Saturday, October 12, 2013

Small World

This evening, I was walking up Ivory Street past St. John the Baptist Catholic Church just after the Saturday mass was over. A couple came out of the church and called out to me. They wanted to tell me they had seen me on television.  Now when might that be?  I haven't been on local television for a few years.

It turns out that they spend their winters in a condo in Biloxi, Mississippi and were surprised to see someone from Seymour being interviewed about a presentation at the Pass Christian Public Library. That was in February. "It's a small world," he said.

I guess so.  It's amazing how often I run into people I know in the most unexpected places.There was the time in 1969 I heard a distinctive accent as I was waiting at a Los Angeles street corner. It was Sheboygan-ese, a very distinctive way of talking you hear only in Sheboygan, Wisconsin. I turned and looked and there was a UW-Oshkosh sorority sister I hadn't seen in at least five years.  We talked for five minutes on that corner. I haven't seen her since.

A few years ago, I had just come down from Scotland to Heathrow in London to catch an international flight back to the United States. I hadn't slept in 48 hours. (Another story!) I was in a daze and wasn't navigating very well through the airport system.  Then I heard someone say, "Colleen, what are you doing here?"  It was Laurel Mills, the poet from Neenah, and it turned out we were taking the same plane.

In July, I drove through Escanaba, Michigan and stopped when I noticed there was a festival, and found friends Skip and Judy from Bowler.  Skip was about to go on stage.

It happens all the time. I am forever running into people I know around the world. So am I surprised that a couple of parishioners from Seymour saw me on TV in Biloxi, Mississippi?  Nope.

Small world.


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