It's a small world after all...

[ASTalumna06]

Originally Posted by clemsongirl

I am convinced that everyone in Rhode Island knows each other, knows someone that knows them, or is related.

My mom grew up there. Maybe we're related!

[clemsongirl]

Originally Posted by ASTalumna06

My mom grew up there. Maybe we're related!

Goodness, it's entirely possible. I probably know someone who knows someone who knows her. Rhode Island is the geographical equivalent of six degrees of Kevin Bacon.

[honeychile]

My gggrandparents lived in and were married in Newport, RI. My DH's sister lived in Warwick, and he spent several summers there. As he said, the state's a whopping 37 miles wide, you have to be friendly!

This didn't happen to me, but when I was in high school, a friend of mine spent a summer in Constantinople. He was shopping at the bazaar one day, and ran into our English teacher!

[Sciencewoman]

I have a few odd ones, but I can't top the stripper story or the parents buying the stranger's childhood home story.

We took a spring break trip to New Orleans when I was a kid. We passed another family on the sidewalk, and my 5-year-old sister says, "Hi Michelle" to their little girl. Michelle says, "Hi Laura" to my sister and they both keep walking. Both families stopped and said, "Wait, you know each other?!" Turns out they were kindergarten classmates, completely oblivious of how unusual it was to run into each other several states away from home.

My daughter and her boyfriend realized they were on the same People to People trip in 8th grade.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

I have a few odd ones, but I can't top the stripper story or the parents buying the stranger's childhood home story.

We took a spring break trip to New Orleans when I was a kid. We passed another family on the sidewalk, and my 5-year-old sister says, "Hi Michelle" to their little girl. Michelle says, "Hi Laura" to my sister and they both keep walking. Both families stopped and said, "Wait, you know each other?!" Turns out they were kindergarten classmates, completely oblivious of how unusual it was to run into each other several states away from home.

My daughter and her boyfriend realized they were on the same People to People trip in 8th grade.

Whoa.. which one? Hypo did a People to People trip in 8th grade, which would have been the same year.

[Sciencewoman]

It was the Washington, DC World Leadership Forum, the first week of April (spring break week). There were several kids on her plane out of Detroit Metro....

[deadbear80]

We moved to the town I grew up in just before my 1st birthday and my parents are very close to our neighbors.
At my Bat Mitzvah, my Mom was greeting people before the ceremony, and the husband walks up to my Mom and says "I'd like to introduce you to my Aunt Dora". He leads my Mom over to a woman and my Mom says "No, that's my Aunt Dora"! We couldn't believe it.

Aunt Dora was really my Grandfather's Aunt--she was married to my great-grandmother's youngest brother (and my GGM came from a family of 8--she was the oldest). So it turns out that we're all related to Aunt Dora--our neighbor's father was Dora's brother so he's her blood relation; we're all related by marriage.

20 years later my Mom refers to our neighbor as "Cousin Warren".

[DubaiSis]

I have 2. First, I was a sophomore in college, out at a bar with the girls. There's a TOTALLY hot guy there who looks incredibly familiar to me but I can't place him. So being a couple drinks in I say to him - do I know you from somewhere? And he, in front of my girlfriends and with a completely straight face says - we went to France together. Oh, RIGHT, we had! You know how much 17 year old boys can change, so he looked just familiar enough to be familiar but not so familiar that I associated the cute little boy with the HOTTAY standing in front of me. The girls almost died. How could you forget traveling through France with this guy? Yeah, I'm just that cool

Then, when I was on my move from Newport Beach to Kansas City last fall, my friend and I were doing the whole Thelma & Louise thing going cross country. We had a great time! So we're on the highway in the middle of nowhere, maybe Arizona, maybe New Mexico. We stop at a gas station and I'm walking inside when this crazy woman starts charging at me. It was one of my good friends from Dubai! She and her husband lived in the Phoenix area and were going back and forth between there and Denver as they prepared to move there, and I just happened to catch them en route! In my whole life I won't have that weird of an experience again.

[AOIILisa]

OK, I grew up in a very small town in Maine, like 6000 people, and everyone knows everyone. I moved to Philadelphia after college and moved in with a girl I met down here through a mutual friend. Roommate was down in FL for vacation, in some random ladies' room somewhere, and strikes up a conversation with another lady using the facilities. They were both talking about the FL weather and my roommate says "Way nicer than winter in Philly, for sure!" The lady she's talking to says, "Well, I'm from Maine, so I'm loving this!" My roommate says, "My roommate is from Maine, what town are you from?" The lady says, "You've never heard of it," then says the same small town that I'm from. "No way! Do you know AOIILisa?" Turns out we had graduated together in the same class - and she said to say hello to me!

This story is less strange because Philly is a bigger place, therefore more people you could potentially know. My ex and I were in Positano, Italy on vacation. Positano is along the Amalfi coast, and not that easy to get to. We were dining in Chez Black and hear English being spoken at the next table (not that unusual) and then hear the word "Wawa" which is a chain of convenience stores in the Philly area. Turns out the guys at the next table were from Philly, they owned a restaurant and were on a business trip looking for new menu items.. but the one guy's sister and I worked at the same company, in the same department. It really IS a small world.

[aephi alum]

Another story for ya:

My MIL is very into genealogy. She's gotten most of her family and friends to submit DNA samples to FamilyTreeDNA.com. We've learned some surprising things. First and foremost, two of MIL's best friends are also her fourth cousins. The two are married - and they are third cousins (which explains a few things about that family ).

I must say that I was relieved to learn that I do not match with my husband, or with any of his family who have submitted samples. The husband is awesome and I love him dearly, but some of his relatives are ......... interesting.

[honeychile]

I can add another. My mother owned a home health agency (not one of the national franchises - hers predated 90% of those), where I worked for several years. One of our clients lived in a somewhat unique house in an upscale neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Her husband passed away, then she, too died. The house sold.

About four months later, we got a series of calls about possibly taking care of a woman who was in the same neighborhood. Her daughter had built a mother-in-law apartment onto her house for her, and she was moving into it. We were told the address and, yes, it was the same house. The best part? The mother was Michael Keaton's mother! She turned into one of the loveliest clients we ever had, very gracious and kind to the very end.

[andthen]

Ok first thought who ever came up with this idea genius! The stories have been a ton of fun to read. Ok now on to my two.

The first one happened several years back I was starting a new job, and I arrive for my first day and you have to meet with HR as part of the orientation process. So the gal that comes in looks super super familiar. And she's giving me that look "I totally know you from somewhere" turns out we went to middle and high school together.

The second one spans an ocean. So my friend and I were traveling in Argentina, and we were with a tour group. As much as I travel there is one thing that is certain, I will always meet an Australian and we will have good laughs. So we started chatting with these two Australian guys, they were single, we were single (and nothing happened). We went out to dinner as a group etc. We become facebook friends. Well, how's this for random. I am in Australia volunteering a few years later and meet this one gal, she's from Sydney where my facebook friend is from and they go to the same church which is huge. We become facebook friends and turns out she knows the guy I met in Argentina. She was in his wedding (the bride's side).

[DoctorD]

Right before I got married, I was looking through my now ex-husband's pictures and found one of me from a band trip I was on in 9th grade.

I remember posing, but didn't know who the photographer was.

[AGDee]

Originally Posted by Sciencewoman

It was the Washington, DC World Leadership Forum, the first week of April (spring break week). There were several kids on her plane out of Detroit Metro....

Ahh, ok. She went on the 20 day trip to France, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. So we didn't just discover one here on this thread..lol.

These are a lot of fun to read. Keep them coming people!

[violetgeek]

My Father was in the Navy during WWII, mainly serving on troop transports and always told us this story that we weren't sure if we should believe or not. He was on an Island in the Pacific and saw a guinea hen. Eggs were his favorite and he hated the powdered eggs they were served. He followed the hen into the brush because he knew it had a nest and possibly eggs. He reached the nest just as a Marine approached from the other direction. They were about to fight over the nest until they recognized each other from college. This man was a few years behind my Father, but they knew each other because they had the same last name and same initials (different first & middle names). The Marine lived 100 miles from our home town, but he was a farmer like my Father. At least once a year, one of the Ag supply companies would get their bills messed up we'd receive one of his bills or vice versa. They would mail it to the other and we'd hear the story again. When I was in High School we were at a big Farm Expo and ran into this man and his family. Yep, it was all was true and he had been telling his kids the same story for years.