Running into people you least expect

[S.V. Airlie]

Heathrow on the way back to work ran into my 10th grade history teacher from MA
A guy who gave me the ferry schedule in Sweden when I was heading back to the UK. Ran into him in Spain one year later biking.
Helping an elderly woman for a few weeks who had broken her hip in Lugano Switzerland Two years later,I stayed at a B&B in MA., The owner was out to dinner (note on the door) when the phone rang. I answered. Same elderly woman from Lugano on the phone. The owner of the B&B was her son.
Going to the old sister school of the school where I used to teach at in the UK. Expected to see the headmaster there who I had taught with in the UK. He had left the UK when I had and taken the headmaster position in Lugano. He wasn't there. New headmaster. Met his wife. She used to be my babysitter in the 50's and I grew up with her brother.
She was from Cooperstown.

It's a small world out there!

[Glen Longino]

Everybody north of the Red River is actually related!

[Gerarddm]

The classic (knock,knock)' hello, I think you are my father'...


LOL

[Mrleft8]

Drinking beer in a waterfront bar in Guilford harbor, I heard rumors of a man using bacon for fishing bait... Sure enough this chubby, bearded, jolly old coot comes waddling in through the door.... And lo-and behold! It's my friend Jaime from the WBF!

[Ian McColgin]

There are only two thousand people in the world. The rest is done with mirrors.

[S.V. Airlie]

And I didn't catch any either.
Doug, the chances of running into another person in the same state are, I suspect, better than the chances of one from the US running into someone or is connected to someone in Europe.
What are the chances of staying at a B&B in MA.that I had picked out of some travel guide, only to find that the owner's mother was the elderly woman I had taken care of in Lugano for a few weeks.? What are the chances of running into a babysitter I had had in the 50's in Switzerland and we were from a town of ummm 1500 people in upstate NY?

[S.V. Airlie]

Everybody north of the Red River is actually related!

I don't know much about the population around the Red River and how many relatives you have. I'm not surprised by your post. I have run into relatives I've never even met in NE.as well. Ex: my high school classmate is married to, I guess 3rd cousin or something like that. Only met her once at their wedding. It gets confusing though.I don't even try to keep track especially as the family has been here a heck of a long time. One goes and counts marriages in the mix..LOL. Taught with a guy in Danbury, Ct. It was 5 months before we realized we were second or third cousins. He figured it out.

[David W Pratt]

Down at The Island School on Eluthera for parents weekend, went for a drive to the take away for conch sandwiches.
Started talking to a guy there, Captain Bob.
He asked why we were there, we said Island School.
Oh, a very nice place, I helped build it.
Where are you from?
Westchester County, a little North of New York City.
Oh, I've sailed in LIS, out of Sewanhaka
Oh, We were members there when I was a kid.
Yes, I sailed with a man named Franz Schneider.
Well, I didn't know him, but I knew his son.
I raised Franzie!

So this guy and I must have seen each other 45 years earlier.
Franz senior used to winter on Eluthera and signed this (then) kid as a BN and brought him North.
< six degrees of separation

[hokiefan]

Some years ago working in Savannah I had a meeting with our rosin drum salesman from Slidell, La. Went over our business then were chatting over lunch. We compared notes over lunch about where we went to school, me Va Tech, him Hampton Sidney. We couldn't come up with any common acquaintances through Va Tech and I thought we were going to strike out at Hampton Sidney, even though our college years overlapped. Then it turns out his roommate had moved to my little town of Franklin, Va. Turns out his roommate was then my parents stockbroker, who I have come to know pretty well in the subsequent years. A small world indeed.

Cheers,

Bobby

[bobbys]

Drove with the helpers{they could not be trusted with the truck} to the dump in the Aleutians, The end of the road, So maybe the last road in America.

A guy dumping stuff there said Hi Bob.

He lived on the next street in jersey..

Dad said he jumped in a foxhole under fire on Saipan and landed on his Marine friend from school.

[Paul Girouard]

Join NAVAIR you'll meet people you know world wide , some times even if you'd rather not.

[S.V. Airlie]

Probably. but I've found those when I wasn't expecting to. No reason to join just to meet people. That maybe fun, but expected. I'm sure I will find people on facebook too.

[skuthorp]

In a mountain hut in Norway I arrived late and the only other occupant was the drummer from my band in Melbourne, Australia some 7 years before, neither of us had even skied at that time.
Better was a brother, negotiating an engineering contract with a rep from Wes Aussie. Over dinner a few things fell into place and it turned out he was our half brother from a marriage we or mum didn't even know about. And then there was Stewart, another half brother from a wartime affair my dad had in Scotland. Met him working in an Aussie ski resort. And yes, dad was a bit like that, we suspect there were more.

[chas]

The first time Dad was shot down over France in 1944 he evaded and after six days with the help of the underground he managed to make it back across the line. The first ‘friendlies’ he came across were a couple of army guys in a jeep and as he knew he would keep his squadron command if he made it back to his ‘field’ before the end of seven days, he persuaded the driver with the promise of free drink to get him there on time. They found the wings location (126 RCAF) on the eve of the seventh day, and all had a good time with the celebration that ensued, with the exception of the fellow who was moving his gear into my father’s tent.

Fast forward a few years later and it’s Dec 24 in Newfoundland and Dad is flying a DC-3 transport on skis into a remote location in northern Labrador. At the last minute they get an addition to their cargo, a native woman with a newborn babe.

After landing at their destination, they are greeted by this big guy swaddled head to toe in furs who comes charging up to the plane driving a full team of dogs and sled. As Dad is watching from the cockpit the trapper grabs his wife for a big hug and then throws off his parka to load his supplies.

My father leaps from his seat, grabs the trapper by the shoulders, looks in his face and says “Jock Grieves, you ol’ bas#@rd, I heard you were killed at ….!” The trapper looks at my father with a stunned expression and responds “Charlie Trainor, … I heard you went down again and thought you were lost for sure this time!”

Dad went off with the trapper and his family where they spent Xmas eve in his cabin catching up on all that had happened since that shared ride across Normandy. True story, improbable as it may be. / Jim

[Shang]

Going ashore in Key West I rented a Vespa motor scooter from a guy who resembled my karate Sensei, but wasn't, and I cruised over to the nude beach, where I struck up a conversation with a tanned lady, who mentioned that her boyfriend had admitted that his grandfather was an illegitimate offspring of Buffalo Bill, well you can imagine how surprised I was since my barber is also named Bill, but spells his name Byelll, he is called "Three Ells" by his friends, several of whom coincidentally live in Cooperstown, NY and are related to the Cardiff Giant, whose friends call him Dick for obvious reasons...

Kinda makes you careful when you're traveling, don't it.

[Paul Pless]

Kinda makes you careful when you're traveling, don't it.

you meet the nicest people on nude beaches. . .

[Donn]

you meet the nicest people on nude beaches. . .

Yeah...no concealed carry.

[Glen Longino]

Hell, I was fixin to make up a story about me lost in the Amazonian jungle stumbling upon a village where my long lost first girlfriend was about to be stewed in a pot of boiling water and herbs...but some of of you gent's true tales are better than my imaginary tale, so I'll pass!
Keep em coming!

[Mike DeHart]

I took a week long cruise in the British Virgin Islands on a Cap'n Mike Barefoot Windjammer. I got talking with a guy on the fantail at 3am. Turns out we had met at a Boy Scout National High Adventure Base at Seboomook at the north end of Moosehead Lake in Maine some 20 years earlier. My brother was the quartermaster/outfitter at the base that year. I went up to visit. I was about 14 at the time. He remembered my brother, me, and especially the 6 dozen ears of South Jersey sweet corn and two bushels of Jersey tomatoes we took along with us to feed to the staff. He had been the camp director that year. There were only 65 guests on the boat.

My uncle, who lived in the same little South Jersey village, went to France to visit his daughter who was studying abroad. On top of the Arc d'Triomph (I hope I spelled it right) he found himself standing next to a good friend from back home, who happened to be the mailman who delivered to my neighborhood.

I went camping in the Pine Barrens for a weekend. Saturday morning, I and a couple guys camping with me walked down to the Wading River to see how high the water was. As we stood there, a small group of canoes paddled past. One guy in a canoe yelled hi to me by name. I knew him from working with a local Boy Scout troop a few years earlier.

I seem to run into someone I know no matter where I go.

[Robbie 2]

Not me but a friend:
A local pharmacist from my town in NZ went to a red Cross conference in Geneva Switzerland and while taking notes his pen stopped writing, so he asked a young lady in the row ahead of him if he could borrow one of hers as she had several on her desk. No problem she said and passed one back to him. To his surprise the pen was labelled with the name of his pharmacy back in NZ.

[bobbys]

Few years ago i went to the lumber yard hear in Oregon and the guy was helping me load my truck.

He was a bit depressed and i asked him why.

He said his wife left him.

He said she went back east.

I asked what State.

He said NJ.

I asked what town.

he said the town.

I asked what street. he told me.

I asked which house. He told me.

I asked what was the name of his wife.

He told me the last name.

I asked was it Mary Ellen or Susan that was his wife?.

He looked stunned and said how could you know the names of the sisters?

I told him cause they were my Classmates and to say hello from me..

[S.V. Airlie]

related to the cardiff giant! Now that's a trick.

[gilberj]

I met a little Scottish guy while in Abu Dhabi ( within spitting distance of being as far as possible from my home and still be on the same planet) and after a few beer he told me he knew only two Canadians. George W had been my room mate in college and Dennis B used to alternate with me as mate on coastal tankers.
Its a small world.......after all.