El Presidente]

Vacation lane property prices must have skyrocketed upon your departure. 

 

[Ken Gargett]

trust me, the guys i lived with? they skyrocketed the day i arrived. this was not an establishment of which the local authorities were aware and if they had been, they may not have been in approval. five guys jammed in. great fun. and nothing i can put in print. 

[ayepatz]

Years ago, walking through the highlands of Scotland with my grandad, we spot the only other person for miles around. As he gets closer, he said hello, then frowned and said to my grandad, “Is that you, John?”

They had worked together as apprentices in John Brown’s shipyard nearly 60 years before and hadn’t seen each other since!

[smokum]

Ex wife never met her biological father. It was a hit and run. Her mom is Mexican and her dad who she never met was Sicilian. I found the man since my ex wanted to at least meet him.  I got in touch and I told him my name and said I would check with my wife and see if she wanted to got thru with it. 2 days later a gal who I was renting my childhood home to, which was on the next block called me to say there was an old man looking for me. She sent him to my house. It was my wifes biological father. Turns out once I told him my name he remembered my dad and was also in the Terrazzo union which my dad was president of. He looked in some old defucnt union papers and found my dads address. Small world ? Yep. That awkward feeling when a guy shows up at your house early in the morning and says to my wife, Hi I’m your dad...priceless ! 

[Auspaul]

 I was staying at  a Stamford Hotel  In Sydney by myself one night at dinner started talking to this bloke at my table  who was a conservationist protester type Greenie, Turns out he had been at Cardwell protesting the Port Hinchinbrook development was one of the guys that trampled through the mangrove seedlings that had been planted over  a few weeks to replace mangroves that had been cut down. He was saying how angry he was at this guy they stopped in a Landrover they said to the guy help us stop them they are cutting down the mangrove  seedlings to make a resort and the guy in the Landrover says mate there are 2 types of trees dead and  potentially dead told them to get out of the fffing way r. When I went back to Townsville sat next to this guy who was coming back form Antarctica had been drilling ice core samples ex Army he was telling me how he had been hunting driving back through Cardwell and these fffing greenies had stopped him driving down  the street and wanted him to protest with them.  Had a really good laugh about that

[Markspring1978]

A couple weeks ago I was flying to Grand Cayman for a “work conference”. A guy gets on the plane who I vaguely recognize and sits down next to me. After a few minutes, he says, “are you that guy from Montana who’s in the restoration business?” Turns out I had met him last year in Singapore at a different, totally unrelated event. 

It’s a small world, for sure. But the odds of meeting the same guy by “chance” in two different hemispheres within 12 months must be infinitesimal. 

[Derboesekoenig]

I'm never surprised anymore. Especially not with stories like this. But for me, I find people I actually know, in some random country. Always happens to me, and it is always the person you either least suspect or the last person you WANT to see 

Has happened to me in France, Kuwait, Afghanistan. Also in airports around the world. Some people I haven't seen in many years too. The world is small.

[prodigy]

I found out that my old landlord went to the same high school as my dad at roughly the same time. They didn't know each other but they knew all the same people.

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[gcman68]

Almost 20 years ago I am in Italy in a small town with some friends and was told my absent friend was at a certain house so I knocked on the door and in my bad Italian asked if the gentleman that answered if he knew where my friend was.  While my parents are from Italy my Italian went from fluency in my youth to nothing more than basic so when the extent of what I could say in Italian was done I asked the gentleman if he understood  English and he did. It turns out the gentleman was originally a local visiting family but knew of my friend but didn't know where he was at the time. The interesting part is he would up living two blocks from me in New York and I never saw him before that or since.  

[ElJavi76]

@fastkiller13 Ted and I got to smoking together and became fast friends. I have a very close friend named Steve who I've mentioned frequently in conversations with Ted. We're smoking one afternoon and Steve is texting me about this or that and mentions Frank. Steve went to college with Frank. I tell Ted, Steve's friend Frank loves D4s. Like it's his fav cigar. Ted goes, what's Frank's last name? I ask Steve and he replies...

Ted says Frank is my friend too, as in he married my wife and me. We've been friends for years. I'm like no effin way. Small world for sure!

[Booyaa]

Two times come to mind.

First was walking down the road in Lanzarote in the mid 90's and walked past an Irish lad I had met in Menorca the year before and had gone out boozing with. Carried on that holiday and ended up smashed every night on the free tequilas they would offer up. As a 15 year old meeting someone from a different country in a sidfferent country two years in a row was amazing, particularly when they liked a drink as much as I did at that age.

The other was a few years after that, was at a Jeru the Damaja gig in a dive club in Edinburgh when a group of girls pushed in front of at near the front. The one at the back was stunning, lovely short black hair and a tiny vest top on that she filled very well. As a great opening I though putting my ice cold bottle of beer onto her bare back would work wonders. She screamed, told me to fiuck off and turned back around. After that she kept turning round staring at me. About 20 minutes later she turned round and asked if I was David Hay. I was tunned, turns out we used to know each other when we were 6 years old. I moved away around the time and hadn't been back since and not seen her for about 18 or 19 years. No idea how she recognised me. She used to have really long curly brown hair and was a skinny wee runt.

[Edward7]

I live in LA and I was in Paris alone during fashion week (coincidentally, not on purpose, and while crossing an intersection on foot I ran into my next door neighbor who actually works in fashion and was there for that. 

Last July my fiancé and I missed our flight and stayed an extra day in Amsterdam and saw some guys I know in LA while walking through a flower market. This kinda stuff happens often enough but in the end, bumping into people you know abroad is merely one extra layer of coincidence. Never ran into anyone from way back in a more remote and less major tourist destination. People in your circle tend to frequent the same type of cities and places it seems. 

[Phillys]

Was in Sarasota, Florida a few years back. I stop at a gas station off the freeway between Sarasota and Tampa. As I am pumping gas, I hear someone swear in French with a distinct Quebec accent. Mind you there are a lot of Quebecois in Florida, I start laughing and say hi. We chat a bit, I ask him where he is from, same city as me, then whereabouts, turns out he lives on the next street over and his wife works in the same building as me. 

[Str8BlkCoffee]

I was attending university and having a chat with some friends. I overheard a Fellow speaking to a group of students nearby and he mentioned he and his family were from a very small town and said the name. It took me by surprise so I interrupted and asked him to repeat the town's name. When he did I explained that my father was from that same town. We had a good laugh and the Fellow asked my father's name. He later phoned his mother who stated she grew up with and attended school with my father knowing him well. Shortly later I found out my roommate was the Fellow's older brother who I had been introduced to by my best friend who worked together in construction. The brother needed a roommate and I was looking for a place to live. Not too much later I found out that a classmate of mine was from the same town. While our parent's didn't know each other we knew intimate details of the area that an everyday passerby would miss.

Crazy stuff.

[kwsaw63]

Back in 1978, I was attending boarding school in the UK. The English couple I stayed with during the holidays adopted a baby girl who had the same birthday as me (albeit 15 years apart). Fast forward to 2002 and my youngest son and her youngest son are born on the same day! 

[wineguy]

A few years ago I was playing Royal County Down in Northern Ireland and ran in to three guys from my golf club in Pittsburgh and on the same day a guy I used to play golf against in high school. Two different random meeting on the same day at the same club.

[TBird55]

Many years ago, was in Cozumel Mexico, met a couple from New York. Had a great time with them. Two years later, while vacationing in Barbados, ran into the same couple staying at our hotel.

[BuzzArd]

Moved to our current neighborhood 12 years ago.  While getting to know the neighbors we met the couple across the street.

He:  “So, how did you end up in Arizona”?  

Me:  Well, we were moved here by the job from Houston.  

He:  “Houston?   Where in Houston” 

Me:  Well, south.  In Pearland.  

He:  “What?   We used to live in Pearland!”  

Me:  Wow.  Whatta coincidence.  Where were you before that?  

He:  “Bradenton FL”.  

Me:  You’re kiddding!   That’s where my wife and I grew up!  

He:  “You were both born there?”  

Me:  No, my wife was.   I was born in Connecticut.  

He:  “Seriously?   That’s where we grew up!    Where in Connecticut?”

Dare I say it...?  

Yep.  They were from the same town my parents were from.   We moved all the way across the country, to the same towns for about the same amount of time.