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Have you ever run into someone from home when you were far, far, away?
Don't know if this question has been posed before, but it's happened to me twice, and it was quite shocking.
I have been to Arkansas exactly 3 times in my life, and on 2 of these occasions, I unexpectedly ran into someone from home. The first time, my husband and I had gotten kind of lost in the back roads, after turning off the main highway. We saw a cute little "rock shop" on the side of the road, and decided to check it out. Inside were 2 other customers -- a lady I knew from my job back in Texas, and her son. Another time, we had decided to go to the horse races in Hot Springs. About mid-ways through the races, we decided to check out the restaurant at the track. As we were walking in, imagine our surprise as we saw my husband's brother/sister-in-law and sister/brother-in-law walking out! Now, no matter how far away I am from home, I seem to always be looking around for someone I know. |
Ran into my aerobics instructor, almost literally, as I was trudging up a hill in San Francisco and she was coming down..we both lived in Dallas at the time and neither of us knew the other was going.
Someone from one of my classes in college in Bermuda. Got on a plane in Savannah, headed to Dallas, and there sitting in first class was a friend of ours from San Antonio...not a happy trip for him: his Mom had died unexpectedly in Savannah, where we were living at the time, and he'd come to help his father and make arrangements to get her home again! We hadn't seen each other in years. |
YES! Not necessarily someone I know, but someone from home. Your timing of asking this question is funny too. I <i>just</i> answered another thread on restaurants in Savannah. At this restaurant, the couple sitting next to us lived in the town where I grew up & ahd graduated (10 years later) from the same high school.
A week ago today I was at a wedding in London. Someone introduced me to the <i>other</i> American at the wedding. It turned out her parents have a house in the same small town we do. Liza Minelli did a wonderful story/song "You Gotta Ring them Bells" about a girl who travels around the world to meet a boy who lives next door to her at home. |
About 15 years ago, we ran into old friends with whom we had lost touch many years before - of all places, outside of the China pavilion in Epcot! We've remained friends since.
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In the Paris Eurostar station on a backpacking adventure with my best friend I heard someone calling my name...it was my college roomate & three other friends! We knew they would be in Europe, but had no idea that we would even be in the same city at the same time...let alone the train station! It was great!
This really seems to happen to us a lot, though. College friends (from KS) in San Antonio (October Fest), Phoenix (baseball game), and Boston (walking down the street). We also saw a few of my husband's fraternity brothers at the summit of a 14,000 foot mountain in Colorado! I love it when it happens! Good question! |
I ran into a friend in Venice. We both knew we were going to be in Italy, but according to our schedules, we were not going to cross paths. Well, his schedule changed, and he walked right by me in San Marco Piazza one night!
I ran into a coworker on the Jersey Turnpike one weekend (I live in DC). I met someone in Seville, talked to them for awhile, and then totally by accident ran into them a few days later in Ronda, without knowing in advance that they were going to be there (not sure if that counts). Karen |
Our old babysitters parents at a cafe in ROme
Took s little bit for us to each figureout who the other was even though we knew we knew each other. Spent the next day together touring the Vatican and shopping. It truly is a small world. |
My favorite story on this topic happened to a friend of mine from Oregon. Leaving a restaurant in Manhattan, he was pleased when a taxi pulled up right in front of him. Being a gentleman, he opened the door of a taxi to assist the passengers exiting. And out stepped his ex-wife's parents.
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This happened to us just last week in Monterey California. We were out walking on a jogging/bike path about 8 am when we ran into a friend from Chicago who was jogging back to his B and B in Pacific grove. (He lives in our suburb of Chicago, kids go to school with ours, and is also an old college buddy.) Neither of us knew the other family was going to be in California. They only spent the one night in Pacific Grove and were leaving to head south later that morning. It is a funny feeling... |
Some years ago, we had just moved to Stamford, CT, where we didn't know a soul. After a week of unpacking, we decided to unwind in Antigua. The next day, we were on the beach of a very small resort (45 rooms, as I recall) and we struck up a conversation with the couple sunning themselves next to us.
It turns out they were from Connecticut, too. Yes, Fairfield County. Oh? Stamford? What part? Shippan Point? Uh, what street? They lived directly across the street from the house we had just moved into. |
it has happened to me twice. Once was years ago at a flea market in Florence. I ran into 2 sets of freinds at different parts of the flea mkt from college.
A couple of years ago I was at a shopping mall in San Diego and heard my name, I kept walking because it certainly it wouldn't be me they were calling.... After persistance from above I looked up and there was my freind/ neighbor on the next level! |
Yup~while walking through Piazza San Marco in knee high boots during acqua alta ran into a woman I used to buy flowers from in San Francisco. She was sitting outside Cafe Florian waiting out the waters.
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We live in Florida. On the same trip we ran into two different families in two different places in the Seattle area. One waiting for the ferry to Vancouver and the other in a restaurant on the wharf. It's not uncommon to run in to other families at the Atlanta airport during spring break and other holidays.
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My parents were in a tiny town in England, and went to services at the local church. After the service, pastries and coffee were served, in the same style as their regular church in California. They mentioned this to one of the parishoners and found out their former pastor from about 10 years earlier, had recently been assigned to this church. He had started the pastry thing. He was home with the flu that day, but they got to talk on the phone.
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Marilyn...LOL...did he slam the door on them? I'm afraid that might have been my first reaction as I saw who I was letting out!
Forgot another "run-in". The head cheerleader from our little high school in the Berkshires, was the senior flight attendant on an AA flight I boarded in Dallas. She looked only slightly different 20 or so years later. That meeting was worth a couple of on the house drinks. :) One run-in that wasn't a run in. I was back in Dallas and thought I spied a friend, who by then had also moved, but she to Phoenix, in Nordstrom trying on shoes. I circled all around her trying on shoes myself, and she didn't seem to notice...very puzzling, so I steeled myself and asked, "Aren't you Patty"? "No", she replied, "but I <i>am</i> Patty's identical twin." |
Ha.
@ Bubba Gumps on our 1st trip to Maui... DH ran into a high school buddy and he and his wife came back to our condo and we shared some pineapple wine on the lanai while they caught up. @ San Juan intnat'l airport on our way home from Barbados, we ran into a client of mine who then lead us into the lounge where we found a home builder that I work with consistently, and their golf group which includes my painter, 2 more clients and some other acquaintences... needless to say, we were all =-o and >:D< and then shared ((d)) ((d)) ((d)) before jumping on the same flight to ORD. Also @ San Juan intnat'l airport on our way home from St. John, DH & I were boarding a plane and who's our pilot, but DH's hunting buddy... 1/3 into the flight, the pilot buddy comes back and asks DH if he'd like to ride in the cockpit the rest of the way to ORD... DH was blown away. I know there are more... this happens to us all the time... but I have brain freeze from working on my income taxes all day. Fun thread ((Y)) ((Y)) |
OO, LOL at the identical twin story. Did you even know Patty HAD an identical twin?
My friend was too surprised, I think, to do anything but greet them cordially and be on his way. Isn't that one function of manners -- to be a reflex we fall back on and save us from embarrassing ourselves in unexpected situations? |
Strolling through the Plaka in Athens someone called my name. I didn't turn around because I figured they must be calling someone else with my name. Lo and behold, it was a friend from college! This has happened to me several times on trains, at airports, and walking through cities!
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One spring vacation, we (Chicagoans) were at the train station in Washington DC with my then 1st grade son. I heard someone say, "Hi David" to which my son casually responded, "Oh, Hi Jamie." It was a classmate of his and her family, ready to board the same train. The funniest part was that neither of the six year olds thought that there was anything unusual about meeting so far from home; they could have been greeting each other on the playground.
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