Story Weekend: It's a Small World (and a giveaway)
Yes, Story Weekend is back! I’ve appreciated hearing from those of you who missed it. This weekend’s topic is “It’s a Small World” and I’ll start it off with my own story in the comment section to get things rolling. On Monday evening, 7pm EST, I’ll use a random number generator to pick one of your stories to win an audio book.
If you’re new to Story Weekend, here’s how it works: I pick a theme and you share something from your life that relates to that theme, however you interpret it. Thanks to all of you who’ve contributed. As always, there are a few “rules”:
▪ The story must be true
▪ Try to keep it under 100 words. Embrace the challenge! That’s about six or seven lines in the comment form. I want others to read your story, and most people tend to skip if it’s too long. I know how tough it is to “write tight” but I hope you’ll accept this as a challenge. Happy writing!
After a painful divorce, I tried speed dating. I was one of ten women and ten men who showed up at a Virginia restaurant, nervous about this new adventure. The women sat at tables and, at the sound of a gong, the men rotated between the tables. Conversations were swift, assessments made quickly. One guy struck me as sweet. We had things in common. We liked the same music. The same movies. And we’d both grown up in New Jersey. That’s when the conversation disintegrated: turns out he’d been my ex husband’s best friend when they were kids. Sometimes the world is way TOO small.
Only YOU!!! lol
In July 2010, I went on holiday to New Quay, mid Wales (approx 250 miles from where I live). The weather was lovely. There was a music festival on. Myself and my partner sat on the grassy verge overlooking the bay, sipping a cool beer and listening to the different artists strumming away. A wonderful guitar player came on – Jon Gomm. It was all so lovely, I thought that I had died and gone to heaven. My holiday ended with some lovely memories. In August 2013, I noticed an advert for Jon Gomm. He was to play in the Back Room, Cottingham (my little village in Yorkshire) on September 23rd. Wow….. I just had to book tickets. The day after the concert I watched him on Youtube…. ‘Aint nobody’ by Chaka Khan – what a player. I posted the Youtube video to my Facebook page telling all of my friends about my night out. A friend, Phil, who lives in the Midlands (120 miles south of here) posted back…. ‘yes, great player and my cousin’. I couldn’t believe it!! Small world!
In 2010 I decided to attend a small Sci-Fi convention that was held in Vancouver, BC. I sat next to the same person for 3 days. A few months later I became friends with someone on Twitter. We made plans to share a room at a convention the following year. Flash forward 6 months and we discovered that she was the girl sitting next to me that weekend in Vancouver. Since then she has become one of my best friends. We have attended 2 more conventions with our little group of friends and this past October, I attended her wedding.
One day my husband and I were talking about our childhoods and some of the things we did and one thing we had in common was that we both went to Disneyland only once. While discussing our Disneyland adventures we discovered that our families were at Disneyland at the exact same time. Now that really is a “small world”
My sister and I went to Boonsboro MD for a Nora Roberts book signing. We stayed at Noras Inn. I was talking with the lady innkeeper, who was a substitute along with her husband. She asked me where I was from and told her in Ohio near Cleveland. She said me too! She told me her town and I told her mine. She said I take flute lessons in your town! I mentioned my neighbor’s name and she said that’s her!!!Wow now that’s a small world story!!!
Fran, you’re the winner of an audio book! Congrats!
My sister and I live in 2 different chciago suburbs. I also have a lake house 3 hours south. My nephew began dating his childhood friend. Turns out, her grandfather was my next door neighbor at the lake house!
I was a new widow and my daughter started nursery school in South Africa. I had moved for a fresh start and had no friends. I became friendly with one of the mums I met regularly at kiddies birthday parties, eventually becoming best friends. As we got to know each other we discovered that we had both been raised as children within a few streets of each other in Brighton in the Uk and had even frequented the same small newsagents shop. 20 years later I am back in the uk while she is still in South Africa cut we remain close friends.
Many years ago, I was having a few drinks after work with some friends. A gentleman sitting close to us struck up a conversation with me and asked where I was from. I answered him (less suspicious back then), naming my hometown, which was quite a distance from where I lived at the time. He proceeded to tell me that he was an FBI agent and had, a few years back, interviewed the librarian of that town regarding a death threat she had received. I was surprised and told him that it was my mother he had interviewed, and I remembered the incident. He didn’t sound surprised, quoted her full name, my father’s name, and names of other folks I knew back home. He talked to me awhile (mostly about all of them which he seemed to know facts about, including the recent death of my mother), gave me his card, and told me to call him if I ever needed anything. He also told me to be safe. Then he left. So… FBI agent or someone else? Small World or planned visit? Still gives me the creeps when I think about it….
That gives me the creeps too, Nancy.
Definitely unsettling!!!
A few years ago I decided to research my family tree. I knew two of my grandparents came from from Wales but imagine my surprise when I found that three of my grandparents were born in the same town in Wales and all ended up living in the same town in England but none of them knew each other as children!
When I was in high school I had a crush on a boy in my English class. He never knew it . Fast forward 25 years when we moved to this area. The welcome lady came one day and have me info on the area. I saw his name on one of the cards but it couldn’t be right? I called his office and asked if he went to my high school.his asst verified that he did. I hung up , never giving my name. He still doesn’t know and never will! We were from a small town with a small hs and here we are far from there in a big city in NC. To me it’s a small world
When I was 18 I ran a errand for my husband to be – I was parallel parked went to pull out and hit a shiny new corvette – remember back then 1977 no cell phones ! All I could think about was I needed my Dad low & behold I looked up and there stood my Dad – yep the driver of the corvette ( he worked for a Chevrolet dealership & borrowed the bosses car ! The accident was rigt in the courthouse square he told me to drive to the dealership before the cops came stating we know who’s insurance will pay the bill – whoops it really was his fault !!
Very short story here…I was at a local church, small farming community, and the lady next to me talked about her daughter’s friend, and how she LOVED her piano teacher. The girl was playing at church that day..with her teacher, a duet. I did’nt know this lady, or anyone in the church. The lady wanted to get her daughter to take lessons from the wonderful piano teacher…she was trying to get her name and number. Recital time came, I stood up and went up front to play with her daughter’s friend!! Yes, her daughter became my student…Fast forward about 20 years, husband is talking in the doctor’s office with a man, and the man talks about how his daughter went on to study music, because she had a wonderful piano teacher. Husband asks the name of the teacher, the man tells him…husband says, that is my wife!
🙂
A few summer’s ago, I was on holiday on the Greek Island of Skiathos and met a young couple from Bolton. I spent many happy hours with this lovely couple. The end of the holiday came and we said fond farewells promising to keep in touch, as one does. Unfortunately I misplaced their contact details, so no contact was made, until the following year I was on holiday again, this time on a small Maldivian island, I had just arrived and was walking down the main Sandyndy walkway and who should be coming the other way, but the couple I had met the previous year, small world or what?
Already working on several newspaper stories under a deadline, I was irritated when the reporter who was supposed to interview the pastor from Scotland who exchanged pulpits with the pastor from Texas failed to show. I was sent to interview Reverend Alan McKean, author of The Scent of Time and The Scent of Home. At that time, we were both married. Our only contact after he went back to Scotland was through emails when he sent stories to our paper and I edited them. Both our spouses died, and miraculously, we just celebrated our third wedding anniversary.
Wow. Love this so much.
Sadly, many years ago I lost touch with my little sister’s childhood chum; she had moved and changed her surname. I had married and also moved, plus our families had relocated from our hometown.
Ironically, a mutual friend of my sister’s boyfriend and her childhood chum realized two of her friends were grieving over the tragic loss of the same loved one and brought them together!
Happily, my sister’s east coast boyfriend subsequently put me in touch with her mia east coat chum as a result of a west coast connection. Small world, yes, and definitely getting smaller every day!!! 🙂
Tears, JoAnne. Love you!