Your biggest small world experience

When I was a kid my family went to Nantucket one summer. I needed a pair of Bermuda shorts so we went into a shop, the owner asked wher we were from, my father told him Chevy Chase, Maryland, he said no kidding, I was born in Chevy Chase at 8 West Lenox St., which at the time was our house. My father thought it was a trick but the guy described it to a T.
Let's hear yours!

I was sitting in a bar at a casino in Biloxi, MS (the only bar in the area showing hockey playoffs) a few years ago and got talking to the guy next to me who was also there for the game.  Turns out he not only was from the same small town in Michigan I am, my grandmother taught him science in high school (she retired when I was two).

When I was in Ireland in 2002 I ran into a guy that lived two rooms down from me in my dorm.  We had no idea we were both going there for spring break.

we were window shopping in key west and the counter girl asked where we were from. we told her a really small town in texas called the colony. not only was she from town, her parents lived a block away. she had gone to school with our son.

Two stories-my best friends sister was marrying a young man, and I was sitting with his father at the dinner table.He said to me-Gosh , you remind me of a man I knew years ago-turns out the "man" was my Dad. 2nd story-at Moms funeral( Dad had been gone for 6 years)apparently I laughed at some point, and a total stranger came up to me and said"You laugh just like your Father" Turned out to be one of my Dads students-he was an Ed Psych Prof years ago....-third story-my uncle Bill( my favorite) was at the ballet in Russia, and happened to be sitting next to a couple from the United States-turns out they knew my Dad( his brother).Go figure!

My mother was taking a walk while visiting me in Seattle and encountered a stranger walking her dog ... they struck up a conversation and realized their respective best friends were sisters, sisters who lived in New Jersey.

My father met this girl who later, it turns out, becomes my mother!!! What are the chanches of that????

#1

While I was managing for a sitdown fast food italian chain, I was working front of the house.  When a booming laugh came from across the room.  I turned and there was a gentleman who taught me about running a food service in college.  He was on vacation and just happened to be in the place.

#2

I was in the Indiana Jaycees, we had a past state president from Fort Wayne (where my grandparents lived).  He was a funeral director.  20 years ago my grandparents move to florida.  15 yrs ago my grandfather passed away and my grandmother called a funeral home in FL to handle the arrangements.  When he asked the departed name, he paaused and then asked my dad and grandmother if they knew me.  Turns out he had moved to Fl too.

#3

Sitting in a Sydney Harbour Dinner Cruise.  I was talking to my friends that went on the trip with us.  I thought I recognized a couple sitting acroos the room from us, but thought it couldnt be.

After the floor show, the lights went up and the emce made an announcement that "Congratulations to Andrew and Maria, they just got engaged"  I sat there thinking to myself no it couldnt be.  Sure enough the couple came across the floor and as they got into better view. I could see that it was indeed a couple from m college  days.  we used to play pool and table tennis together.

That turned out to be a LONG night of drinking in and around Sydney.

1) I was on an internet forum, looking for information about Oscars (the fish). Someone I was posting to asked me where I was from; "Mountain Top, PA." Really? Where in Mountain Top? "Off Kirby Ave." Which street? "Spruce St." What Number? It turned out he lives 3 houses away from me.

2) During WW2 my father in law did anti-submarine patrol duty in the south Atlantic; he was stationed in Brazil. One day he took a bus to Belem, a small jungle town; he walked into a bar in Belem and sitting there was a guy he knew from Ashley, PA, the only other guy in the place other than the bartender.

When I was at Michigan State as a freshman, I found in talking to one of the guys in my dorm that we  had been both been punched by Father Keifer in different years - him at Salesian High in Detroit, me at Bishop Duffy High in Niagara Falls. Both schools were run by the Salesians, and the priests moved around between schools.

Well, there was the day I went to interview Roy Cohn aboard his yacht tied up in Charlotte Amalie Harbor, and when I got to the after cockpit I saw this guy who really looked a lot like Cary Grant. I said to him, you know, you look just like Cary Grant.

"I hope so," said Cary Grant.

When Ellen4651 was in LA we met for lunch.

Ellen lives in Atlantic City and I live in Los Angeles.  We'd never met before Roadfood.

Ellen4651 knows Maryann Guerxmxx and Stan SluXXkXX and I was friends with one and worked with them both.

#1 had 2 men come to the door spreading the Gospel. After talking to them a couple minutes I asked 1 if his last name was Exxxx. He looked suprised and said yes. Turned out he was a 2nd cousin i'd never met. The E family has disticint ears (large).

#2. Ran into an E cousin at the Statue of Liberty. I hadn't seen him in several years. He lived in Texas and I in Calif.

Both of my father's brothers enlisted in the military during WW2 after Pearl Harbor. The older brother in the Army, Jan of '42 and his younger brother in the Navy in the summer of 1943. Unknown to each other they were both wounded in battles in early 1945, hundreds of miles apart but a few weeks later they found themselves in the same ward of a hospital in the Phillipines, the first time they had seen each since the elder brother enlisted

Both were released on the same day and were on the same flight back to the mainland as neither could continue in active duty as the war was nearing its end. They eventually went into the plumbing business as partners and remained close until  their deaths in the 1980s

I was born in Kingston, NY.  Moved to Poughkeepsie after that (I have no memories of Kingston) and then to Colorado in 1967 with the big IBM move when I was in first grade.

When I got into sixth grade I met a little boy who also happened to be born in Kingston, on the same day and year, in the same hospital.

Small world.

My wife does genealogy research.  In 2007 she found my father as a 5 year old and his dad  in the 1920 census.  In those days these pages were hand written by a census 'enumerator'.  She recognized the hand writing.  Checking the form for the enumerator's signature, she discovered my maternal grandmother was the enumerator.