Whats your best, "its a small world story" I realized how small our community really is. So many people here are connected to one another. I am doing some deals with a few guys on FChat and realized that most of us are connected, some more than others Antony
A college buddy of mine and i used to talk about moving to California while we were young and not tied down to a job or a marriage etc. but never did it. Fast forward a few years and i'm in San Francisco working for the Olympic torch relay (1996). As i'm walking around with some co-workers in the Marina district i'm not looking in the direction i'm walking and literally bump into this buddy of mine. I hadn't seen him in years and we were both stunned to see each other and thought it so ironic that we'd run into each other like that. Just to weird to be true almost. We've actually kept in touch since then as we felt maybe there is some reason we're supposed to know each other.
I ran into my daugher's 2nd grade teacher five years after my daughter had her as a teacher in McKinney Texas. Ran into each other at the Portland Oregon zoo of all places... and the teacher still recognized my daughter and rememberd her name (can't say the same thing for me; I had no idea what this woman's name was who was coming up to us going 'oh hi! how are you? Oh my gosh youve grown soooo much!!')... then it all came back.
My mom is an elementary school teacher/sub/paraprofessional. Mostly the kids recognize her, we run into a bunch of them at our grocery store, and they always say HI!!!!!!!! and are all excited. Sorry, I didn't really even contribute. It really is a small world though, never had any encounters .
I always wonder if there someone who knows/works with/does business with my dad or any of my relatives. Or maybe grew up with someone I know.
Same weekend trip to Las Vegas. Ran into a couple my parents knew in Japan who then moved to HI. Lost contact with them. Then we run into friends who live 20-25 miles away and didn't know were going to be in LV. Kinda freaky.
I have quite a few Small World Stories. Here is one... Sao Paulo Brazil.. City of over 18 million... was at the Airport to catch a flight to Chile. As I was headed to the Gate I saw someone who look familiar.. It was a long lost buddy of mine from the USA who I have not seen for almost 10 yrs!! He just got married and was lost trying to find his flight to Rio with his bride! I helped him out and we hung out for a few till our flights left. .. SMALL WORLD INDEED !
1) I went to the island of Mallorca off the coast of spain.... stayed at a hotel on the beach. I came down from my room one day and saw a guy changing light bulbs in the lobby... it was the maintenance guy from my old high school! He recognized me - I couldn't believe we ran into each other there. He said he liked a low pressure job, and figured he may as well do it somewhere hot and beautiful than somewhere cold and rainy. 2) My girlfriend was in Vegas for a fashion show and was getting hit on by this guy... kept trying to conversate with her. Turns out it was a guy I knew from Boston who had moved to Vegas 10 years ago to be a fitness trainer or something.... even when she told him about me, he said "Oh, wow, how's he doing?" then kept trying to get into her pants. He always was a dirtbag 3) Weirdest one... I met this woman at a car show in Boston - total hotness. We started dating... turns out she had a place in Florida. Well, she also had a kid who was all growed up and he lived at the house in Florida. Well, we went to Clearwater once for a week and I met the son... and his girlfriend. Guess who the son's girlfriend was? MY EX GIRLFRIEND! I know what you are thinking.... I was probably 25 at the time, the woman was 36, her son was 18. My ex-GF was 22. It was strange... this girl was going to school in Boston when we met up - originally from Lauderdale. I dumped her, she packed up and went back to FL, got sick of being near her family, moved to Clearwater and met this guy. I hadn't talked to her for 1.5 years since we broke up... had no idea she had left Boston... then I find she's dating my new girlfriends son! How bizarre is that??!!?
I am from Kansas. When I was a kid, my cousin went to DC. They were in a large building that was over crowded. They went out a door to a balcony and nobody was there. So, they all sat down to relax. Well, 2 gay guys walked in and were all over eachother...kissing. My uncle thought...oh crap, I hope my kids dont see this. Just as he thought this, my cousin said "Hey! It's Mr Wilson". It was his grade-school principal. Nobody knew he was gay, and here he was, half a country from home, and he got caught. Needless to say, this is when they would fire you for being gay....and he got fired.
I'm on the East Coast visiting family right now, and had breakfast with Mom and Dad in a divey little joint in Waldoboro, Maine about a week ago... Lo and behold, who walks by my table, steps back, and says "Tad?" but a former co-worker from my days at a certain car magazine... one I'm quite sure many folks here are familiar with. I currently live in Portland, Oregon, this gentleman lives in Connecticut, and the last time we saw one another was at Retromobile in Paris... and we meet once again at Moody's Diner in Waldoboro Maine! Wow... Small world indeed! -Tad
I know you started this thread to read stories about how we are only one or two people removed from knowing each other. Some have told stories of how they re-united with friends in far away places. I'll add this small world story that's a different twist - For college spring break I took a flight down to Ft. Lauderdale for a few days before heading to the Bahamas. So after traveling and a ride I got from a flight attendant on my flight I ended up at a bar / hotel that must have had about 2000 students around the bars and pool. I make my way to the bar to get a .50 cent beer and I'm waiting for it while this girl sitting next to me starts up a conversation. Typical talk, "where do you go to school"? "Really, that's where I go" "Where do you live?" "Really?, that's where I live" So basically I had traveled about a thousand miles to meet the girl that lived directly above me one floor up............and she was the first person I talked to.
this summer we were in a small coffee shop in rockport maine. we saw my son's current teacher. i was at a boat show in the same town and was talking to a photographer showing her work. she lived up in maine 6 months per year. I really wanted to learn her technique and asked her if she taught. she did, and she lives the other six months about a mile from my house. Then there was this funny guy i met in maranello staying at the same hotel as me- dan from ricambi. small world indeed.
Walking down a street in Cannes, France and ran into a friend from California without communicating before.
Elementary school friend of mine in Dubai. Ran into him randomly in an elevator at the Paris airport.
I went on a cruise a couple years ago and I ran into a friend I knew from years before, on the same cruise, I couldn't imagine the odds.
I ran into a science teacher and a math teacher both my brother and I had in middle school when I was in a bar in college. They were both wasted and started arguing over who was smarter, me or my brother. And what was really freaky is after we left my friend insisted one of them had been hitting on me.
Antony: I'm surprised I saw this thread! I'm almost 100% positive we worked together back in the day when you were in Los Angeles. I got STI to carry our products and I remember you being the head marketing honcho there. Now, 3 years or so later we're on the forum together Lol. I could be wrong, but I'm almost positive I'm thinking of the right Antony. -AS
Its me buddy. I knew I recognized you. How are things going for you? Been a long time. Sammy was a client of mine back in the day. Antony
When I was in grade school, my parents sponsored a couple from Germany to come to the U.S. They lived with us, outside Chicago, for a year or two while they got established, the dad got a good job and they had their first child. About 2-4 years ago (I'm 68 now), I was guest lecturing at the medical school in New Mexico - turns out that the wife of one of the docs who invited me was that child, now she's a neonatologist. Pretty odd that we would meet up again more than 60 years later when she's in the middle of her career and I'm near the end of mine.
I became buddies with a guy whose parents coincidentally happened to live in the house I had lived in twenty five years earlier. While he was having renovations done, he stayed with his parents for a few months. During that time our daughters had a playdate so I ended up taking my daughter to play with her friend at a house I had lived in twenty five years ago!
