Small World stories just for fun

[Chris in VA]

So tonight we went about 5 miles south to Tantur Ecumenical Center, to have dinner and revisit the place here in Israel where we spent our sabbatical 5 years ago.  While at dinner, I noticed a woman with several kiddos, including a brandnewbaby--so dear! We got to talking, and come to find out,they moved here a little while ago from the town next to ours in VA! Small world, eh?

What is your small world experience? 

Edited November 11, 2018 by Chris in VA

[maize]

I hired a local business to build a storage shed for us. The business owner had the same unusual last name as a high school friend of mine. Turns out they are first cousins.

My high school is more than 5,000 miles from here.

[Violet Crown]

I had to sue a crazy landlady for my deposit. She had never vacated the property; instead of touring the country in her huge RV as planned, she lived in it in the driveway and spent much of the day on the phone in my (& housemate's) living room--"her" living room, even though we were paying her mortgage now with our rent--shouting profanities and threats at her poor insurance agent daily. Whom she blamed for the mess over the RV's title, which she (crazy landlady) had sketchily acquired in Mexico. While her Doberman lived in the house and tried to eat my cat.

When I "broke" the (never-commenced) lease and found another place to live, I pondered what I would say to my lovely prospective landlady about why I'd moved out. Yes, I walked out on the lease of my previous crazy landlady whom I'm currently suing. Would you like to rent to me?

In a metropolitan area of 7 million people ... my new landlady was the insurance agent.

Oh I won in court and got my deposit back.

[maize]

4 minutes ago, Violet Crown said:

I had to sue a crazy landlady for my deposit. She had never vacated the property; instead of touring the country in her huge RV as planned, she lived in it in the driveway and spent much of the day on the phone in my (& housemate's) living room--"her" living room, even though we were paying her mortgage now with our rent--shouting profanities and threats at her poor insurance agent daily. Whom she blamed for the mess over the RV's title, which she (crazy landlady) had sketchily acquired in Mexico. While her Doberman lived in the house and tried to eat my cat.

When I "broke" the (never-commenced) lease and found another place to live, I pondered what I would say to my lovely prospective landlady about why I'd moved out. Yes, I walked out on the lease of my previous crazy landlady whom I'm currently suing. Would you like to rent to me?

In a metropolitan area of 7 million people ... my new landlady was the insurance agent.

Oh I won in court and got my deposit back.

Best. Story. Ever.

[Violet Crown]

1 minute ago, maize said:

Best. Story. Ever.

Thank you. I call it, "Welcome to California."

[HomeAgain]

I was sitting with a group of friends here talking about people with unusual names.  One talked about a girl she went to high school with in another state.  "Oh, there was this girl, Sarah Drainspout*!  How horrible of a name is that!"
Me: .....I knew a Sarah Drainspout in <totally different state>  We were in class together at a tech school.
The two of us started comparing notes - it was the same Sarah Drainspout!
About a month later I got a friend request on Facebook from......Sarah Drainspout.  She and I started talking again and catching up and I mentioned I knew a friend of hers, was that how she found me?  No, but was surprised to hear about her old classmate so many years later! She had just remembered the name of the guy I was dating and wondered enough to put his last name with mine.


*Name changed to protect the innocent ?

[HomeAgain]

Oh, and when I opened this thread I thought it was going to be about the ride.  I have no stories about Small World, but my family flinches whenever I mention the Carousel of Progress! ?

[rdj2027]

My husband's best friend from elementary school and all the way through high school now lives a block away from us, 7000 miles from where they grew up.  My previous dentist and I attended the same elementary school in Germany at the same time (not military) and met again in Japan two years ago.  

[MeaganS]

In college I got pulled over for something, I can't remember what. When the officer saw my driver's lisence, he said, "oh, my last name is Jones* too!" Because this was Utah, we both knew our family tree several generations back and turns out we were very distant cousins. He let me off with a warning.

One time I was sitting in church showing a photo book of our family to my toddler to keep her quiet. The lady behind me tapped me on my shoulder. She pointed to the picture of my grandmother and said that was her aunt! My grandmother was the youngest of 13 kids and it's a huge family, so I had never even met this women before. And she was just there visiting her daughter that week, who I guess was also a cousin of sorts too, now that I think about it.

Since both dh and myself are Mormon all the way back, when we were dating we compared family trees just to make sure we weren't related. Our ancestors definitely knew each other, but we're good. ?

Once, when I was a kid we were at church and there was a new young missionary there from Florida (this was in Tennessee). We invited him over for dinner and after talking, it turns out my mom actually used to babysit him when he was a toddler. 

When I went to college, my family moved to a new state the same week. My roommate at college just happened to be from my family's new town (where I had never been) and her dad worked for my dad. 

[Hilltopmom]

I once ran into our pastors wife from upstate NY, in a museum in Rome.

[kiana]

I randomly met someone off the WTM forums at a small martial arts event. I did not even realize it until I saw a post a couple of weeks later and put two and two together. 

[AK_Mom4]

I once ran into my boss and his family walking in the door at a road side truck stop in Colorado.  

Which is only interesting when you know that we both lived and worked in Alaska at the time and were on vacation (not together).

[theelfqueen]

Heres two ... first, if you're in DHs Air Force career field for long, you will eventually end up stationed where we live now - everyone eventually comes to Space Command. 

So... a few weeks after we moved into our house, we were in the backyard. A booming voice shouts out DHs name, Captain Smith*! Dh turns around and says "oh Hi Jones*" Yes, Joned worked with DH many years ago at another location and now lives in the house next door. And that's not the end of that, friend 3, Brown moves to town and says "I heard Jones is in town now, too" Dh standing in the backyard hollers out "hey Jones!" Jones pops his head up over the fence, Brown nearly faints lol very funny. 

*names changed. 

Another story ... DH is a gamer. He meets a woman through a local gaming group, who joins his home game. One day this woman shows for gaming wearing a UMKC tee shirt.

Well, I am originally from near KC. So I ask her. Did you go to UMKC? She says "No, it's my boyfriends shirt, why?" I say "oh I grew up just outside of Kansas City" She says "Really? Me, too" I ask which town and she answers with the name of my hometown. I started at her and said "Did someone tell you to say that?" But no, we are really from the same town.  Now, years later she is just about  my best friend in the world. 

[RootAnn]

It seems like I live in a very small world. One old story & one newer one.

When I was in college in State A, my roommate's ex-bf attended her old college in State B and was a counselor at a Boys Scout Camp in State C. One of the other counselors (who lived/went to college in State D) at the Boys Scout Camp was reading a letter from a friend he'd made at a high school national event (FBLA) a few years before. The ex-bf thought the last name on the letter looked familiar & asked the fellow counselor about this friend. The counselor pulled out the friend's senior picture & confirmed that it was his ex-gf's current college roommate (me). The odds on that just seem crazy.

My dd#2 practiced with the local school's cross country team this summer. The coach is a teacher & wrestling coach. We got to talking one day while the kids were running & I found out he went to the same college my oldest brother had. Now, the age gap is probably 15-20 years, but a story I told about my brother's college years helped him make the connection that they were there at the same time. As it turns out, he actually knew my brother because my brother used to cover the sport this coach was involved in for the city paper. I'm sure my brother would have remembered him, too, since he had a great memory, but my brother died last summer, so I couldn't ask. The college is only 200 miles from where I live now, but I still find it incredible that they knew each other.

[Scarlett]

I met a woman on a marriage board who lives in HI who knows my dh’s childhood friends in CA. 

[mom2att]

Dh grew up in a small town in Alaska. After one year of college there, he transferred to Indiana University on a whim. Never having gone to church growing up, one of the first things he did upon arriving in his new college town was look in the phone book for a church. He chose one at random, based on the unusual name of the pastor. He walked into the Sunday morning college class, sat in an empty seat, and looked at the guy next to him. It was a friend of his from high school.

Coincidentally, or providentially, as I like to think, that was the church I grew up in. We got married in that church 7 years later.

 

[Guest]

This story isn’t totally amazing, but it was still surprising. 

DS decides to meet this young lady at college, friend-of-a-friend. He did see a picture of her and learned her name but it didn’t jog his memory. Once they were at the restaurant together, though, she says, “I actually already know who you are. We used to be in church youth group together.” And so they were! 

[Ali in OR]

My sister had a weird one happen to her years ago--I'll probably get the details of it wrong, but the basic story is something like this:

She was either in college or just out and working I think at a Macy's in CA. She gets into conversations with people easily. One day she was drawn into conversation with a customer, an older woman, and "fate" seemed to kick in. They just kept talking and sharing stories, perhaps trying to find the connection between them that they both felt. When my sister shared about how our grandfather was a park ranger who died in a freak rock slide while helping a fellow ranger move into the back country, this woman recognized enough of the story to know it was the same pack train that her relative (can't remember--maybe her father?) was part of (my grandfather was the only one hit by the rock slide). This had all happened maybe 35 years before.

[Miss Tick]

One of dh's students (years ago) brought her boyfriend to dinner. After talking a while I dug out my 8th grade yearbook from another state,  10 years earlier, and found his 6th grade picture. He never visited again, probably worried about what I would pull out of my closet next.

[MrsRobinson]

I am from and still live in a southern Midwest state. Dh is from New Mexico* and moved to my state a few hours from me when he was a teen. We didn't know each other yet.

Now the first thing was my friend got married and I drove with some friends the few hour trip to his wedding. Turns out, it was the town future unknown dh moved to, the bride was dh's cousin and he was at the wedding too! We didn't meet there though. We didn't meet until three years later when a mutual friend introduced us! It still freaks me out that we were both at that wedding and didn't meet. ?

The next thing: The same year as the above wedding, some friends and I did this 2 week volunteer thing and met some really cool people from Minnesota. We all became fast friends and went to Minnesota a few times to visit and they came to us a few times too. Well a wedding came out of all that, of course. ?

So dh and I were engaged by this point and I travelled to Minnesota for the friends' wedding. Dh didn't come because of a scheduling conflict.

A friend of a Minnesota friend that I met briefly on our visits (lets call her Jane) apparently had a good memory and remembered that I was engaged to Joe Robinson from New Mexico.

Jane was chatting with a total stranger at her table at the reception. Stranger says she snow birds. Winters in New Mexico and summers in Minnesota. Jane says "oh I know someone that's marrying someone from New Mexico. Joe Robinson." Snow bird says "I know Matt Robinson in New Mexico! I wonder if they are related." Jane tracks me down at the reception and introduces me to Stranger Snow Bird to see. Yep. Matt is my fiance's uncle!

Stranger Snow Bird and I talked about mutual friends and relatives for quite a while. Through the course of dh and my relationship, we went to New Mexico a few times and I made several friends there, fortunately, since that gave us more connections to talk about! ? 

Snow Bird was in her late 70s and it just thrilled her to no end to meet me and talk to me. She said as I was taking my leave, "I'll tell Matt all about meeting you and let him know that his nephew got a good girl." ? 

*state names and people names changed

[bethben]

One of the first people we met in our new state had a very similar history to my DH and I.  We told her we came from a small town in Minnesota.  A small church where we knew almost everyone that went there was looking for a new pastor.  This new couple we met had interviewed for the pastor position.  The wife also worked at a small college in Illinois a couple of miles from my house when I was a teenager and went to the same church as my husband when he was a teenager.  This is the only person I know who has reference to obscure places from my life history.

[bethben]

Also, I was messaging someone on this board about some random topic.  We realized that both of our sons were attending the same community college in our city.  Then, we put it together that they were in the same class.  It happened to be the only friend Ds mentioned that he had gotten to know.

[Corraleno]

Several years ago, my cousin (who lives in TN) ran into my brother (who'd been living in Asia the last we'd heard) on a ferry in a remote part of Alaska! 

 

[lmrich]

My college roomate's brother lives across the street from my sister. 

Not my story... but - a friend whose parents were missionaries in Africa when she was a child, ran into her African neighbors when they were both moving their daughters into the dorm; their daughters were suitemates. They had not seen each other in 30 years. 

Edited November 12, 2018 by lmrich

[ThisIsTheDay]

I had a new job in Colorado. My boss was from the same area in New Jersey where I was born. When my mom was pregnant with me 25 years earlier, she had to quit her job. My new boss was the person who replaced her.

[Chris in VA]

These are so fun! Thanks for sharing, everyone!

[KungFuPanda]

I was once recognized in a ladies room in California by someone who had seen me perform at a sporting event in WV. That was odd. 

I also met my elementary school’s gym teacher’s daughter at a homeschooling co-op. Our sons were in the same Biology class. We all live 300 miles from where we grew up. 

[Beaniemom]

My husband ended up on the same flight as the pastor of my parents’ church.  We lived 1000 miles away from my parents at the time. 

[TCB]

A friend of mine was walking around Alcatraz when she ran into a friend we knew in London. I guess it's a tourist place so maybe not too surprising people from London were visiting it but it seemed like a crazy place to bump into each other to us.

[TCB]

My dd was looking at a photo of someone she knows who was waiting for a flight at an airport in Texas and realised that sitting in the seat next to her friend was my niece and her baby. She couldn't believe her eyes.

[Tenaj]

When I was in high school I was hired for a summer job as a scretary to two lawyers in a big corporation near my hometown.   This will definitely "date" me but I was hired because one of the lawyers insisted on a secretary who knew shorthand.  

Fast forward years -maybe twenty -.  My dh's aunt had life-long friends whom the whole family knows and spends much time with.  The husband in this family was in the armed forces when younger and one day casually mentions the first name of the man who first witnessed to him about Christ which eventually led him to become a Christian.  The first name was unusual enough that I mentioned that I had worked for a lawyer with that name, and had thought about using the name for one of my kids.  Yep, same guy many miles and locations later. 

[Hannah]

I took a gap year to travel and do odd jobs in Europe for a year after university.  I was sitting on the stairs of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam - and a good friend from home walked past.  This was before the days of facebook and cellphones, so I had no idea she was in the country!

[Hannah]

My husband and I worked out that years before we met, we were at the same late night cabaret show at an art festival in a town about 1000km from where we both lived at the time.  There were probably about 40 people in that audience.

[Ann.without.an.e]

I bumped into some friends from long ago in our small town grocery store in the southeastern US. We met them in Oregon before they moved to the Philippines.  We had no idea they were even in the States.  We had them over for dinner later that week.

[Kareni]

My daughter and I were riding the bus once when the driver asked if years ago we used to live in such and such city in a different state (500 plus miles away).  It turns out that the driver had also been a bus driver there and remembered us.

My adult daughter now lives in South Korea.  She encountered a fellow student there from one of her US college classes.

Regards,
Kareni

[mumto2]

We live in a pretty out of the way place in England and were surprised to discover that our across the street neighbor is from the exact same town we lived in for 10+ years before moving to England.  She is the only other American in the village.  Her parents stil live really close to our old house so I may have known them to say hi to, she is just enough younger that she was probably in college or married in another city when we lived there.

We were attending a small (like 30 people) church in a large town in England where a visitor would appear every three months or so that wasn’t local.  One week a couple came from our former church in the American town mentioned above.