Upon moving to Richmond 5 years ago, we quickly learned that “Oh, that’s Richmond for ya” is the appropriate reaction when one of those small world coincidences takes place. It’s meant to reference that despite being a fairly legit city, Richmond has a small town vibe where everyone seems to know everyone else through no more than a degree or two of Kevin Bacon friends and acquaintances. So when, for example, you find out that the girl at your favorite lighting outlet rents an apartment in the backyard of a house that you’ve crashed (and where your sister got married) you say “That’s Richmond for ya.” True story, by the way.
Well, we’ve got a new story that confirms that this phrase has some real truth to it. Here it goes.
Last week we got new neighbors. Like, right next door (the other side of the patio fence). Not knowing who they were, what kind of neighbor’s they’d be or what kind of house/yard they’d keep made us a bit nervous. They closed right before Memorial Day but were having some things done to the house before moving in last week, so we didn’t get to meet them right off the bat. Suspenseful.
So recently my cousin was in town and we had her over to BBQ on the patio. At some point my dad wandered off with her 5 month old son (not in a creepy way, but in a “let’s go look around” way). Upon his return, my dad said “Oh yeah, I met your neighbors.”
Sherry: “No way, who are they? What’s their story?” (Yes, our curiosity had turned us into gossips)
My Dad: “Well, they’re Brad and Angelina…” (Names have been changed to not put the new neighbors on blast – plus it’s more entertaining this way)
Me: “Wait, they sound familiar.” (Note: had their names really been Brad and Angie, I’m sure I would’ve placed them more easily)
My Dad: “…and they have a young daughter named Viv.” (cough… NotHerRealName… cough)
[LONG PAUSE, then picture light bulbs going off above both of our heads]
Me & Sherry: “No way! We know them!!!! They almost bought our house!”
Remember last year when we were selling our old house? And how we did For Sale By Owner? Well that meant we met all of the prospective buyers face-to-face and Brad and Angelina were not only the first people to tour our house but they also seemed to be the folks (out of a total of 16 showings) who appreciated the house the most (which of course made our hearts swell with pride). We could totally picture them lovingly moving into our first baby. Weird sentence, but you know what I mean.
Obviously they didn’t buy our house (they just weren’t quite ready to pull the trigger and sell the house they had yet). But as much as the 2010 John & Sherry wanted this nice couple to buy our house, the 2011 John & Sherry are much happier to have them as next door neighbors. Especially since their daughter is only 11 months older than Clara (hello playdates) and, like Clara, already seems to have a thing for Burger. Not that we’re getting ahead of ourselves or anything, but they’re basically destined to be BFFs. (Sidenote: their daughter already has a nickname for Clara, which is “dolly” which is just about enough to make a grown man melt).
Oh, and the other night I spotted Brad wearing a Mountain Dew t-shirt. And you know how well I get along with guys in soda shirts (that’s Jeremy Bower, btw)…
When we re-met them (as neighbors, not prospective buyers) we all laughed at what a small city world it is. They added that our old house even turned up as a comp on their appraisal when they finally got around to selling their house six months later, so they were just thinking about it recently. And, to complete the hat trick of weird coincidences, we learned their movers were the same folks that moved out the previous owners of our house (they showed up and started laughing as soon as their realized they had “done” the house next door less than six months prior). I guess that’s Richmond for ya…
Okay, now your turn. What’s your best or latest small world story? Do they happen as often in your town as they do in ours? Also, does the video at the beginning of this post make you want to dance? Me too.
Psst- One of our favorite ever it’s-a-small-world stories is when the original owners of our first house contacted us. Check out that story here.
Katie says
Hahaha awesome video! It reminds me of this one:
http://sorisomail.com/email/74298/como-se-danca-o-merengue.html
Although I must say its much cuter with a tiny dog just dancing for fun.
YoungHouseLove says
Hahaha- hilarious! He’s got moves!
xo,
s
Ali says
We live right near the Decorating Outlet. :)
I’ve got a few… one was when I was in a public bathroom at the Versailles Palace in France and a friend of a friend from college (who lived in my dorm) was washing her hands just two sinks down. We both did a double-take and then, “Hey!” :)
The other is after my hubby and I started dating. I went home to CT for the summer and he went to CA. He called me and said, “Guess who I just had lunch with?” His dad’s fraternity brother was marrying the mom of my best friend from 9th grade. What the heck.
In Boston where we lived for 10 years, we met a family who said they knew people with the same last name growing up. Turns out that the same-last-name family was my husband’s uncle and aunt. The wife played at their house with their kids when she was little. Again, my husband is from CA, so it was crazy to meet someone on the other side of the country with that connection!
There are more, but that’s just a few of them for you!
Robin @ our semi organic life says
This makes me even more excited (and nervous) to move to Richmond next month! Eak that is so soon! Can’t wait to bump into your parents’, pool attendants, sisters, blog friends’, movers when we get there!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- you’ll meet us within a month. Guarantee it. Haha.
xo,
s
Ashley says
I wish! I’ve lived in Richmond for almost a year and haven’t run into you fine, fabulous folks! haha.
But I’m moving to Austin, TX in about 2 months, and another blogger I follow is in the process of moving to Austin (small world!). New person to stalk perhaps?…haha, jk. Maybe.
YoungHouseLove says
I bet we’ll run into each other before you move! I’d put a dollar on it.
xo,
s
[email protected] says
Aw, wish it were true. Just moved out of Richmond after a few years of living there and was just telling the hubs “I can’t believe I never met John & Sherry what with our shared love of Goodwill, Home Goods, thrift stores, etc.!” Alas, maybe another time. :)
xoxo
[email protected]
YoungHouseLove says
We’ll probably bump into each other randomly in Texas or Alaska or something. Stranger things have happened! Haha.
xo,
s
Meredith says
All. The. Time. I live in Des Moines and everybody seems to know everybody. I moved here from a small town in WI. I knew 1 person in the state who had gone to college here. Sure enough, one of my good friends here went to college with him and we met up again…things come full circle. :)
Kylee says
I’m also in Des Moines, but from out of state, and I’ve ran into an old friend from elementary school and two from high school. It’s very strange running into people you know when you’re new to a city/state!
YoungHouseLove says
Oooh, I’ve got a small world story that takes places in Des Moines! Sherry and I were waiting at the gate to catch a flight back home after visiting her friend there (this was like 4 years ago) and I bumped into a friend from college in the airport. We were both like “Um, what you doing in Iowa?”
-John
Tracy says
I have a good small-world story! A couple years ago I was at a craft show and met a woman who was a hairstylist and was giving out discounts to her salon. I ended up going to the salon a couple days later. During the appointment, we talked, and she was really nice! Anyway, after the appointment she wanted to get my full name to update her contact list (she had only gotten my first name earlier). When I told her my last name, she asked if I had any family members that adopted a pug a few years earlier. That had been my mom and dad! She started crying about how much she loved the dog. I told her the pug was our best pet ever. Unfortunately the pug had passed away by that time, so the woman couldn’t meet the pug, but she was happy to know the pug had a good life with us. Small world, huh?!
Lindsey d. says
Best small world story I have going off to boarding school two hours from home in 11th grade, hanging in a new friend’s dorm room and finding a note my brother had written to a previous occupant on the back of the door. I had no idea my brother had ever been to my school, but apparently he had driven up from college two years previously to see a friend, the previous dorm occupant.
marianne says
LOVE that video. I am laughing out loud at work! Can’t wait to show hubby and the kids when I get home. Need to teach my chi to do that.
Stefanie says
In college in San Diego, studying in the huge library, I found an empty seat and sat down next to a random girl. She asked about my (HS) sweatshirt, and as it turned out, she went to the same nor cal highschool and actually recognized me from my improv team performances.
More recently, I sat a poker table in Vegas with a guy who knew my step-dad through his work with wind-energy – he even had my step-dad’s number programmed in his phone!
Shunta says
that is REALLY cool and creepy but in a cool way. lol and yay for having neighbors with children and similar home-appreciation values. Definitely will make growing old there even nicer!!!
Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says
That’s so funny!
My funny story is that my mom is from Staten Island and her best friend still lives there so we basically grew up there (although we lived in NJ). Turns out, my mom’s best friend’s son went to high school with my fiancee. My future father-in-law even drove him to a track meet once! Small world, huh?
And another adorable video (this one is of a baby gorilla break dancing): http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2011/06/baby_gorilla_break_dancing.html
YoungHouseLove says
Look at him go!
xo,
s
Amy says
My grandpa was in the Army in WWII. When he stepped off the troop ship in England, the first person he saw was an ex-boyfriend of his older sister.
My family has a weird interconnection with a friend of my husband’s, Scot. I have a cousin, T, whose best friend is Scot’s niece. I have another cousin, R, whose best friend is Scot’s nephew. Scot’s sister (mother of the aforementioned nephew) used to be R’s babysitter and is a friend of his grandmother (my aunt). Phew. The weirdest part is I just learned this last year via Facebook (seeing who mutual friends were), but I’ve known Scot for about 14 years!
Samantha says
My small world Richmond story is that I literally see you guys EVERYWHERE. EVERY. WHERE. Okay really only Martin’s and Target and sometimes Ikea, but it’s almost to the point that it’s creepy. Like everytime I go to Target, there you are. And I just don’t say hi (I did once) because I don’t want you to think I’m stalking you. Because I’m totally not! I just live near that shopping center too and have a healthy appreciation for Target. :)
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- you should totally say hi! So sorry for being everywhere. We get around, huh?! Hope I’m not picking a wedgie or my nose the next time you see us. Hah.
xo,
s
Elizabeth says
Speaking of that, WHY must camera operators at sporting events always manage to find men picking their noses in the crowd? Ewwwwwwwww! LOL
(They also find women with large chests, but that’s an entirely different topic! LOL)
Kristin H. says
J&S, Do you guys ever feel weird about the possibility that someone will know you wherever you go?! I’d feel so freaked out and self-conscious!
YoungHouseLove says
Once I got over the idea that people could see me looking totally gross (paint in my hair, no shower, sick as a dog, etc) it’s actually been really amazing to bump into people around town. It’s so nice to meet readers in the flesh and connect with them on a not-computer level. Haha.
xo,
s
Katie says
When I was studying abroad in Argentina, I met some old ladies from Alabama or Mississippi when I was out to lunch one day. I ended up translating for them, and when they asked how I ended up in Argentina, I explained. Turns out the husband of one of the ladies went to my teeny-tiny college in Ohio about 50 years prior!
Judy says
Here’s my small world story. I grew up in Houston and spent my junior year of college in Bolivia. Fast forward a few years, and I’m living and working in Dallas. I’m at the airport for an early morning work flight, when I see a couple of people I met in Bolivia, who are actually from Canada, and on a layover to the Carribean. It was super random.
Blair says
Best small world story I have was when I was visiting my uncle in LA and the director of his show (8 simple rules)daughter went to sleep away camp with me the summer before, I totally knew her, she slept above me in our cabin!
~Blair
Emily says
Living in a small county (in Maryland, woo hoo!) where my great-grandmother had 19 kids…I accidentally find out I’m related to random people all the time…but my favorite small town/world story is from my trip to Africa last summer. I was there with other students doing a research project. We met some British foreign exchange students and started hanging out with them. I soon found out that they all knew and went to college with the British exchange student that my parents hosted at their house the year before!
Katie says
If a dream counts, then mine last night is appropriate: I dreamed my husband and I were having a picnic in a park near our house (we live in Florida) and you guys came over and put a picnic blanket down right next to us. We started chatting, and you said you were visiting your grandparents, who turned out to be our neighbors. Clara wasn’t with you, and I was sad because I wanted to meet her. Anyway, the funniest (to me) part of the dream was when I called Sherry $herdog. Mmm hmm.
YoungHouseLove says
Yessss! A nickname is officially “established” once it’s in a dream, right?
xo,
s
Sophie says
That is such a strange coincidence! I bet they’re going to be awesome neighbours (:
My weirdest story is probably a recent one. I found out that my neighbour’s daughter (who I’ve known my whole life) is getting married, and the guy is my best friend’s uncle! Not only that, but he has another two nieces who are twins and go to the school where my mom works – she always used to complain to me about how badly behaved they were.
So not only is my best friend’s uncle marrying my neighbour’s daughter, but her cousins caused hell for my mom with their lack of rule abiding skills. :P
Shawna says
a whopper of a coincidence:
My sophomore year of college, I shared a suite with 5 other girls. Two bedrooms, 3 girls per room (can you say cozy?). I knew my 2 roommates. The other 3 were strangers to the 3 of us, but 2 of them had known each other the previous year. Those 2, R & C, became very close. UNTIL C stole R’s parents credit card, and furnished an apartment for herself and her loser boyfriend. R thought she had lost the credit card, but, sleuths that we are, we figured out what happened. When C came back to the dorm one night to pick up her stuff to move out to her swanky new apartment, the third girl in the other room, H, started a BIG confrontation. Needless to say, things ended badly. None of us had any interaction with C after that. Five years later, H went to the hospital to deliver her first child. C was the nurse on duty.
Angela says
How’s this one?? Many moons ago, my dad’s aunt and uncle adopted a baby that I grew up knewing as Cousin Miley (name changed with the celeb trend). Fast forward to 2007 – I was at my now-husband’s college graduation party and Miley was there. We saw each other and both said, “What are you doing here?”
It turns out that my husband’s uncle is Miley’s biological father and she has a relationship with both families. We always joke that my husband and I have a “shared cousin” and that we would put a chair in the center of the aisle for her at our wedding so she wouldn’t have to choose a side!
Robin says
My husband’s half brother’s cousin invited us to their wedding in SC and the bride’s family was BFF’s with my maid of honor! She travelled from Colorado to SC and got to see each other. What a small world.
Britt says
hahaha. i live in Richmond and know what you mean – actually I go almost nowhere without full makeup and dressed decently, because I know for sure I’ll end up running into someone I know.
I keep hoping the small town vibe will extend and I’ll get to run into you guys sometime! I would be the person with her mouth hanging open invading your space, haha.
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- I’ll be the person with no makeup on and the weird cowlick. Seriously. Happens all the time.
xo,
s
Angela S says
Our small world has to do with buying our current house.
My hubby almost totally bypassed the listing our realtor sent us and I caught it. At the time we lived across the state and he commuted to work every weekend. So he was already over here so long story he looked at it and I flew over the next weekend to look at it.
Upon browsing the house the owners had left fresh baked cookies and a map on the quickest route to work. Turns out they also have 3 kids and her hubby works at the same place as my hubby but different departments. When my oldest started school she ended up in the same class as the previous owners son and they sat next to each other and became friends.. (well as much as you can with boy girls in 5th grade without boy/girl germs)
When the neighbors asked who was moving in she said oh a couple with 3 kids and he works at xx. He said No the NEW people.. she said that is the new people. :)
Small world we live in indeed. They actually just moved down the street and traded in land for more house.
Jill says
Oh yah. Everyday. I have been working at a credit union in a small town just 2 miles from my parents house for 4 years. My parents have been in that house for 19 years. I see people I went to school with, meet their parents, their cousins, their new husbands, and even some of their offspring. I like to embarass the teenagers when I tell them I knew them when they were babies. I am 29 going on 76 somedays!!! Then there are those people you wish you didn’t bump into. Needless to say, I don’t frequent the grocery store across the street too often. I have enough mini reunions during the 8 hours I am at work. I go just a mile past my parents house and see far less people I know. I sometimes like the small world thing but then other times I am just like- ughhhh!!! It is hard to have a bad day, or even a bad hair day when you come in contact with people you’ve known for years. You always have to be on your best behavior (which I am anyway, but still there’s a lot of pressure there).
Beth W. says
I hear you. I hate worrying about what I look like just to go to the grocery store. My husband and I are both teachers, which turns us into quasi-celebrities in our town whenever we are out shopping. We like to have contests to see which of us is spotted by more of their students. We actually bought a house in the county over from where we teach to try to counteract that effect.
Of course, the one time I go to the grocery store in my paint clothes, I run into two students and a co-worker! I don’t even go in the local Walmart or Target anymore- it makes the trip to the store twice as long when you run into everybody you know.
I also grew up in the area, and my parents have been there for 40+ years, so I’m forever running into people who know me… but I don’t have the foggiest idea who they are. (And they don’t bother to tell me, even though the last time I met them was when I was like five.) Don’t you hate that?
YoungHouseLove says
Loving all the stories guys. It’s so crazy how things work out!
xo,
s
Jonel says
My dad’s cousin (mother side) L went to get her computer fixed by guy G. She realized the guy G had the same last name as my dad and he was Jamaican. Turns out my dad and guy G are actually first cousins. They both share the same interests (computers and fishing) and they lived fairly close to each other 20 minute drive away in the same city.
Also, we went to Disneyworld and while we were waiting in line we were talking to the people in front of us. Turned out they were from the same neighborhood that we lived at the time and went to my grade school. Very funny.
Sew says
Irie
kelsey says
that is hilarious! these small world stories always bite me in the you know what. how fun if you are both re-doing houses together! and having a playdate friend next door is so wonderful, i mean so wonderful! congrats.
Erika says
My favorite small world story – after a few dates with my now hubby, we had been chatting about our childhoods and families. He said “Wait…your dad’s name is Bill?” and I said “yesssss…” and he said “Like…Bill Young?” and I said “yessss…like Erika Young” and he said “He was my soccer coach on my under 10 team!” Turns out he played soccer with my brothers on my dad’s soccer team for a few seasons, like 20 years ago! The family joke is now “That’s what he gets for not putting me at full back!”
Suzanne says
You know you’re on AT right now?
YoungHouseLove says
Thanks Suzanne! Off to check it out!
xo,
s
Michelle says
The house I lived in from 8-18 was in a popular subdivision in town. My dad still lives there. When I met my now husband and went to his parents house for the first time, I discovered that it was not only in the same subdivision, but it was the same model house that I grew up in. The only thing different was that it was the opposite layout. My husband went to my dad’s house for the first time and actually asked “where’s the bathroom?” We all laughed and looked at him like he was crazy because hello…its in the same place as your parents house, just on the other side.
Another small world story is in my current small town. I was at the grocery store and let a man with just one item go in front of me. He was really nice about it and we cracked some jokes together. I went to the local high school to watch a girls basketball game with my sister later that night and the guy I let move in front of me in line was actually the night custodian there and was at the game to put away the bleachers at the end of the night. My sister didn’t think it was weird but I did. Of all the people to see at a GIRLS high school ball game, I saw the same man I had an encounter with at the store!
Eva says
When me and my husband had just started dated I found out that his ex long time girlfriend went to Uni with my sister, and actually the three of us girls at one point went to a spin class together… and I actually remember him picking her up, I didn’t really see him that well though as he was sitting in his car. That’s Iceland for ya!
Lori @ Richmond, BABY! says
Love that story! So fun and very Richmond. Here’s my story: when we moved into our house we learned that our next door neighbors were the grandparents of a 1st grade student of mine. And for some bizarre reason, she and her family were always going in to visit the grandparents right when I was running out to my car in my pjs to get something! :)
Kristin says
This story is sort of a double whammy. My husband went to a relatively small college (graduating class of roughly 500). However, no matter where we go – grocery story, camping, vacation in another state – we always seem to run into someone he went to college with. I went to a pretty large university and I NEVER run into anyone I went to college with.
Anyway, a little over a year ago, we bought our house and moved to a new town (next town over from where our condo was). I was at the park with my girls pushing them in a swing and another mom starting chatting with me. She asked about my girls – how old, etc – and then she asked their names (one of them has a pretty unique name). Then she looks right at me and asks, “Are you married to Scott W?” I said yes and asked how she knew and she told me that she graduated from college with him, that they kept in touch loosely via Facebook and that she recognized my daughter’s name. Then she told me that her and her husband had just bought a house in our new town as well.
Michelle says
Oh another one! The venue where we had our wedding was holding another wedding at the same time. Our friend went to the bathroom and saw the groom from the other wedding…who happened to be his friend. Not friend enough to invite him to their wedding but still, he knew him. THEN….we saw that same newlywed couple in an art gallery in Maui on our honeymoon. It was bizarre.
Ashley says
My friend and I were visiting NYC once and while strolling around saw a biker pass a car and they exchanged a high five. We looked at each other and started talking about how often do people really just “bump” into someone they know in NYC?? I mean, really? A block later we find ourselves eerily exchanging a look at each other as we recognized the girl coming towards us. We stopped and said, “hey charmayne!!” how random?!
Kelsey D says
My favorite small world story is the story of my husband and I. We were next door neighbors in a little town from the ages 4-10 and absolutely inseparable until my family moved a few towns away. Although we bumped into each other a couple times at school sporting events we lost touch. While in college I was working at a small clothing store and he walked in one day. We laughed at the coincidence, but again left it at that. Finally that summer while I was home from college I was working at a local restaurant and was talking to my co-worker and found out that he was not only from the same little town as my now hubby, but he was one of his best friends. After telling him our past and admitting I would love to reconnect with “D” even if just on a friendship level, his friend actually remembered “D” talking about me, our encounter at the clothing store and how he regretted not getting my number! Needless to say I made sure my number got passed on to him and the rest is history! :)
Melinda says
I have two. The first one spans several years, and the second is super recent.
When I was nine my family rented a Uhaul to move us, but in the middle of the night (we moved as late into the night as school days would allow, lol) the engine on the truck gave up the ghost. We called Uhaul and they sent a replacement truck immediately. Less than an hour later, we were moving all the stuff from one truck to the other. The guy that brought the new truck even helped us, and shared a late night pizza with our family.
Fast forward four or five years, we need a new hitch on our car, so we take it to a different Uhaul to install, several cities away. At the end of the install, my mom sends me back in to buy a cover for the hitch. I walk up to the counter and the gentleman just gives it to me, he won’t take any money for it. I walk back out and try to explain to my mom, and she doesn’t understand. She goes back inside to insist on paying, and finds out that the gentleman handling our install is the same guy from that night four or five years before. He appreciated that we weren’t angry or screaming that night so many years ago, and wanted to repay us for being good customers. We also found out a couple days later, he was the dad of one of my teammates on a kid’s bowling league. Such a small world.
My recent run-in starts in Mexico. My parent’s church visits a little village down there several times a year to help out and bring things they might need but can’t afford. One of the families had a daughter that they mentioned was moving to the US, but we didn’t know exactly where. A month or so later I walked into my church to find the daughter and her husband onstage singing and translating the service into Spanish. They moved only a couple blocks from me and chose to attend the same church! :D
Julia says
I was born in RVA and am now back for the first time in a decade ! It’s crazy running into my old kindergarten classmates, middle school dance dates, you two( Sherry and John), and oddly enough someone who used to live down the block from me in Scotland ! Richmond is quickly becoming a great place for artists and families and I think it’s awesome ! Hometown pride :)
Elena says
Okay, so my small world story is really weird, but here goes: In college, my brother’s friend made t-shirts with my brother’s image on them. That is a story in and of itself. (Kind of impressive in those days before Cafe Press–I think he actually made a silkscreen. Here’s a link to a FB group I made in the shirt’s honor: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=50829852397&ref=ts)
Anyhoo… Many of my friends had them and years later, when I had kids, my sister-in-law recreated the shirts as onesies, bibs, etc. So one day, about a good 12 years after leaving college, I was walking down the street in Chicago, IL (the shirts originated in Madison, WI) and about a block away I saw the familiar image of a Neil t-shirt walking towards me. I automatically figured it must be someone I knew. As he approached I realized this person was not only a stranger, but about ten years younger than me.
I stopped and asked him about the shirt and he told me that someone left it at his house after a party in HS. He had no idea who “Neil” was but he (and his sister) wore the shirt all the time and loved it. (They figured Neil was some unknown lounge singer from the 70’s.) The kid just about died when I told him Neil was my brother and that I owned the same shirt. I got my brother on my cell and he got his sister on his and we all had a good laugh.
Bizarre story, and I don’t know if anyone else can appreciate it like I did but it was pretty cool ;)
Christina says
The best one I know: my husband’s grandparents were on vacation at Stonehenge and met someone there that they knew!
Liz says
So funny…St. Louis is very similar and I have a doozy. My sister and I bought a house together back in 2006. When she got married, she moved into her husband’s condo, and my then fiance (now husband) moved in with me in 2008. He had been married before and divorced, and they have had MINIMAL contact since (no kids). Fast forward to a few months later, we’re outside – he’s doing yardwork and I’m cleaning out the garage – and I come out to talk to him. I’m covered in cobwebs and grime, mind you. I look to the sidewalk and he’s talking to a woman with a dog. I think, how nice, he’s meeting our neighbors! I go over to meet the woman and after about 2 minutes it hits me. IT’s HIS EX, and she lives 10 houses down the street from us. The same city block. And I am sweaty and covered in dirt. Awesome. Not only that but I found out a few months later that she had her 2nd wedding and reception at the SAME PLACE we had our reception, a mere 5 months apart. It’s now 2011 and she still lives down the street from us. How’s that for small world?
WI Gal says
I have two small world stories …
When I was a young child, my parents moved into their first house. During the course of the first year, they met some neighbors down the street. Turns out, one of the neighbors was the grandchild of my mom’s grandmother’s sister (catch that?). My mom and her neighbor were distant cousins!
My husband and I lived in Australia for a year. We went on a trip to New Zealand. While on a cross-country train with multiple cars, we sat down in assigned seats and who should be across the aisle from us but our next-door neighbors from Australia!
mariana says
I live in Napa, Ca and everyone knows EVERYONE here! Its the “one/two degree of Kevin Bacon” to a whole new level. My new boss is friends with my friend’s mother in law. My coworker dated my boyfriends childhood friend. The school cop is a family friend, whose son also goes to school with me. The yoga teacher at the gym is my guy friend’s ex-girlfriends mom. lol. i could go on & on & on…. its quite hilarious. We always say, “be nice to everyone because you never know who they might know”.
Adrienne says
Broke my arm last night while working on the final coat of white paint on the wood paneling in our bathroom. Crappy. Must say that this video made my day! Thanks!! I needed that!!
YoungHouseLove says
Oh no! So sorry! Feel better soon!
xo,
s
MissZee says
Well ending up sitting next to my high school priest/religion teacher on a transatlantic flight made the world feel pretty small. (It was about a decade after he quit teaching at the school).
And finding out my grandfather taught my French teacher when she was in college, was also one for the books.
I live in a VERY small town. We haven’t always lived here but most people have. Everyone is related to someone else in some weird wonderful way (often through third or fourth marriages anymore)
Kimberly says
Last week, the hubs and I took a 5 year anniversary trip to Jamaica. We struck up a conversation with another couple about baseball (we were all cards fans) then realized we were all from St. Louis, then narrowed it tp the same suburb, hwy, and subdivision. These people literally live down the street from us! Small world :)
Robin says
I joined the Air Force and moved to the other side of the planet (literally) and ran into a friend of my sisters from high school at the grocery store and at the movies.
Julie says
Richmond is a small town! Driving my two new assistants Rachel and Monica (not real names) back to the office from lunch, Monica spots her brother-in-law drive past in a Jeep. Next, talk comes up about boyfriends and spouses. Rachel met her boyfriend in a guitar class in high school. What school did she go to? The same school that Monica’s Jeep driving brother-in-law teaches at. Guess what he teaches? Guitar! Basically, Rachel met her boyfriend in Monica’s brother-in-law’s class!! Small small town!
amanda bohack says
Omg…so when I finally met my husbands high school sweet heart and then ran into her agian with my dad one day, my dad KNEW her….”what the heck” was all I could think- She married one of his friends and my parents had even been to her house….holy moly….that was too weird….and yes my husband is 10 yrs older than me and 10 years younger than my parents…so you see that is how this tangled webb got weaved!
Mary says
I was born in a small town in Michigan, it was only a few thousand people, but my parents claim that it didn’t matter where they went, they would probably run into someone from the town – this was the case over and over again!
My favorite personal small world story – I went to India my sophomore year of college as part of an honors class with the University of Louisville (KY). While in Delhi, we went to a college to hear some of the history students read their term papers. One student had an english name and his paper was on African American spirituals, so we were curious and talked to him after. When asked if he had ever been to the U.S., he said “yes, my family spent a year in Louisville, KY” – we were all super excited, turned out he had gone to a local high school and been in class with one of my classmate’s boyfriend. Small, small world!