<p>Another strange coincidence: about a year ago, a couple of years after I moved back to Manhattan, I discovered while doing some family history research that my maternal grandfather was listed in the 1980 Manhattan telephone book – 6 years after he died – as living in the same apartment building where I live now. On the same floor. (Not the same apartment, though – that would have been entirely too creepy.) </p>
<p>It turned out that his third wife, who survived him by many years, lived here, and was still using his name as her phone listing. It’s still quite a coincidence, given how many different apartment buildings there are in New York City.</p>
<p>I live more than 600 miles and 4 states away from where I grew up/went to college. For the last couple years I’ve occasionally noticed a vanity plate of my college mascot/alumni stickers on another parent’s car at our elementary school. There are very few alumni in this area from that college, so I always thought, “I should find out whose car that is. . .” Yesterday, when I was dropping of my 8yo D at a birthday party, I saw the car. Parents were still hanging around, so I asked who the MU alum was. The mom was standing right next to me. She asked me what year I graduated. I choked on this a bit, because I’m much older most of the moms, and said “1984–Before you were born!” (She was 14 years after me.) I asked her if she was from that state, and she said, “Yes, I’m from Xville.” So am I! (Town of about 20,000). Did you go to Xville high school? Yes! What part of town did you live in? Off of Y Rd. . . Me too! (The coincidence ends there–I didn’t recognize the exact street.)
Another strange coincidence I may have shared on CC–I live next to our high school stadium. When I was in college I lived next to the college stadium, and recall being awakened on Saturday mornings by the marching band practicing the school fight song. When I moved into my current house 5 years ago, 600 miles, 4 states away, I was awakened early one Aug. morning (and many mornings after that) by the high school band–playing MY COLLEGE FIGHT SONG! (This is not a common fight song–though it was written for my college, one other college later adopted it because it was written by one of their graduates. It is also used by a couple high schools in those 2 states). The first time this happened, I was so confused–I felt like I had gone back in time. Now, since I hear the HS band playing dozens of times a season, I annoy my kids by singing the lyrics to the college song. (Don’t know the high school lyrics.) I haven’t found out the connection, but I’m guessing that the first band director here was a graduate of one of those colleges.</p>
<p>One more story-- when I lived in St. Louis I was at a park where my kids were riding a carousel. I started talking to another mom waiting there, and asked her if she was from St. Louis. No, she was from my hometown, several states away. Found out she was from my home parish. We knew her family. Her dad worked with my dad. Her older sister was my classmate, and she was my brother’s classmate.</p>
<p>My sister has three sons very close in age. When they were adolescents, my mom ran into a friend she hadn’t seen in years. The oldest of her 3 grandsons had the same first names as my nephews and the youngest had the same first and middle names but they were reversed.</p>
<p>This one is more convoluted. When I started college at a small LAC, the regular teacher in my major had taken a leave of absence to get her Ph.D. and was replaced by an visiting ABD. I had her for all my major classes for 2 years. After the regular prof returned I never saw her again. Regular prof later moved across the country and became a dean. Fast forward 20 years. I had gone on to get a Ph.D. myself and taught at a university in yet another state. I left this job to work for an association of which visiting prof was a member. She had some reason to communicate with me and I recognized the name and asked if she were the same person (she wouldn’t have known me because of my married name) and she was. It turned out that one of her recent former students had replaced me in the job I left, and another was hired by the aforementioned dean (who had also changed names, so it took the two of us connecting for the visiting prof to learn it was the same person).</p>
<p>My youngest was born on what would have been my grandmother’s 90th birthday. She has eerily similar traits to my grandmother.</p>
<p>That grandmother’s husband’s parents were from the same small town in Poland (in the late 1800’s) but did not know each other. They met on the boat to America. </p>
<p>My H’s parents were from the same small town in Louisiana but did not meet until they had separately moved to California.</p>
<p>My daughter is having a sleepover with some friends tonight. One is a girl we used to see on the bus every day on the way to school when she was 7 and 8. They were also in the same dance class at that age and then lost touch with each other. A couple of weeks ago D went to see some friends in a play at the last minute. She ended up sitting next to the friend she’s last seen about 6 years ago. The friend recognized her by her ponytail.</p>
<p>Last year, my dear uncle passed away. He and my aunt were both 93 and had been married for 72 years. She died three weeks later on what would have been his 94th birthday.</p>
<p>My folks are both from Honolulu but met in Ann Arbor, while attending college. One of my best friends and her kids live in NM. I told her one summer we would be going to DC. She said she was too with her extended family on her H’s side. I laughingly said we’d see her in DC. Who did we run into twice in the week we were in DC but her and her family?!?! We thought us was amazingly cool!</p>
<p>Once I was in DC for a conference. I had told S I would be there but he said he was tied up. A bit later I got a text from him that he was in my hotel lobby because his condo transformer blew and there was no water or power to his 8th floor. Another of my friends met me at the hotel as well and announced he had just quit his job in DC and filed for divorce and was disposing of his possessions. The three of us went to his place and S got a bike, down comforter, trench coat and several ties. He stored them in his car and spent the night on my spare bed in my hotel room. It was a strange evening. ;)</p>
<p>GMTson2 parted paths with his best friend in kindergarten in a British school. Ten years and different schools and different continents later, they end up in the same high school in the U.S. </p>
<p>My ex remarried someone with my same first name, spelled the same (it’s one of those with multiple spellings). My maiden name was Bxxxxxx, her maiden name was Bxxxxx (not the same name but similar). So after marrying my ex, we both have the same first and last names. She and I grew up a mile apart in a small town but never knew each other. </p>
<p>That just seemed icky until he called me to say my mortgage was showing up on her credit report…which was when we learned our social security numbers had only one digit different.</p>
<p>We went to graduation for D. While there, we were talking about where we everyone was from (making small talk). It turns out they live where I went to law school and are great friends with one of my favorite law profs. I gave them my contact info and the prof & I renewed our contact after all these decades. ;)</p>
<p>I attended a small boarding school in the middle of nowhere. I work at a small community college in the middle of a different nowhere, 2000 miles away. It turns out the person I replaced had taken a job at my old boarding school.</p>
<p>My random selection college roommate and I both had:</p>
<p>the exact same birthdate
same short brown haircut
first and middle names started w/ same letter
same major (nursing)
one brother and one sister
married high school boyfriends
two sons
both two eldest sons are in the military</p>
<p>I live in a town of 871 people. No kidding, there is literally one stop light in town. We were in Florida this weekend and played a round of golf. We got paired up with another couple. They live in our town and we know their neighbors and many of the same people. </p>
<p>I skipped out of the worship segment of our denominational annual meeting because I’m too angry with the church leaders to concentrate on worship. So I sat in the car and read, figuring I’d go back in for lunch after worship. I was in the car for all of ten minutes when one of my parish members called me to say “I don’t know why I’m supposed to do this,but God just put it in my head to call you and say ‘praise the Lord’.”</p>
<p>Wow, an old but interesting thread resurrected. Why?</p>
<p>So, my s/o and I were at a psychopharm meeting. He was talking about his first job in a Southern city, and how the synagogue there helped him. It is the same place my grandfather built, and my uncle was funding his project. So, we got together another night to talk more. </p>
<p>He was talking about his best female friend in college, and her horrible roommate freshman year (who smoked pot). With amazement, I realized that was my sister!!! This roommate called my parents, told them my sister was a drug addict, had us all up all night (I was in HS), and my mom flew out the very next day to meet with sister, the Dean, psychiatrists, et al. Boy, did we ever have differing opinions about this roommate. I cannot tell you how my sister enjoyed listening to his side of the story. </p>
<p>My twin sister (we look nothing alike, btw) met with a man who was my H’s boss about 25 years ago. She mentioned that she was my H’s s-i-l, and the man asked about us. My sis called to tell me–it struck her as unusual that the man seemed much more interested in me than my H. Sis said (and we never talk or joke about these things) she got the impression that this man had a crush on me back then, and she asked me if I ever sensed that or if there had been anything going on between us. The truth is that I had a big crush on this guy, too. Never told anyone, and certainly avoided this man because I felt guilty–didn’t know that married crushes were possible. I never had any conversation with him without my husband or his wife present; we were just acquaintances. Did we make eye contact once or twice? Not even sure. We were/are all happily married. I babysat for his kids a couple times. (Yikes–remembering that I slept in his bed!) Sort of weirded out by the (possible) mutual “good vibrations.” We moved more than 20 years ago, and I’m happy to have missed that connection. But to hear this, after all these years, makes me smile. And blush.</p>
<p>If you enjoy stories about coincidences, I highly recommend the book “I Thought My Father Was God: And Other True Tales from NPR’s Story Project,” edited by the incomparable Paul Auster. I especially recommend the audio version because Auster narrates it in his deep, soulful voice. It’s over a decade old but well worth seeking out.</p>