Vocal Voices

I had been doing a bit of voluntary work in Beeston and sat on the long back seat of the bus to get the breeze. At the other end of the seat was a woman about my age engrossed in her mobile.

As we approached a set of lights she came across to my side, sat opposite me and started to take photos of a derelict pub, the Junction. We got to chatting, as tends to happen in Leeds, and were remembering Beeston as it used to be.

I mentioned that my cousins lived in a house near to where her mum now lives and gave their names. That's when she pipes up "Denise, Denise XXXX!, married to Steve?" "Yes, that Denise" I replied. "Crikey." she says "Denise and I shared a house in Harehills when we were on nurse training. I was one of her bridesmaids when she got wed."

Oh wow that is a good small world story

I love small world story.

Brilliant WM. They reckon you are only three steps removed from most people, as in knowing someone who knows them

What amazes me is how all these things drop into place.

I didn't have to volunteer to be 17 miles from home. She didn't have to get on the bus and sit where she did, nor did I. She didn't have to be on her phone chatting to an old mate about the area years ago, or take pictures to show how it has changed. We didn't have to get chatting............

It is so eerie.

I love stories like this

How about this one? When we lived in Switzerland we lived in a very small village halfway up a mountain near lake Thun. Move on a good few years and when we bought the house we are in now we got chatting to our neighbours, a lovely husband and wife of about our age. It turned out that the mother of the lady is Swiss and lives in the same village in Switzerland!
As well as that, their eldest son was also at Durham University the same time as our eldest son!
A small world indeed

Oh that's a really good one too Loz, it is amazing isn't it

I love stories like this

I've just remembered one. The first time we went to the US, to Niagara Falls, to stay with John's aunt and uncle in 1988 we flew from Birmingham airport and between here and there is a pub/hotel, M*****y Corner Hotel. We pulled onto it's car park to check that we had passports, tickets etc on the way to the airport.

John's aunt took us out for lunch one day and there was a man in the diner who picked up on our accents and struck up a conversation. He was saying that his family had connections to the Midlands and that there was a hotel which he shared his surname with, and the corner where the hotel stood was named the same - M*****y.

I've got far too many "it's a small world" stories, but then I do live in NZ where I'm sure it is only 2 degrees of separation.
The time I was in Raglan (down south where my parents batch is) and got talking to our waiter in a local restaurant. He mentioned his dad remembered the violin music when he was a boy, played by none other than my great great grandfather. Turns out his house is literally across the road from our batch.

The wedding I went to a couple of weekends ago, got talking to one of the guests, turns out we went to the same school, a few years apart, knew the same kids, then upon further digging discovered our dads use to car pool to work, and then mum informed me I had babysat her once.

2 Fridays ago I discovered that the administrator at kindy knows my new neighbour J. Apparently J was going to be her mothers bridesmaid.


Shall I go on?