"Small world, isn't it?" Amazing coincidences personal, factual, historical etc.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Just finished reading an Oliver Sacks (Awakenings etc.) book. Turns out he was cousins with Al Capp (lil Abner).

In my personal life I've :

- scored a share apartment after it turned out my potential housemate used to go to my brother's cafe in Wagga Wagga.

- chatted with a customer I'd known for years at a charity store I worked at. Turns out her grandchildren were friends of my nieces in a small country town hundreds of miles away.

- got off a bus from Mt Fuji and minutes later bumped into a Japanese housemate I hadn't seen in years. I also had a workmate near my seat on a flight there one time, seeing her days later on a bus to a temple.

and YOUR small world stories?

[Zelena]

I live in a rather small city so I bump quite often into people I already know.

What is remarkable is the number of times I read or think about a word and hear it on radio or TV… It feels magical.

[DanMad1977]

Went to a holiday trip 3000 kilometers away from home and met a good customer of mine who was at the same destination. It happened two times in my life (different person)

[seismic-2]

A year or two after I graduated from college, I met two different people (one in a bookstore and one in a restaurant) whom I had known from my dorm at college. This was in a large metropolitan area 3000 miles away from that college.

[AnthonyO'Brien]

Also - was in line at the post office when a regular customer/donor from the charity shop I worked at across town came in. "Oh, hello! Fancy seeing you here!" Trouble was she worked at a private dance strip club near to our store and thought I was one of HER regular customers...

A crazy kid with severe ADHD from the high school I worked at is a fellow trader in rare VHS tapes at a market we both attend...

[ERON]

When I was in high school, I had a big crush on a girl who I eventually found out was the daughter of my dad's high school sweetheart. And then I found out that her best friend was the niece of my dad's best friend. Another girl I had a brief crush on in high school ended up marrying one of my cousins.

Speaking of cousins, I dated a woman about 10 years ago who turned out to be the cousin of a former co-worker of mine.

When my current significant other and I first started dating, I was surprised to discover that her father also a former co-worker. And then when I introduced her to my dad, I learned that my dad also used to work with her father.