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Sure is a small world, isn’t it?

The world keeps getting smaller and smaller it seemsThis, of course, has little to do with technology, although Facebook has helped me to cross paths with folks from elementary school and 4-H camp that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise ever seen again.

The world keeps getting smaller and smaller it seems

This, of course, has little to do with technology, although Facebook has helped me to cross paths with folks from elementary school and 4-H camp that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise ever seen again.

It’s the other instances where you are just minding your own business and boom. Turns out the person you are conversing with and either don’t know well or just met is already connected, unbeknownst to both of you.

Today, Hubby had the truck in at the shop. Due to his relocated office, he is partaking of the services of a different mechanic. Turns out the mechanic’s father used to work with Hubby’s father back in the day.

This revelation comes short on the heels of one the day before yesterday. A friend and my sister-in-law realized quite accidentally, which is always how it goes, that the friend’s cousin is married to my sister-in-law’s good friend.

I think it’s safe to say these sort of realizations always come about by accident.

Who walks up to someone else in their class and asks if they are related to anyone whose husband works on a TV showed filmed in Vancouver? No one.

It takes a sideways conversation and a series of strange statements to put all that together. Imagine my cousin’s surprise when talking to an advertising rep about putting ads in an industry magazine when she handed him the latest edition. Both his cousin and his aunt were in it.

Kind of like a surprise family photo album, he remarked.

I suppose it’s fair to say my world is different than that of most folks, due completely to this column.

It actually saved me one day when I was buying a swimming pool for the young ‘uns.

Before stopping at a store that sells pools, I had visited a registry place in order to renew my license. Apparently you have to do that when you turn 29. Makes no sense. Anyway, they took the old license and gave me a piece of temporary paper until the new and improved one arrived in the mail.

I intended to purchase the swimming pool using my credit card in order to acquire some Air Miles. That’s when the clerk asked me for some photo ID.

I believe it was before that the he remarked on my name being familiar. I suggested it may be due to reading this paper.

That was it, he agreed. Fortunately, since he recognized both the face and the name, I managed to get away without presenting photo ID which I had just handed over to be shredded moments earlier.

That was lucky.

My good friend up the road is actually also a distant relative, as her step-sister is married to my Dad’s cousin. OK very distant, but it was still an amusing connection to make. The moral of this story is that you should never speak ill of anyone, anywhere, anytime, anyplace. Ever.

If you were to invest the time, I think you could find some sort of connection with just about any stranger you find on the street. You probably shouldn’t try it or instead you’ll be trying to draw connections with your cohorts in the loony bin, but you probably could.

I’ll leave you with one final tale, and my favourite, of how small the world is. My Mom and I drove clear out to a meeting at Torrington and happened across a mutual acquaintance.

This mutual acquaintance tried to introduce us to each other and proceeded to turn 27 shades of red when Mom replied that she already knew me since she had in fact given birth to me. Small world, I say, small world.

Krista Waters is a freelance writer from the Caroline area. Her observations about life appear weekly in LIFE.