Community Chat

[tends2dogs]

I have two and I would love to hear yours.

First one:  My mom and sister were in a dressing room in a store 1400 miles from our hometown.  My mom burst out laughing and a woman in another dressing room said "Is that (my mom's name)?  I would know that laugh anywhere.  Turns out that she is a friend from our town.  They had a good laugh about that one.

Two different times when my DH and I were in Cancun, we had people call out our names whil walking down the street and they were people from our hometown.  I guess if you ever wanted to truly get away or hide you have to shave your head, dye you hair, or something drastic to alter you appearance LOL.

[Krimpette]

My story is similar to one of yours.  Many, many, many years ago, a traveling companion and I went to Newport, RI for the Jazz Festival.  We decided to stop at Plymouth Rock in Mass.  on our way back to our homes in NE PA.  We heard two guys call out our names.  They were guys we hung out with back home who had no idea of our travels....especially since the Plymouth Rock stop was on a whim!

[Caaareful Shopper]

I worked for a huge corporation in the 80's and 90's.  I was sitting at a shared computer writing a report and a male co-worker sat down to the same thing at the computer desk next to me.  It was just after the New Year.  We talked the usual office pleasantries -- "How was your Christmas?"  "Did you do anything special for New Year's Eve?" 

We started talking about the meal each of our families cooked for New Year's day, and it was the exact same meal.  We laughed, and pretty much at the same time said, "your family must be from [such & such] Virginia!  Well, such & such is a very small rural town.  We started calling out relative's names, and realized we were cousins. His father's side and my mother's side were cousins, and close at that -- they grew up together.  But he and I were born and raised in New York, we just didn't know everybody.

So, we worked in the same office for over a year and never realized we were family.  We've kept in touch to this day.

[Drythe]

While Sitting on a park bench in Kukenhoff Gardens, someone called my name.  It was someone I had worked closely with 10 years prior, and whom I'd not seen since.  We had quite a reunion catching up on who was where and doing what.

[Julie928]

My story happened just last night.  I recently purchased a Dyson and called their customer service number with a question.  While the woman on the phone was looking up my info she suddenly said 'Oh, wow!'  She saw my address and it turns out she lived a couple miles down the street from me.  There were two high schools in town and she went to one and I attended the other.  :-) 

[Mom2Comet]

A number of years ago riding a commuter bus to work I learned the drivers name was Elie.  I drew the short straw one year and had to work the day after Thanksgiving.  I was the only passenger on the bus that morning.  So I sat up front and talked to Elie during the hour ride in to work.  I asked where he was from originally.  He said Lebanon.  I said, Oh, my uncle is Lebanese - married to my dad's sister.  He asked the last name. I told him XXXX, he said - I'M XXXX!!  he asked where my Uncle was from, I said he lives in XYZ city and state but was from ABC city and state originally.  Elie replied.  I'M from ABC!  He went home and reached out to his family that night.  My uncle was the youngest of 10 children, Elie's GRANDFATHER was my Uncle's OLDEST BROTHER who stayed behind in Lebanon when they came to the US!   We could not believe it.  Every morning after that, when I got on the bus, we said good morning cousin. All the passengers looked at us like we were crazy. He even knew when my Aunt was in the hosital before I did.  Sadly, they changed his schedule and I moved and now take the train to work, so we lost touch.  Everytime I see that bus, I check the driver to see if it's my long lost cousin Elie.  Definitely a very small world.

[hckynut]

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@Mom2Comet wrote:

A number of years ago riding a commuter bus to work I learned the drivers name was Elie.  I drew the short straw one year and had to work the day after Thanksgiving.  I was the only passenger on the bus that morning.  So I sat up front and talked to Elie during the hour ride in to work.  I asked where he was from originally.

  He said Lebanon.  I said, Oh, my uncle is Lebanese - married to my dad's sister.  He asked the last name. I told him XXXX, he said - I'M XXXX!!  he asked where my Uncle was from, I said he lives in XYZ city and state but was from ABC city and state originally.  Elie replied.  I'M from ABC!  He went home and reached out to his family that night.  My uncle was the youngest of 10 children, Elie's GRANDFATHER was my Uncle's OLDEST BROTHER who stayed behind in Lebanon when they came to the US!

   We could not believe it.  Every morning after that, when I got on the bus, we said good morning cousin. All the passengers looked at us like we were crazy. He even knew when my Aunt was in the hosital before I did.  Sadly, they changed his schedule and I moved and now take the train to work, so we lost touch.  Everytime I see that bus, I check the driver to see if it's my long lost cousin Elie.  Definitely a very small world.

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[SilleeMee]

My husband was hunting in a very, very remote part of Colorado when he come upon a guy with a broke-down vehicle high up on the side of a mountain....no one else in sight for hundreds of miles. Just the two of them up there, total strangers had struck up a conversation about where each was from and talked about family and wives. When they both brought up the conversation about the wives...each looked at each other and said: "I know a woman exactly like that". Husband comes home and tells me this story about a man he helped on the mountain. I asked: "Did you know him?". He replied: "No, but he gave me his name and number." I looked at the piece of paper husband handed me and on it was the name of my ex-husband and his number.

[PINKdogWOOD]

@tends2dogs   ...or vacation in Barbados instead!!!!

[Moonchilde]

Before I retired, I was on vacation at Xmas. I was in a landmark tourist destination 350 miles from home - and was approached for a "hi" by the Admin honcho for my (overall) dept, visiting the area with her sister.

7-8 months after I retired, I went into a nondescript restaurant in a smallish town 375 miles from my former home - and ran into a former co-worker visiting her brother.