I'm sure most if not all of us have one or more "small world" tales to tell... you know, where you bump into someone you know in a place quite unexpected, or find in talking with someone you just met that the person grew up two blocks from you in a distant state and dated your best friend's sibling or some such. Sometimes, the degrees of separation are fewer than six!
It was not at all surprising to me that when I started at my current place of employ, 15 years ago, I ran into someone with whom I went to high school, since we had both grown up in this area. It was surprising to me when I ran into someone I'd known in high school walking down a street in Dresden in what was then East Germany more than a dozen years after we'd left school!
And not really my tale, but one I was witness to, was the time I was in NY City with a friend who'd emigrated to the US from Lebanon a few years before; we met another mutual friend in NYC, visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art, had lunch, and were walking down Fifth Avenue, the three of us yakking away, when suddenly my Lebanese friend was a dozen paces behind talking excitedly in Arabic with someone. The someone was his roommate from college (in Lebanon) who had been in NY City for a visit and was returning home to Lebanon the next day. I have on occasion run into someone I know in NYC when I was visiting, but the other person lived there, so that is not nearly so surprising!
Do you have a small world tale to tell? If so, please share!
Tales of a Small World
Tales of a Small World
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Re: Tales of a Small World
My wife and I were looking into real estate back in 1993. walked into the local realtors office and the office manager was someine she went to school with. She graduated in 1968 and never had contact since. The city where the High School was lies 25 miles from the city where we were looking. Unfortunately, we didn't find any sutable house in the area so we looked a little farther north. We found a house in a neighboring city and bought it. On the day we moved in, we discovered that there were three other people living on that street that also went to the same High School as my wife.
Re: Tales of a Small World
While vacationing in Colorado, we stopped in the town of Evergreen for dinner. The place we chose was a restaurant and club. A band had just finished setting up and were playing a little and checking sound levels. The rhythm guitar player and lead singer was someone I knew from the church I attended as a youth.
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wonderboy
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Re: Tales of a Small World
I went on holiday to benidorm spain and stayed in the hotel rialto. I was with my girlfriend and happened to bump into two exes, both with their significant others living in the same hotel. That was a frosty holiday even though it was all in the past. Women can be mean sometimes.
"I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark" Muhammad Ali, faster than the speed of light?
Re: Tales of a Small World
These are great; thanks! And wonderboy, I hope you will forgive me for laughing at yours! (You poor thing! Still funny, though!)
I can add another... when I was 17, I was having breakfast in a cafeteria in the basement of a building in Paris. Apparently lots of youth groups use this place for their charges. I ran into someone I'd been in a dinner-theater show with some years before. Though we both lived in the same area, I never ran into her on our home turf, but in Paris? Yeah. Haven't seen her since!
I can add another... when I was 17, I was having breakfast in a cafeteria in the basement of a building in Paris. Apparently lots of youth groups use this place for their charges. I ran into someone I'd been in a dinner-theater show with some years before. Though we both lived in the same area, I never ran into her on our home turf, but in Paris? Yeah. Haven't seen her since!
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Re: Tales of a Small World
Has anyone run into someone from real life online? Unexpectedly, I mean. I know people from long-ago forums who have migrated over the years to new forums and some of these people I know (now) in real life.
Some years ago, however, when the NY Times had decent forums, I participated in several of them, including their Books forums. I made mention once about someplace I'd been, and that prompted another poster to ask me a few questions online; eventually, we went to corresponding about this through email.. It turns out he and I went to high school together, graduated the same year, knew people in common, but didn't know one another, at all, not by face (we both dragged out yearbooks) nor by name. It was a big school and our class was a large one, and even with friends in common, our paths had never crossed at school. So I suppose this is a small world, big school tale.
Some years ago, however, when the NY Times had decent forums, I participated in several of them, including their Books forums. I made mention once about someplace I'd been, and that prompted another poster to ask me a few questions online; eventually, we went to corresponding about this through email.. It turns out he and I went to high school together, graduated the same year, knew people in common, but didn't know one another, at all, not by face (we both dragged out yearbooks) nor by name. It was a big school and our class was a large one, and even with friends in common, our paths had never crossed at school. So I suppose this is a small world, big school tale.
A closed mouth gathers no foot.
Re: Tales of a Small World
My "small world tale" is about someone that i do not know.
When i was in Vietnam In the 1968-9 era, a fellow soldier and i were returning to base from some downtown beer guzzleing in Saigon. We were in one of those little blue and yellow cabs that were all over the place back then. I happened to be in the back on the passenger side. We turned right around a corner and there was what looked like a normal person in normal looking pants and jeans and of course a vietnamese. He was holding what looked to be a nickle-plated revolver. I thought that was a little strange and told the guy on the other side--"Hey! that guys got a hand-gun! He took a quick look(we were going slow)and said "Oh, thats an exocution".
A few months after i got back from "nam", i happened across an issue of (i think) Life magazine and there on the front cover was the guy i saw and almost from the exact angle that i saw him at. Apparently we just missed the event.
As far as i know -- that was the only time that i ever just missed an exocution.
Even though this post does not deal with Space up there ^, it does deal with a lot of space in time down here and covers half the world besides.
Space - - - - - - - - its a many splendid thing. without it, we would all be just one big "lump" EH??
When i was in Vietnam In the 1968-9 era, a fellow soldier and i were returning to base from some downtown beer guzzleing in Saigon. We were in one of those little blue and yellow cabs that were all over the place back then. I happened to be in the back on the passenger side. We turned right around a corner and there was what looked like a normal person in normal looking pants and jeans and of course a vietnamese. He was holding what looked to be a nickle-plated revolver. I thought that was a little strange and told the guy on the other side--"Hey! that guys got a hand-gun! He took a quick look(we were going slow)and said "Oh, thats an exocution".
A few months after i got back from "nam", i happened across an issue of (i think) Life magazine and there on the front cover was the guy i saw and almost from the exact angle that i saw him at. Apparently we just missed the event.
As far as i know -- that was the only time that i ever just missed an exocution.
Even though this post does not deal with Space up there ^, it does deal with a lot of space in time down here and covers half the world besides.
Space - - - - - - - - its a many splendid thing. without it, we would all be just one big "lump" EH??
To find the Truth, you must go Beyond.
Re: Tales of a Small World
beyond, that is a scary story!!
I have one to add: Some months ago, an email chain at work with several back-and-forth messages was forwarded to me. The name of the originator looked familiar to me; I called her to deal with the business issue, and then done with that, told her I had what might be an odd question: Had she gone to boarding school? She, sounding mystified, said yes, she had. I told her, "We went to school together; I was at [name of school] with you." She had transferred after Christmas to another school, so we attended school together for only three months. And then: there she is, working at the same place I work! (Which reminds me... I need to take a yearbook to work with me next week, heh heh heh!!)
I have one to add: Some months ago, an email chain at work with several back-and-forth messages was forwarded to me. The name of the originator looked familiar to me; I called her to deal with the business issue, and then done with that, told her I had what might be an odd question: Had she gone to boarding school? She, sounding mystified, said yes, she had. I told her, "We went to school together; I was at [name of school] with you." She had transferred after Christmas to another school, so we attended school together for only three months. And then: there she is, working at the same place I work! (Which reminds me... I need to take a yearbook to work with me next week, heh heh heh!!)
A closed mouth gathers no foot.