Crazy Coincidences

[Velocity]

Anyone else experience any crazy coincidences? This story is completely true and not embroidered at all.
My mother-in-law ran into old school friends in a grocery store parking lot in our home town. Literally, they ran their carts into each other. They got to talking about their sons and daughters-in-law. Both of their d-i-ls were named Velocity. (names and names of places are changed) Well, that was funny and then one of them said that their son and d-i-l moved to Podunk City, North Carolina.
"What do you know? MY son and d-i-l moved to Podunk City, NC, too."
"My d-i-l works for the Coast Guard."
"Hmmm, my d-i-l works for the Coast Guard, too."
"She buys parts and services for the HH65 helicopter...."
"Um...so does my d-i-l..."
"They live on Live Oak Court".
(Beginning to be very confused now and maybe a little suspicious) "And so do my son and..."
Well it was all true, the other Velocity and I had never met although we grew up in the same Central Illinois city years apart. We moved to the same dinky NC town, lived on the same street, and ended up working in the same CG helicopter office. Lots of parallel circumstances. I wish I could have seen my mother-in-law's face when they were comparing notes.
Anyone else experience a strange coincidence?

 

[Avro Arrow]

That is crazy! I find it especially odd that apparently you worked in the same office doing the same job, but never met! (Of course, I have no idea how big that department is.)

It's not quite the same, but I also have an "Other Me" that has followed me around. We have the same first and last names. We've never lived on the same street or worked in the same office (that I know of!), and we've never met, but I've been aware of them for a while. We both attended the same university at the same time... about 100 km away from the city I live in now. But we both apparently moved here after school. I've "encountered" Other Me here and there over the years. I forget every "encounter", but here's a sampling... I had to add my middle name to my municipal library card, because Other Me already had a card in my name. An old co-worker worked on the same team as Other Me at their old company, then moved to my company and ended up on the same team as me. We even bought our pet food at the same pet food store location, and were both enrolled in the same loyalty program (which was specific to a brand!), which caused confusion every time I bought something there!

I suppose it's possible that these have been more than one Other Me, especially the one from the other city. I wouldn't say my name is super rare, but it doesn't seem to be that common either, and my first name is a much less common variant spelling than the "usual" version.

 

[Australis]

The only thing I can think of is a book.

When I was a kid, one of my favourite bands was Hawkwind (still is). The first album I bought of theirs opened with the lines:
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

From a poem by Longfellow. Very good two part song, 'Assault and Battery/The Golden Void', from Warrior on the Edge of Time, from those who are interested.

Fast forwards, ooo, a bit over 20 years. I'm in a bookshop, and find a novel by an Australian author. The novel is about an Australian writer, and his trials and tribulations. I look at the character's name. He has my surname. Oh, that's cool. I look inside. There's a dedication, and acknowledgements, and on the next page...
Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime,
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time.

Yeah, it was freakier than you know. I can see parallels between the character and myself... that I don't want to talk about. This was around the time Tim Allen had that book I'm Not Really Here, and I was finding a lot of interesting connections with synchronicity. Interesting times.

 

[Marynator]

Mine was not nearly so exciting, but still fun!

Back when I was in college I was in a club with some of my friends and we met at the library. Our club leader (let's call her Liz) was a few years older than us, but it was already a bit funny because the house my friends lived in their parents bought from Liz's family. Well Liz started to not come out as much any more because she was spending more and more time with her "boyfriend". Well the way she would talk about him we thought she was making him up and was just blowing us off. One day she comes to our meeting with her actual boyfriend, and he is my cousin! It was so funny, I lost contact with Liz when I moved to the United States but I went back for their wedding because of my cousin, and I am still friends with them now so many years later and visit them every time I go to Canada. If her boyfriend was not a relative of mine we very likely would never have seen each other again.

 

[Tom Hendricks]

My wife and I honeymooned in Aruba, there were some surprised passengers on the plane ride from New York City to Aruba . Without us knowing, my wifes bridesmaid and her husband were on the plane with their and our best friends. They had a timeshare and were going and forgot that we were going to Aruba too. Also on the flight, was a professor from college my wife went to, his wife just married us in Disneyworld. We knew he was going to Aruba, just wasn't expecting him on our flight. We also ran into two different couples we knew from Long Island.

 

[1001001]

When I was going to school in Australia, I was taking a class on American history and politics. I was very interested to hear how it was taught, what their perspective was, etc.

Turns out the professor was an American. I was kind of disappointed.

Later in the term (I had been there about 4 months) I was feeling a bit homesick, and went to class wearing my fraternity badge. After class, the professor stopped me and said "Is that a Sigma Chi badge?" Turns out he was a brother from Iowa.

I ended up having coffee with him, then dinner with him and his wife. Very nice guy.

Literally halfway around the world, and I run into a fraternity brother on the one day I identified myself as such.

 

[J.T.B.]

A few years ago were were on a road trip to visit Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument. To pass the hours we were listening to old radio shows I had downloaded. An episode of "Gunsmoke" was playing, and Matt Dillon was talking about someone who had escaped or fled and was thought to be hiding in the Absaroka Mountains. And just after William Conrad said "Absaroka Mountains," through the windshield there was a highway sign that said: "Absaroka Mountains." "Did you see that?!" I asked my wife. "I saw it!" she said.

 

[Kor]

A few years ago were were on a road trip to visit Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument. To pass the hours we were listening to old radio shows I had downloaded. An episode of "Gunsmoke" was playing, and Matt Dillon was talking about someone who had escaped or fled and was thought to be hiding in the Absaroka Mountains. And just after William Conrad said "Absaroka Mountains," through the windshield there was a highway sign that said: "Absaroka Mountains." "Did you see that?!" I asked my wife. "I saw it!" she said.

That's really cool. I love old time radio too.

Kor

 

[Doom Shepherd]

I worked a church camp one summer as a counselor. (Don’t judge me I used the money to buy a telescope, also I was rubbish - couldn’t prosthelytize at all - kinda hard when you think it’s nonsense.)

During counselor training I was almost killed when a window fell on my chair literally a half-second after I’d stepped out of it (decided I wanted a doughnut i’d Passed on earlier)

Six years later, in grad school, I met my best friend. She and I were sharing life stories and I happened to tell this story. She said “I remember that!” She’d been at that same counselor training, to be working for a church horse-riding camp, we’d never actually interacted.


When I started working for my first job at the university, I was hired by my immediate supervisor. About six months later, discussing home lives, we uncover the fact that her family and my wife’s family are very close, and have been for 50-odd years.

That’s as close as I get for coincidences.

 

[tharpdevenport]

None I can recall personally...

I remember reading a books (I think it was one of those Ripley's Believe it or Not! books) that a guy was having a heart attack and pulled off the side of the road in the middle of nowhere.

Three people stopped to help him: two nurses and a defibrillator salesman who happened to have some in his trunk.

 

[Owain Taggart]

We frequently took vacations to visit family out of town, as a lot of our extended family was clustered in one city. I also had a friend a few doors down from us. We were at a museum one day while on vacation, and we end up going to the cafeteria to eat, and lo and behold, who was there? It was the place I least expected to find him, and neither of us had mentioned that we were going away on vacation.

 

[Avro Arrow]

It's not quite the same, but I also have an "Other Me" that has followed me around.

Just yesterday, through an accidental disclosure by yet another store we are apparently both customers at, I think I found out the street Other Me lives on. It's not *quite* in the same neighbourhood as me... but it's only about a 3 minute drive from here!