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.
Eilene says
That’s hysterical! Love the video!
My story (that I stole from a family member) is that my cousin was bringing her son to get a haircut a couple days before my wedding. They were telling the barber that they were going to Vermont for a destination wedding (mine) and the barber said he was too. Afer a couple minutes they figured out that they were both going to the same wedding (mine). Drum roll. The barber is my mom’s best friend’s husband hehe.. ok maybe that isn’t so shocking.
Born and Raised RVA says
Oh, and you all haven’t even lived there for that long! I was born and raised in Richmond and lived there for the first 24 years of my life. Though I have never heard anyone say “That’s Richmond for ya,” it was always a given. Though I have been away for a few years now, I can’t go anywhere without running into someone I knew. Richmond is definately a big little city with a small town attitude. Case and point: I had the good fortune to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts for the Picasso exibit this past Easter weekend with my grandfather, affectionately called Papa. Papa and I were stopped at least 7 times that day by people who knew him. He has even been refered to at the unofficial Mayor of Richmond. (I guess when you have been practicing law in the city for 60 years you start to meet people.) A funny side note, I asked Papa why he never ran for Mayor and he said they don’t pay enough.
Laylacharli says
I live in Tasmania, the island off the bottom of Australia and the small town thing happens all the time. Its a bit of a joke of ‘mainland’ Australians that all Tasmanians know each other. We also once met another Tasmanian while on holiday in the UK!
Ani says
The town I live in is very much like that as far as coincidences go. However, it isn’t really a city so I can’t boast that such small town antics are anything spectacular, but neat all the same.
We moved into our house around the same time you moved into your new place [We moved in January, I think for you guys it was December, no?] & with all the funk of winter going on, we didn’t really meet any of our neighbors except the sweet older couple directly to the left of us. First small world item on the agenda: this sweet older couple new my grandparents. My grandmother worked as a jail guard & Mr. Next Door was a coworker.
Now that the snow has melted & the chill of spring has started to vanish, we’re meeting tons of new folks! We’ve met a wonderful couple at the end of the street that have a sweet little guy the same age as our oldest & they’re already great friends. In the two weeks since meeting this little family we’ve had them over for a BBQ, they’ve had us over to their place for one, I’ve gone shopping with the lady of the family & my husband went to the movies with the guy last night. It’s great to have friends just a hop, skip & jump down the street.
Anyway, onto the it’s-a-small-small-world shenanigans: When we first met them [in our front yard as we were doing yard work & they were out for a stroll] she told us that in high school she dated a boy that lived in our house. We later found out his room is now our 3 year old’s room. She said I did not want to know what went on in that room. Blech.
Also, her mother knows my husband’s aunt through her house cleaning company. Last but not least she babysits the son of my husband’s cousin. We were like, woah. Pretty cool.
Paula in MN says
I’ve got two small world stories! First, through the blog world, I became good friends with Mary. When her grandmother died we talked about the town the funeral was in, because my Uncle and several of my male cousins live there. Turns out one of my cousins adopted her biological nephew. Second, I’ve been great friends with our local librarian for the 8 years I’ve lived in this small town. Her mother attends my church, and they were even at my wedding. I had something written about my dad (died many, many years ago) in our church bulletin, and my friend the librarian and her mother called me wanting to know how I knew this person….their COUSIN. Yes, our grandparents were brother and sister. And once again, the hair on my arms is standing up!
Jamie says
I’ve got a total Oprah moment for you. I used to bartend in the town I live in ( a very small town) and a girl I know was sitting at the bar and we were chit chatting when another random girl came in and we all engaged in general chit chat together for a while. Random girl finished her drink and asked for the check and then gave me her credit card. I looked at the name on the card before running it and noticed she had the same last name as the girl I knew already sitting at the bar and I said ” Hey that’s weird you both have the same last name”. Then my friend said to Random Girl “Well I do have a half sister I’ve never met” and Random Girl responded “Me too” Anyway, they compared a few more notes and it turns out they were half sisters and they had both been looking for eachother without success until the one fateful day they walked into a bar. There were lots of hugs and crying and it was awesome!
Lindsay says
This was a good one, like should be a movie good…
YoungHouseLove says
Totally! I got goosebumps.
xo,
s
Karin K says
I recently had the same “Hey….wait a minute!” experience and it happened to be with the two of YOU, all because of this blog. A friend sent me the link, which she had found while googling ideas for painting brick. She gushed over the insane cuteness of your house. I clicked the link and gushed myself. On my first stroll through, I had no idea where your house was (you could have been blogging form Idaho, for all I knew). The more I looked around, the more you two reminded me of my niece and her new husband who were married a year ago, and who just bought their first house. Of course, I ended up loving this blog so much that I decided to take my coat off and stay awhile, and after I had gotten to REALLY know you, I discovered that: Aforementioned niece and husband live in the exact same area of Richmond you two do (rhymes with Lawn Chair), they both attended the same University John did (Go Hoos), I was a bridesmaid in a wedding in your “almost” location (I think I’d have liked your backyard better) and a few more small co-inky dinks. That IS Richmond for ya! By the way – I guess this means you no longer have to gaze upon the large blue sedan….. Yay.
YoungHouseLove says
Yes! The blue car is gone. We have mixed feelings about it though- we were getting to like that blue guy. Haha.
xo,
s
ChristinaD says
Ohh I have a pretty good one… I’m a real estate appraiser and the first day back at work after returning from my bro’s wedding in Jamaica last month (yeah, it was awesome!) I’m inspecting this big warehouse property and chatting with the owner about the wedding, etc. Well later that afternoon I get a call from Jack (the owner of the property) and he says “You’re not going to believe this… were you at the Joyce wedding?” I reply: “Yes, my brother married a Joyce (last name).. why do you ask?” He had just gotten off the phone with John, my new sister-in-law’s grandfather! They are very good friends and when he mentioned that he had just gotten back from his granddaughter’s weddding in Jamaica, Jack thought, this can’t be the same one..! Pretty crazy.
Erika says
I am actually from a tiny town in Michigan. As I was getting ready to load my stuff on a bus in Chattanooga, TN (where we moved years later) chartered for a ride to the Atlanta airport to start a trek for a college art trip all the way to France, I was introduced to my roommate for the next 9 days. It turns out that even though she was born and raised in Chattanooga, TN her family summered at the same tiny lake that my great grandfather built our family’s summer cottage on in the late 1940’s. We realized that we probably unknowingly played together at the public beach across our little lake on the shores of Lake MI many summers. Weird, right?
The other, Richmond version, is seeing what appears to be a familiar face at the grocery store, then meeting that person the next day when digging up some monkey grass from their yard, then running in to them again a couple months later while attending a kiddie class at a local park. ;o)
Jenny says
So, I have a random question about interior doors. Currently, mine are the old lightly stained wood from the 50s and I’m thinking about painting them white. What color are your doors, and how do you recommend painting them? Also, have you ever try spray painting the knobs?
YoungHouseLove says
I haven’t tried spray painting knobs yet but I have a plan involving spray paint someday on my to do list so I’ll report back. As for painting them, you’ll need a stainblocking primer (oil-based usually works best although it’s stinky) and then a coat or two of semi-gloss or high gloss latex paint (semi-gloss is what we use). It’s pretty straightforward if you apply thin and even coats and you can use a small foam roller to avoid brushstrokes. Good luck!
xo,
s
Brittany says
Quick! Sue the napkin on Rachel Ray today! :)
YoungHouseLove says
So excited!
xo,
s
jessica says
Omgeeee….sue the napkin is going to be on rachael ray today!!!!!
YoungHouseLove says
Woooot. Sue’s big break!
xo,
s
lesli devito says
I have so many of these they have become almost commonplace and I start to wonder, if the world is not just small, but microscopic.
Last year, we were between soccer games and having lunch at a bagel place. I am browsing through the local paper, and see a familiar face from college and graduate school, a guy I knew, who had recently moved to our town with his family to take over our film festival. I currently live in VA but went to school in Florida., and have lived in New York and Boston in between. I show the picture to my kids and say,” I will have to look him up, it says here he has a family and I bet it was hard for them to move to a new town.”
WE go to the next soccer game and on the way home I decide to pick up some things at the grocery store. In the grocery store, our first stop is the free cookies, and right there , in the prepared foods section…is my FRIEND! the guy from college!!! I walk over and it takes him a second, but he remembers me and we discover that his oldest and youngest are in the same grade, but at a different school!
But they change the districts the next year and now his daughter is not only at my sons school, she is in his class!” and they are good family friends.
microscopic!
Elyssa says
Great small world story that actually spans across the globe!
When I was a senior in HS we hosted a girl my age from Israel for 10 days. We had never met and only found out her name the day before we picked her up.
On our 10 minute drive to the house, she turns and asks me if I know anyone from Philadelphia. (I live in Central NY). I said, no, I don’t think so. She starts telling me how her best friend from high school left Israel the year before and moved to Philly. All the sudden it dawned on me that MY best friend from 2nd-6th grade had lived in Israel and just recently moved to Philly. I turned to look at her and at the same time, asked, “Do you know Noa?” Sure enough, the very same girl that became my friend when our second grade teacher sat her at the desk next to me had lived next door to her for the last 6 years-in Israel!
That night, we all spoke on the phone. It was an incredible way to catch up with a great friend from elementary school. It is definitely a small world!
Melody says
I grew up in Thailand, but moved to the US when I was 12. The summer after my senior year of high school I went to England with my church, and saw old family friends that I had known in Thailand! It was crazy!
Niki says
Where I live is not a small town (live in a suburb of Cincinnati…but across the river in KY). ANYWAY…went to Key West for vaca one year and went to Key West’s Smallest Bar, which is, literally, Key West’s smallest bar. It is in a portion of an alley between two bars on Duval. So, went in, talked to the bartender/owner. He’s from Cincinnati (the same suburb as my husband). While hanging out, a few more couples stopped in (at this point the bar is packed). One guy keeps looking at me and I’m getting weirded out. He says “You look familiar.” I agreed that he also looked familiar. After talking about each other, we figured out/remembered that he was my boss right out of high school/summer job during college!
Jenny says
Thanks for the insight on the doors Sherry!
Gloria says
Fun story! During my junior year in college, I studied abroad in Argentina. During my time in Buenos Aires, I spent a week at a pension for girls. While there, I met a girl who had been an exchange student in my hometown of Spokane, WA. She’d gone to school on the other side of town, though, so we both figured that we didn’t know anyone in common. How wrong we were! I discovered later in the week that she had gone to the same Young Life camp in Canada as my brother. Yup, they were there the same week. Yes, that’s my little brother in her photo album, and my family’s address written in his handwriting in her memory book. Small World!
awc says
I have two “That’s Richmond for Ya” stories…
First — I moved from Charleston, SC to Richmond in 2004. I worked at a resort at the time. I was chatting with one of spa employees and told her that I was moving to Richmond. She said her sister lived here and knew all the fun places to go, etc and I had to call her when I arrived in Richmond. I didn’t know the lady that well, but said ok and jotted her sister’s name and number down on the envelope of my cell phone bill. I threw it in a drawer and forgot about it – the number that is. I paid the bill. Fast forward 3 or 4 months… I met this guy through a friend of a friend and we started dating. We were having dinner at my apartment and got on the subject of his neighbor. I can’t remember for the life of me how she came up, but her name was so familiar. I dug up that envelope and… it was the sister of the woman from Charleston!!! She lived right next door to my boyfriend.
Second — My husband and I figured out on our first date that we were at the same wedding four years earlier. Our exes are friends of the bride.
RVA is a small town! ;)
BeckyB says
For several years, I ran into people who knew a co-worker of mine. Before we worked together in New Mexico (average sized town for NM but probably small to the rest of the world), she worked at a couple of hospitals in the Alaskan bush. We would be at a movie and she would see someone she knew from Alaska. Go out to eat….someone from Alaska. Then it began happening to me-I was in a class, started talking to someone and they knew X from Alaska. I was working at a hospital in Maine and met someone who worked with her in Alaska. I’ve lost track of X but her name still pops up occasionally.
Andrea says
I LOVE small world stories, and I’ve got a good one.
I’m from New Hampshire and went to college in Pennsylvania. About 5 years ago I went down to Philly to celebrate a college roomate’s birthday and meet her new boyfriend. The moment I saw him, I knew I recognized him, but obviously couldn’t place it. He went to college in Virginia and was from Deleware. So how could I have possibly known him?? Quite a while later in conversation he mentioned the college he attended. “That’s it!” I said. I had a high school friend that went to the same college and married her college sweetheart the summer before. When I said, “Michelle and Eddie?” we just laughed. That was it. He had come up to New Hampshire for the wedding, before he and my friend were dating, and now they are married. So, it’s a funny thing that I met my Philly friend’s husband in New Hampshire (!) before they ever met, 500 miles away.
=) It’s a small world after all!
Lindsey says
Small world story from GA for ya:
4 years ago, Husby and I went to Waffle House for breakfast in the town next door. A couple (young guy and his pregnant wife) sitting at the booth behind us was admiring our 5 month old daughter and struck up a conversation. The guy says, “Hey, you should move to this town! I built a neighborhood here!” We politely declined. On the way home from WaHo, we went for a drive, and fell in love with the most gorgeous house. 5 months later we bought said house. A year later our neighbors happened to mention the builder’s name… yep, you guessed it. Friendly WaHo guy was our builder. We’ll call him “F,” partly because his name starts with F. Mostly we call him F because all the right angles and switchplates are f’d up in this house, haha.
Fast forward 2 years, I’m training to be a doula. I show up to a birth, and the mom is mentioning in between contractions how mad she is at her husband that he and his flaky friend F didn’t finish the bathroom reno before she went into labor. I thought “No way is this the same F, that would be too weird.” But, oh, it was! F gets around apparently, and doesn’t leave the ladies satisfied, haha.
Fast forward another year to this week. I went to get a haircut at a new place in town. I sit down and immediately notice the girl’s name at her station is, well, we will call her B-L. It’s a pretty unique hyphenated name. It rings a bell. It turns out that I remember her name from a WaHo trip almost four years ago, when she and her husband F were eating breakfast behind us. I tell her the short version of the story and that basically, it’s her fault we moved to this town because she was craving WaHo for breakfast that day. :)
Jessica says
I was born in a small small bubble in Kentucky and no story is new someone always has heard it or knows what your talking about but the best one we have about our house is when we where sitting at a local town pub when we ran into someone from highschool and they asked us where we lived when we told him they replied ohh the things I did in that house… excuse me? We laughed and found out someone we knew lived there that he was best friends with about 4 owners before us and we also met the previous owners who got married in our backyard, when they where driving by reminiscing on there one year anniversary. Very cool!
Dana says
I’m from Baltimore…which is often referred to as ‘Smalltimore’. Even though it’s a fairly large city, everyone seems to know everyone or be connected in some way. I have so many ‘Smalltimore’ stories, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one!
Lauren says
I am from the midwest and was about to be moving to Louisiana for an AmeriCorps program, but first went to visit my aunt and uncle out in New Jersey. My aunt and I met up with her step-daughter (who was grown when my aunt married) and a family friend. The four of us speant the day together. While talking about what I was going to be doing in Louisiana, the friend of the family was like oh my nephew is going to louisiana to do something like that too soon. Turned out I met one of the other americorps volunteer’s aunt, uncle, and cousin by the end of the day.
The next week we finally met each other in Louisiana.
Another good one, while working at a summer camp in New Hampshire, I met a girl from Ireland who had did a exchange program with my highschool in the midwest a couple years after I graduated.
It is a small small world. .. .
Brittany says
I have a small world story. DH and I were on vacation in Las Vegas when we ran into my brother’s brother-in-law on his honeymoon with his wife who I was a bridesmaid with in my brother’s wedding.
Kerry says
My smallest of small world stories – my husband’s uncle and aunt are my parents’ neighbors on their small street in their small town in Pennslyvania. We didn’t meet each other until we went to the same college, but he said things like “Oh yeah, I think we use your driveway to turn around when we visit them on Thanksgiving!” We didn’t start dating for a few years after that, and now we’re married.
Oh, and the hubs (Kyle) also used to play street hockey with the son of my dad’s best man, who lived about two streets away from him.
AND Kyle was friendly with a girl from my high school from going to Presidential Classroom with her – and he came to my high school’s homecoming dance with one of her friends my senior year. I was there too, and I knew those girls.
It’s really ridiculous it took us 18 years to meet.
Casey says
Smallest world ever: Met a guy on jury duty in Cambridge, MA who had lived in the same exact studio apartment in Malden, MA, only a few years earlier! Impressively, he lived there with his wife!
Other small world story: My cousin from Wisconsin visited Australia, made some friends, then moved to Boston. He met up with one of the girls he met in Australia, who happened to live in Boston, and brought her to our halloween party. They called for a cab, I heard her give her address — and it turns out, she lives in the same exact apartment my friends and I lived in (I moved out of the studio into this place).
Apparently I rent apartments that are super awesome…?
Ashley Buchan says
I grew up in Smyrna, Georgia. From the time I was 4-6, my sister and I had a babysitter named Shay. Twenty years later, my husband and I are living in Louisville, Kentucky, and are members of a large church here. The pastor’s wife looked oddly familiar to me, and after learning that she was also from Smyrna, I got in touch with her and put the pieces together. Shay was her best friend, and she occasionally subbed for Shay when she had to cancel on babysitting us. Small world indeed!
Blanca A. says
what a small world :) i live in west michigan and my fiance and i went to Mackinaw Island(very tip of mi, 4hrs from home) and we were playing mini golf and the couple behind us has a t-shirt with the name of our neighbor city and we started talking to them about it, then the couple in front of us starts talking to us and mentions they are from another neighboring city. amazeballs! we all lived like 15 to 30 min away from each other :)
**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) …..hi-larious, could not stop laughing :)
Teri says
So funny you wrote this this week because I just told my hubs that I needed to write about our small world experiences on my blog. We have had 3-4 recently. The best one I will share with you…
We were setting up for our garage sale last weekend. Being the new neighbors (we moved in at the beginning of May), all the neighbors come and introduce themselves when they are out. On this morning, the neighbor down the block was walking her dog and saw us setting up. We were laughing at how the dog seemed more excited to be out than her. We talked for a bit, as my hubs begrudgingly was setting up for the looming sale, when she introduced herself. It was as if her name lit a fire under him, he shot out of the garage and said “I know you from somewhere”. He asked if she was from his hometown, she wasn’t. He then asked if she was a nurse. She said she was, and I immediately knew who she was…
She was one of the nurses who helped save our daughter’s life when we were pregnant. Our daughter required bi-weekly blood transfusions while still inutero. Our neighbor was one of the nurses who helped us during that process. We probably stood in the middle of the street “OMG”ing each other.
It really is a small world.
YoungHouseLove says
So amazing that you got to catch up with her! I love all the stories you guys have shared!
xo,
s
Cheryl says
I flew to Detroit (from home) a couple months ago and shared a cab with a people I work with and a random guy who turned out to be somebody I went to elementary school with! I didn’t recognize him, but he recognized me – knew my name and everything. Guess that’s a testament to how my looks haven’t changed in 20+ years…
BethanyB says
What I think is crazy is that when I told my cousin (who also lives in Richmond) about your blog she later told me that she totally considered buying the house you guys live in now before her and her husband decided to build a house instead. That has always been one thing I love about Richmond; the small town feel just makes you feel at home. I’m glad you guys got a nice experience of that all of your own.
YoungHouseLove says
No way- I love that! Such a small world.
xo,
s
BethanyB says
yeah and they live (while they are looking for land) in the aptments you guys lived in when you first moved to Richmond. lol. Not sure if she still reads your blog or not but Im sure your bound to run into each other one of these days.
YoungHouseLove says
So funny!
xo,
s
Kacie says
That is so cool. My family is all in Seattle and my twin brother was showing my Grandma an apartment he was looking at renting and she said, “I LIVED in that apartment when I was in college!” Crazy! I love that kind of thing.
Kacie
http://www.acollectionofpassions.blogspot.com/
Gillian @ Letters to Liney says
I used to work for my mother-in-law’s family owned bakery that is known for an original and locally famous dessert. Somehow a relative of Courtney Cox (of the television show Friends) wanted to send her our signature dessert so we agreed to ship it from the southern U.S. all the way to California. We never heard from Courtney Cox other than that she did receive it…
A month later I was in Malibu attending my cousin’s wedding. After the ceremony my family and I were hanging out on the private beach that runs behind all the homes on the waterfront and I saw a woman walking towards us. I was about to tell her how much I liked her blouse when all of the sudden I realized it was none other than Courtney Cox, who lived two doors down!
Courtney P. says
My husband and I had a small world story happen last October. We were in Washington, D.C. for a conference and decided to head to the Cheesecake Factory on a busy Saturday night. It was football season so my husband ended up talking to some other guys about the game while we were waiting. While talking, they found out they grew up in the same town, which is a small place in WV, and only lived a few blocks apart. After talking more, we found out the guy we were talking to used to work for my husband’s grandfather and still keeps in contact with him! Definitely a small world!
Claire @ Claire K Creations says
Oh boy that video of Burger nearly made me spit my tea all over my laptop. Hilarious!
I was registered on a babysitting site and got a call from a family looking for a nanny. Turned out the mum was best friends with a close friend of mine’s sister.
Danielle says
I have a 9 week old daughter. Last week I met the lady who was in the room next door to us at the hospital for labor & delivery. We both had a good laugh when we realized we had the same midwife; our daughters were born within 30 minutes of each other; we both used doulas; our daughters share the same middle name; they both have the same clogged tear duct; and lastly, we both use cloth diapers. :)
Laura says
First off, LOVE the video – totally made my day. Plus my little girl started dancing to it while screeching at the dog.
My small world story – A few years ago I met a couple about their wedding invitations (I make them). The woman and I got to talking after a couple meets and it turns out that she went to school with my husband. What makes it so small world is that they both attended an American school in Bangkok and here we are meeting years later in Canada. Neither of them are Canadian!! Now she is a close close friend and we always have a good story to share when people ask how we first met!
Holly says
You know what’s so funny to me about that video? The little dog’s body moves, but his head doesn’t!
YoungHouseLove says
It’s true. Hilarious.
xo,
s
Jen S. says
I’ve got lots of stories like this but here is the most interesting one…I’m Canadian and grew up going up north to camp, like many other Canadians. One of my “camp friends” moved to the states after university and married there. Fast forward a few years and and it turns out he is married to Barack Obama’s sister and I now see him on TV all the time.
Andrea S. says
I’ve got a story like that, too, related to renovating our house in the east end of Richmond. I was looking for someone to help with interior design and I went to some people’s website and there was one where I said to myself, I know that woman, but I couldn’t place her. I called and we talked and I told her where I lived, she said her husband worked there a few years back, kept talking a few minutes and then a lightbulb went off for me. It turns out her husband was my high school teacher who took a group of students (including me) to Europe, which she helped chaperone! So she and I had been to Europe 10+ years ago. Richmond is so much like that, though. Especially the East End. I can’t go anywhere without knowing people.
Jenn the Pen says
I’ll try to keep this short. Yesterday we took my stepson to his deployment ceremony and ran into some peeps my hubby knew in his previous life, as did his/now my boys. We got to talking and found out this couple know the family I work for. The Mr. said he taught my boss (the owner) everything he knows about landscaping and landscaped the owner’s parent’s house YEARS ago.
Tammy says
My husband and I lusted after an old Victorian home when we set out to buy a house, but it just wasn’t feasible to buy it (for many reasons!) Still, we loved it and thought it was the coolest house ever. We dubbed it “Purple.” We ended up buying a 1920’s fixer-upper that was much more manageable. A few months later, my husband came home and told me that his co-worker bought Purple! They let us come over walk through the house to see the work they were doing, turns out we’re about the same age (late 20’s) and we’ve ended up becoming really good friends with them, as well as neighbors! I have to laugh because despite my husband not wanting to have anything to do with the unbelievable amount of work that house needed, he has ended up helping them so much with their projects, I joke that we should have bought it anyway! :)
Weezie says
We went to a business group dinner. We all went around our table and shared stories–talked about hometowns, and long story short, I discovered one of the other guys, whom we’ve know for 5 years, is my cousin! We have the same great-great grandparents. This is Cincinnati, and it also is a small town city. By the way, is that a UVa cap I spied? Go ‘hoos!
YoungHouseLove says
Haha- yup. Go Hoos.
-John
Anna says
Ok, this one is a little complicated but blew my mind at the time.
My husband and I went to highschool together. In year 10 we met and became best friends with Tim when he came from a remote country town (about 18hrs drive away) to our school to complete his senior years. He came from a tiny dot of a town (one of hundreds in the state) out in the middle of nowhere in Australia with a population of just over 1000 people, let’s call it X.
Three years after we finished highschool my husband and I were living in the city (1.5hrs from where we went to highschool). We were leaving the incredibly busy central train station when a man walked up to us and asked directions. We were going to the same place so invited him to walk with us. The big hat and belt buckle gave him away as a country man so I quipped, “You’re not from X are you?”. Yep, turned out not only was he from X but he had been a lodger with Tim’s family for some time when Tim was young and so knew him well. It just blows my mind that out of the thousands of people streaming out of the train station that day he managed to pick us and in the 5 minutes walking together we had established a direct connection.
Krystyl says
We live in a super small, very country vibed town named Yelm, our saying between my hubby and I is “Only in Yelm” Just last night we had a parade and they had a cat in a cage, goats on lead ropes and a man in a gorilla suit with a Hawaiian Shirt. Oh not to mention a boom truck with hay bales o nthe front and a lady ridig on them! CRAZY STUFF!!!
Liz W says
hi there
Just had to leave my ‘small world” story in. My husband and I used to live in Japan and were at Narita (where the airport is) at a British bar. Every Sunday they had a “pub quiz” and we often went. Many flight workers also went, on layovers. Anyway, we lost that night, but the winners were fellow New Zealanders so offered to buy us a drink with their winnings. Upon chatting, one of the men said that while he was from New Zealand he now lived in Rarotonga. My husband is Rarontongan and asked where abouts. Then they found out that the male flight attendant had in fact married my Husband’s cousin. Such a small world.
monica says
Love your blog! We live in a college town and there’s definitely the Richomond thing going on here too.
Here is my fave : My first grade son George goes to visit my aunt and uncle (his great aunt and uncle) in another part of the state – 3 1/2 hours away. While he’s there our uncle takes him to a friend’s farm to fly in their small crop duster (plane). My son and my uncle take a picture with uncle’s friend who is flying plane. My son takes the picture to school the next week for show and tell. A little boy in his class says, “That’s my grandpa in that picture.” And it was!!! Turns out our uncle’s best friend is this kid’s grandpa. To top it off, this kid’s mom has a 1st cousin who is married to my first cousin. How crazy is that? The best part about this is that we’re 6 years later and the boys are best friends.
JayGirl says
I have a couple funny stories like this. Though I’m from a small town in Illinois, I now live in DC. Needless to say I was sure no one from my hometown lived here. Until I saw a girl that looked exactly like this gal from my hometown… turns out that is her! Anyway we’ve now run into each other multiple times. She lives literally one block away from me in DC – same street, one block up. Which means for 75% of my life I have lived within half a mile of her.
Then the other funny story. One of my best friends from college (she was my roommate for a while) and I have known each other nearly 10 years. While I knew her family was originally from Illinois, I wasn’t clear on all the details – who, what, where, etc. We were gabbing on the phone after I’d just gotten back from visiting my grandparents in Illinois. I mentioned the small town my grandma was from — which turns out to be the small town her grandma was from — and it turns out they were friends in high school! Warms the heart.