Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Small World

During WWII, Dad, his mother and sisters, went to California to work in the ship yards. While walking down a street one day, they met a neighbor that lived about a 1/2 mile from them in Louisiana.

While working on the BP Oilspill, I was assigned to work in Alabama. Spent a year at one place and became good friends with a fellow and his wife. This fellow also met my wife, but the wives were never there at the same time. While my wife was visiting an aunt in Tx, the aunt commented that she had a cousin, and this cousins husband was working the Spill in Alabama. My wife asked where the man worked and was told the same place I worked. My wife mentioned my friends name and wanted to know if it might be him, and it was.

In the early 2000's, I had a job that required me to travel a lot, mostly flying around the country. I flew so much, that I dont remember where I was, but I was at an airport one day and some soldiers walked up and sat next to me. After a bit, there were 7 or 8 of them and they were from different places, but catching a plane to their new assignment. They were introducing themselves to each other and one of the black guys said he was from Woodville, Ms. Woodville is the next town over from where I lived and nobody from that part of the country pronounces it like it is spelled. Home folks pronounce it Wolvul. So I just said out of the blue, "He's lying, he's not from Wolvul". They all turned, looked surprised, but a big grin came over the young man's face and he asked where i was from. I told him Centreville, pronounced by home folks as Sinnervul. He laughed and told the rest of the group that we were from neighboring towns and only someone from that area would know how to pronounce it the way we did.

Again while working, I was in SeaTac one day when a fellow walked up to me and called me by name. It took a minute, but it was a fellow I worked with back in the early 70's. He was headed to Alaska.

I was doing a job in Portsmouth, NH and ran into my BIL. He was working at SeaBrook. Both of us live in Louisiana.

My son and his wife are foster parents. So, I know how much time, effort, sacrifice, AND love go into doing it. They are still young, and the kids they've had are still too young to know any thing about what has been going on, but I know how much they appreciate getting information on the kids they've fostered, If I were you, I'd let the people know.

Beautiful story, I'm happy for you man.

Had a hot classmate in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 1994. She was from New Mexico. Three years later, in 1997, I was sitting in a small bar in Corpus Christi with my friends, and she walked in the door.

Ran into a a guy that I played high school football with coming out of the chow hall at Torrejón Air Base in Madrid. He didn't know I had joined the AF, I didn't know he got an appointment to the Airforce Academy. Heard he truned into a pretty good F-15 pilot...

My wife and I were in Rome, Italy a few years ago and overheard a conversation among others nearby. We were curious and joined the conversation to learn that one of them was a school principal in Ohio whose daughter was best friends with Liz, a payroll secretary I'd hired years before about 300 miles away. Interestingly, Liz had gone to college in PA and met her PA husband, liking his home town (Wellsboro, PA) enough to get married there instead of her home town - just like my wife and I. The small world continues - it turns out my wife and Liz had been on the same plane on their high school trip to France back in 1980.

Another one comes to mind. We were antiquing on our way back from a long weekend trip and found a stock certificate from an old telephone company from about 100 years ago. The company name was bold and drew my interest since it was from a very small northern PA town - Roulette. When I looked more closely, that certificate was in my Great Grandfather's name. How it got in an antique shop 250 miles away, I'll never know, but it's in my home now.

Was up in Akron Ohio and had a limo driver once, shooting the bull and asked where I was from. I said Macon, Ga. He told me he was stationed and Camp Wheeler before the war. Sort of cool considering the age difference at the time.

I got in a cab in Ft. Benning, Georgia in 91’.
The cab driver started asking us boys where we were from. When I said Bedford, Indiana the guy looks around at me and says,”I was in Vietnam with a guy from Bedford, Indiana”.
I say, “It’s a small town. I may know him. What was his name?”
He says, “ Dennis Trowbridge.”
I about fell out of the cab. It was my uncle.
I gave the guy my uncles phone number and he called Uncle Dennis and they ended up talking quite frequently. It had been 23 years since they had seen each other.
When my aunt and uncle moved to Phoenix City, Alabama in 98, he and my uncle would get together and have breakfast.

Did the letters reveal how your Forster parents had procured you?

Most of you know the "small world " story Jim Martin [aka ET] and I share from our battlefield encounter in SEA ..I have others with discovering family tree members but our encounter especially here at the Fire some 41 yrs later was truly remarkable !

If you want to see a small world visit Kaycee, Wyoming on Fathers Day.

No.

We knew that however.


The Nuns at Catholic Social Services.

In about 1984 I was in Singapore attending a gas turbine school and was almost back to the Mandarin Hotel when a taxi passed by me and stopped at the front door area and with a pair of cowboy boots hanging out of the driver’s side back window.

I walked around by the passenger side and the driver was trying to wake his passenger up to get out. I looked in and knew the guy very well and finally got him to sit up. Drunk as a pissant.

When his eyes finally focused he said, “ Hey, Ole Podnah, what the f’k are you doing here in Jakarta?”

I told him, “Bellue, Ole Buddy, you’re in Singapore not Jakarta “.

Bellue yelled at the driver, “Get me the f’k back to the airport right now “. Then said, “I’ll see ya later, Man “.

Years later I ran into him again in Dubai. We had a good laugh about that.

Nothing as amazing as some of the stories here, but...

About a year ago, the little church we attend had a dedication service, (we moved to a new location) and a representative from the group of churches that we belong to came to give a sermon and help with the dedication. He sat in the pew in front of me and at one point, turned his head and I was a little shocked to see that I recognized him. His family an mine had ridden the same school bus as kids and into high school. That was a couple hundred miles and 30+ years ago.

We had a good chat after his sermon, which was very good. He's pretty gifted in that regard.

Never ever send a letter . Just buy liquor

That sounds like the apex of your life.

That happens everywhere, that’s my sister you MFer. I’m gonna whip yo ass!!!!

I didn’t mean to fuuck her!!

Actually, Flave, the apex was watching you finger your self while drunk one of the many drunk nights that you were in full bloom.

Memorable.

Via Ruckkus.