Ever recognized somebody you haven't seen in decades?

The weirdest thing happened to me on Thursday. I picked up a few things in downtown Stuttgart after work, and heard some people speaking English with obvious Philly accents. I turned around to look at them, and thought, "I know that guy!" His reaction was, "Excuse me, don't I know you?" Andy and I went to junior high school together, and lost touch when I switched schools in 1973. It turns out he and his wife are visiting their son, who is stationed here in Stuttgart, for two weeks. Andy is retired from the Army and working in real estate in California. Okay, there are a lot of Americans here (fewer than there used to be, though) because of the various barracks, but what are the chances of running into somebody you haven't seen in 30 years thousands of miles away from home? They're coming to dinner next Friday. Now I have to decide whether to cook "German" or "American"! I was telling my mom, and her comment was, "I remember him - he was that tall guy who used to smuggle in beer cans and hide them under the sofa." I never knew she knew.
What a small world. My husband thinks it's totally incredible.

That is cool to run into an old school chum! I hope the two of you will stay in contact now?

After I moved to Alaska and got married, Mike and I went on our honeymoon. We were up by Talkeetna and had stopped at a outlook to view Denali (Mount McKinley). There was a motor home parked there as well, and the funniest thing was a spider monkey hanging on to the radiator grill eating the dead insects! Of course, we walked over to take a look, and this woman hanging on the leash turned, and I recognized her as someone I used to be in Flag Bearers with in High School! It was quite a treat to see Kathi again and we had a great time catching up with each other. She had always said over and over to anyone who would listen that one day she was going to own a monkey, and by golly now she owns three!

Originally Posted by hissy

That is cool to run into an old school chum! I hope the two of you will stay in contact now?

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That'll probably depend on how awkward Friday evening is. I can imagine that his son might feel "supervised", knowing that his dad has a contact here, although I'm not like that at all. It's funny what you remember about people. We were lab partners, and our chemistry teacher used to bitch at us for being "goofy" (we managed to explode a sink). Both of us can describe him to a "T", but we can't remember his name. Andy was a bit perplexed because I keep my fingernails short and unpainted; as a teenager I had long, perfectly manicured nails that I lacquered constantly. I remember him as having a squeaky voice, but now it's pure baritone. We've both married "foreigners".

Hope you do keep in touch somehow. I was heavily involved with a charity organisation and was on the training team for new volunteers. When who should join up but our old games captain. I hadn't seen her for (lets say a few decades) and she recognised me instantly. It was so great to catch up with her and to learn that she was happily married with two grown up children.

Well...it's a small world because I keep running into people I worked with over 6 years ago.

Katie

Bedore my dad passed away, he found an old Army buddy from his company in Korea right in his neighborhood in Florida! They hadn't seen one another in over 50 years! The guy even had old photos of my dad from Korea that he had never seen. I have one hanging on my fridge. It sure can be a small world.

Talking of small worlds, when I was living in Australia my closest friend in England lost her Mother under very tragic circumsances and she wrote to tell me about it. Her brother lived in Australia hundreds of miles from where I was. I wondered how he was coping with being all those miles away from his family at such a time. The day after I received the letter I was shopping in my local supermarket and bumped into my friends brother on the way out, he was just passing through. It was so lovely to see him and he said he got comfort from being able to talk to someone face to face who had known his Mother.