What's the strangest small-world experience you've had?

I'm from Connecticut... I lived in Germany for 9 months and did a lot of traveling during that time. Strangest experience I've ever had, in terms of it being a small world?

I met a guy at the train station in Prague, in the Czech Republic, who knew my ex-boyfriend, from a smallish town in Connecticut.

Life's pretty odd, sometimes.

How 'bout you?

That my husband's dad (who lives in CA) had worked on some projects with my godmother's husband (who lives in PA).

:crazy:

That song never leaves you. Never ever ever ever ever. It's not even a bad song. It's even a good song. But it won't go away.

EVER!!!

Last Thursday, I was standing on the corner of Harrison Ave in Chinatown, in Boston, with my co-worker, waiting for a cab.

All of a sudden, a voice behind me said my name. I turned around, and it was a woman that I went to elementary school with, 100 miles from here, who I haven't seen in about 20 years. :wow:

And, she works 1 floor below where my business has their storage space, which I visit somewhat frequently. :crazy:

:hi:

Fleabert's (where did she go, anyhow) husband used to be my sister's boss. I had no idea, I was talking to her about something else entirely.

:(

A few years ago I was undergoing surgery in a hospital in Sydney Australia and the guy in the bed next to me had not only been to the same school but had been in the same year as me.

we bumped into an older couple from my wife's hometown, Tulsa. She had taught as a professor in the university my wife's father had attended. That had also attended our alma mater, OSU.

There was no one else at this site...

On a usenet group I knew a Dutch woman. It came up that my g-grandmother's marriage in Kansas was registered in her Welsh hometown ... where my Dutch friend's husband is from. She asked my g-grandmother's name. Turns out her husband is my relative. Upon closer examination, so is she through another ancestor. This was not a genealogy group, either!

a student from a school he had taught in for one year in California.
We live in PA.

But if you want to know....

My sister met and got engaged to a man.

The woman she knew who was ordained met them to prepare the wedding. Turns out the guy is related to her ex-husband, father of her 2nd child, about 4 generations back.

They look so much alike, according to the minister (who got invited for a pool party) "Their back hair even grows in the same pattern."

...when my elementary-school music teacher from our small Virgina town hours away gets on the elevator. He eyed me, my father and my brother (the latter of whom he also taught), and said, "My goodness! {last name}s!"

a sorority sister that I hadn't seen in 5 years.

I have run into sorority sisters of mine up in NYC after college. Not exactly a small town, NYC.

It was the height of the Vietnam war and very uncool to be in a sorority. One of my pledge sisters was a two time Olympic gold medalist (swimming) and Rosey Grier used to call our room wanting to talk to her!
The membership was very small. Some of us actually got to live in rooms by ourselves! Ten years later the house was taking quota every rush and you had to go on a waiting list to get a room in the house.

I'm still in touch with friends--but not the girl I ran into in Hawaii. I might not even recognize her today.

One of the smallest nationals, mostly in the midwest and mid-atlantic states, but pretty big at Penn State both then and now.

My best friend in college was a ChiO - I always envied her adorable little owl lavalier.

When I was at school in the early 80s, it was a great time to be in a sorority. Mostly middle-middle class families, not many legacies (hell, a lot of first-generation college, much less greek). There were girls who had to work in the lunchroom for their work-study money in the "best" sororities, and we suspended the dues for one of our sisters whose dad was on strike at the Mack Truck factory. We were a pretty "good" sorority, and not everyone had a perfect figure, or perfect hair (although I think I was the only one who WASN'T a cheerleader or on Homecoming Court) I look at our website now, and wonder if ANY of my sisters from back in the day would even get a bid. Everyone now is rail thin, and has long, straight, "perfect" hair. Not a unique-looking person in the bunch. I could be wrong, but I'll bet no one works in the cafeteria, either.

But I had a great time, and I give rush a lot of credit for making me better at my job, which involves interviewing people.

Wanna start a thread was on DU? Start a thread asking if your kid should go through rush! There was one on here about 2 years ago, and it got heated - I was surprised how many greeks are lurking among us!

My wife and I were at the Notting Hill (I think) tube station, and this person was walking into the station while we were walking out. My wife looked at me and said "Was that...". Yes. Yes, it was.

One day, my gentleman friend asked me to stop by his office so we could go to lunch together.

That was when I saw the name on the office door next to his. No, it couldn't be. But it was ... someone who had been in my class from first through fifth grades in elementary school in Wisconsin.

(1) Stratford-upon-Avon. Former h.s. colleague had just said to his wife, "This is exactly the place I'd expect to run into the 'Dinks'." And then my husband and I turned the corner---and they DID!

(2) Husband and I were taken VERY ill in Oporto, Portugal. Go by ambulance to hospital; get treated. Doctor notices our surname, asks if we are related to a certain doctor in America. It's Mr. Dink's brother. Doctor personally drives us back to hotel.

(3) I once had a foreign-exchange student from Australia. Upon leaving the U.S., she gave each teacher a little koala pin. Put it in drawer, never wore. Until one day I did, during the following school year. And that very day, without my foreknowledge, THAT STUDENT RETURNED to our school for a visit.

I had a blind date with Matt Cooper in late 96/early 97 when I lived in DC. It was surreal watching him go through the subpoena and almost-jailed-for-contempt phase of the Plame investigation.

a teacher at my daughter's school the year my daughter entered kindergarten. I had no idea the cousin was living anywhere near me or working at the school until she came across my daughter's name on a class roster and called me out of the blue.

He was at a discount golf clothing store miles from our house, and helped a woman break into her car after she locked her keys inside.

He was shopping, and the woman returned, saying "Mr. X, I was so flustered I forgot to thank you."

From around one of the displays comes this man who says "Mr. X? Charlie X?"

Here it was his cousin, who grew up 200 miles north of here, and had moved to California in the 1940s. He had heard about the deals at this store, and just happened to stop by when he was in town on business.

It's a small small world.

Dada da da da da dada da da
Dada da da da da dada da da
Dada da dada da dada da dada da
Dada da da da da daaaaaa.


Warning: earworm.

My unit's job was to load tanks, trucks, Humvees, artillery pieces, fuelers and so on onto ships bound for Saudi Arabia. We were broken up into teams in the shipyard working twelve hours on, twelve hours off for a month. One night, during a hurried dinner break, I saw a vaguely familiar face across the portable mess-truck where we were eating. I went over to talk to the guy, and it turned out, he and I had been in the high school band together. He graduated two years behind me, and there we were half a world away from where we had gone to school together. That was neat. B-)

...the company that my husband worked for offered a free family dentist...but it meant driving 75 miles round trip from our Ventura County home down into the San Fernando Valley... (the SF Valley covers 464 sq miles and has a population of a million+)

After a trip to the dentist my son begged me to stop by an In-N-Out for a hamburger...this franchise hadn't made it's way up into our neck of the woods yet, but, there were three or four in the Valley.

Not real familiar with the SF Valley, I wasn't sure but decided that I remembered there might be an In-N-Out a couple blocks over from the dentist's office. I made a couple wrong turns trying to find it..but then I saw an In-N-Out sign ahead of me. As I was heading down Van Nuys Blvd my oldest son yelled..."STOP MOM, TURN AROUND, GO BACK...that's uncle Larry walking back there."

Larry isn't actually his uncle, but my son remembered him as someone close to the family. We had completely lost touch with Larry. It had been over four years since we had heard from him and we had finally quit asking other's if they knew where to contact him.

I told my son that it just couldn't possibly be Larry, Larry always said he would never live in the Valley, it must be someone who looks like him and that the odds of us seeing Larry walking down the street on this day in huge San Fernando Valley were astronomical.

"If you won't turn back then let me out of the car and I'll walk back there and get my uncle Larry" my son said. So I drove back by... and I guess you know you what was what...

We have never lost touch with him since.

Tikki

late saturday night, and it is funny for me to say this now, but i have NEVER been the type to pick up hitchhikers, but i was lonely and depressed and thought "this scruffy drifter may rob or kill me, but at least it's some human interaction!"

didn't recognize him, but he knew me immediately - he was a longtime childhood friend from my street who moved 2000 miles away when we were 13 (about 20 years ago)! Sadly, the story goes downhill from there -- he's had 20 years of drugs, lawlessness, prison, theft, hustling, you name it...He didn't have a home and bummed around among friends...Gave him some money and haven't seen him since...

The irony of it all is he came from an upper-class family and had access to anything he wanted as a kid...Smart, too -- he was kinda rebellious and bratty, but he got straight A's, had perfect attendance at school every year, was a very gifted tennis/soccer player, was speaking french and german at an early age, the list goes on...what a waste