Chance Encounters

I had a 80 Ford F350 I used to pull my mowing tractor. It was just a little under powered on some of the hills around here. I sold it six years ago. Since then I have seen it several times. I pulled up to a mowing job, in the next town. There's my Ford in all it's glory, with the same dents. It now belongs to a cement worker. Another time while in the Navy, I was stationed on a marine air base, I saw the sister of a girl took out a few times. She was married to a marine living in Japan. Any of you had something like that happen? Stan

(quoted from post at 21:02:33 04/25/16) I had a 80 Ford F350 I used to pull my mowing tractor. It was just a little under powered on some of the hills around here. I sold it six years ago. Since then I have seen it several times. I pulled up to a mowing job, in the next town. There's my Ford in all it's glory, with the same dents. It now belongs to a cement worker. Another time while in the Navy, I was stationed on a marine air base, I saw the sister of a girl took out a few times. She was married to a marine living in Japan. Any of you had something like that happen? Stan

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:twisted: Nope my sister had to much class to date a sailor and wasn't good enough to date a Soldier or Marine! :twisted: :twisted:

Sorry couldn't resist!

Rick

Multiple times, even today. But an older one- Sept., 1965, I had just finished the Green Beret training in Ft. Bragg, NC, went to Ft. Belvoir, VA for an NCO level demolitions/construction course... 12 weeks. Every weekend in DC...touring the monuments, museums, Arlington, etc....fantastic to see the Nation"s capitol, for real, not in pics. Waiting at a bus stop one Sunday morning, headed back to base...I see this guy walking toward the bus stop- thinking ...He looks familiar. Turned out to be Danny R., two years younger than me from home, we took our draft physicals the same day, I enlisted, he waited to get drafted.

Heard about a classmate, Dean, headed to Nam....literally bumped shoulders with someone going down hotel steps in Hawaii....bumpee: Pete was from our home town, a year younger than us. Our home town was about 800 population.

One of the strangest things that ever happened to me: it was 1962 and I was working for the summer in the oil patch in Venice, Louisiana--as far south as you can drive in Louisiana. It's pretty much the end of the earth as well as the end of the road. Few permanent residents, mostly oil field workers.

At my boarding house I had struck up with an acquaintance with a guy from west Texas named Lloyd Jones. He was a student at Texas Tech, also working for the summer in the oil patch. One day I was at the washateria when I saw a car drive up with a Texas Tech sticker on his rear window (double Ts then too). After he dumped his clothes in the washer, I asked the obvious, "Do you attend Texas Tech?" He said that he did. I then commented that there was another Texas Tech student down working for the summer. That caught his interest, and he asked who. "Lloyd Jones," I responded.

He gave me a look somewhere between "What the he11?" and "Are you trying to start something, wisea$$?"

Yep, turned out his name was Lloyd Jones too. He didn't know the other Lloyd Jones. And me, I've only met two students from Texas Tech and they both had the same name. Since that time I have never met another Lloyd Jones. They didn't have the Louisiana Lottery back then, or I would have gone and bought a handful of tickets.

I did have a near bump. Keep in mind that we lived here about a year and a half before I joined the Army so I really didn't know a lot of people from the area.

I'd been in long enough to make SGT and was on my first tour of Germany. We had a guy in the company who was from the twin cites and would introduce any new soldier from MN to everyone else from MN. One evening right after we got released for the day he brings this new PVT in and introduces him to me saying that he was from my area. Turns out he was from Battle Lake but I didn't know him or his family. He tells me his mother was making ceramic's in a small shop in Battle Lake and the owners son in law was in Germany and a tanker. He was supposed to look this guy up. Well Battle Lake had a population of about 750 at the time and the only ceramic shop was owned by my mother in law. I told the kid welcome to the unit and good luck finding this guy. I got back from the messhall and this kid had dung out the name of the guy he was supposed to look up! Me being a SGT and him a PVT and in different PLTs we didn't have a lot of contact before I rotated back to Ft Riley about 9 months later. Kids was staying in trouble. Nothing real serious but enough that it was going to take him a long time to get promoted. His family left the area long before I retired so I have no idea how that turned out.

Rick

The military stories reminded me of one I had.
Graduated HS in 71 and immediately joined the Navy. My first ship was on the east coast for 1 1/2 years then got deployed to the Med.
Spring of 73 the ship pulled in to Palma de Mallorca Spain. On liberty, we were sitting at a sidewalk cafe having lunch. A guy hollers my name.
Turns out to be a guy from HS - a year behind me.
His ship was tied up to ours.
Four of us pooled our funds, rented a car and went sight seeing for the day. I haven't seen him since.

I was wiring a house for a guy about a dozen years ago and had just started dating my wife about then. I happened to mention my wife was from about 400 miles away on Wisconsin. He asked what town, and when I told him he said "that's where my mom is from". Then he asked me her last name but it didn't ring a bell with him, then told me his mom's maiden name but I didn't know it. Fast forward a few years we find out that his uncle Gary is my wife's uncle Gary. Gary is his mom's brother and married to my wife's dad's sister.
I have twin older sisters also. One day while one of them was in the mall in Omaha she happened to look up ahead and see her twin walking towards her. She smiled real big and waved and her twin waved back. It was then she realized she was looking in a mirror!

YES TWO THINGS: Be 1500 miles away from home changing a tire,and bubba and chucky from home pull up!!! Took a girl on a date an went to a city 2 hours away to keep things quiet!!! Ran in to more people from home than there actually lived back home!!!!

For me the story begins .. I am from Pa. I accompany my father who is blind on a trip to Prescott AZ in 1973. The year my father passed
away I was 16 Years old. We went to visit my grand parents & they took us to the Grand Canyon I was amazed at the beauty of it & I had
to explain what I was seeing to my dad, kind a like painting a Picture in his mind. He lost his eyesight at 29 & was now 46 years old
so he could understand what I was seeing. While I was explaining what I was seeing a man who was in the service, had his family there
for a visit. He spoke up & said there's only one place that is prettier & that's Penna. in October when the leaves are changing. I told
him I knew that we Lived there.. He asked where I said New Titusville. His family lived just outside & he'd be returning once he was out
of the service. He had 3 little girls bouncing around and a baby boy.

About 6 years later while at a High School basket ball game I went to attend after work I friend of mine came up & said there's a girl
that needs a ride home & wonder if I could take her. I said Sure it's kinda on the way.. When We got to her house her father was in the
garage working on his truck, he walks out wondering who was in his driveway ? I said to the girl, I've seen that man Befor? The lighting
wasn't the best under the pole lite. She introduced me too him & I said again I've met you be for but I can't remember where?? As it ends
that girl I took home I took a liking too & she to me, I'm still taking her home but it's my home, & the first time I ever saw her was
the edge of the Grand Canyon , little 12 year old girl acting like a 12 year old.

One of the guys in my shop on the ship.Had parents in Manila. So we went up to see them. Went to the Victory park to play tourist.Turned around to leave and ran into my sister. She was Air Force and had just been assigned to Clark Air Force Base. I was out of Subic Bay and had a month to go. Before going home. We never got the chance to visit until she got out.

Nice story rla!

I was buying a new mandolin in a music store in Kentucky, and the counter guy noticed I was from Illinois. He said that he grew up in Illinois also. I asked him where, and he said, "New Burnside". New Burnside is probably 60 miles from my home, but I knew one guy who lived there. I asked him if he knew a guy named Bob ******, and he laid his pencil down and stared at me. He said, "That's my dad!"

oldtanker some of us on here are the reason you could feel free enough to write that post sorry I couldn't resist

Did your Ford have the 351M engine in it ?

I have a 1981 F350 had it since 1985 ? I put a 460 in it and that made a truck out of it ! Not too hard of a swap.

We pulled up to the White House for a tour (from western Kansas) when Ron and Nancy lived there. We walk over to the fence to stand in line to get in and got in line behind friends from church. Surprise to all of us!

That's why I won't sell my old 85 Ford F250. I couldn't bare to see some dirty redneck tooling around in that thing. I rebuilt it from the ground up in to just what I wanted it to be. It's just like I told the neighbor yesterday,if it dies on me,I'll haul it to the swamp and pull the tires off it.

Growing up, we lived on a small farm in the middle of central Oklahoma. Dad's primary job was in the oil field but farmed and gardened to make the ends meet. In '53 Dad bought one of the first, if not THE first Ford Jubilees in our county and it was the only tractor we had for years and the one I grew up on. When the Ford dealership closed in the early 60's Dad took the tractor to an old friend and mechanic when something needed repair that he couldn't or didn't have time to do. You can imagine that with the oil field job and farming, he had very little free time but his hobby in the 1960's was raising coyote hounds and chasing coyotes with his buds on Friday nights. Even had field trial quality hounds for a while. Dad passed 19 years ago.

I moved some distance away right out of college in '82.

Flash forward to about 4 years ago. I brought the old Jubilee to my place to tinker with. In the process of looking for a part or two I found an old timer I didn't know that worked only on small Ford's in a town nearby. Drove over to pick up a carb part and began chatting with the fella...explaining I was working on a Jubilee bought new in Lincoln County and mentioned my Dad's name. The old timer said "Stay right there" disappeared in the back of the shop and returned with a cassette recorder and tape. Popped the tape in and played it. I recognized my Dad's voice giving running commentary on the sound of a pack of coyote hounds baying in the back ground. It was a recording of the last time my Dad and the old timer had hunted together before he moved away and Dad got out of the coyote game. We both leaked around the eyes a little. He went on to tell me stories of the hunts they'd had...stories I'd never heard. The old timer is gone now and so is the shop.

I meet a Lady on the Slops of a Ski Hill in western Canada. She was from Colorado. We ended up hanging out and seeing the sights over a five day period. Five years later I'm in an elevator in Honolulu USA and yes the same lady was in the elevator. We ended up Scuba Diving and seeing the sights..........

Was three states away from home on business and stopped at a rest area to take care of mother nature. Standing at the urinal I looked to my side and my next door neighbor was at the one beside me. Even though I know him well I had to look three times before I said HI Neighbor!!, LOL

Forgot another one. At a former job they hired a consultant to come in and give us some OSHA training. I noticed she had that unmistakable southern Mn accent so during a break I walked up and said hey, I noticed your accent, where in MN are you from? She said a little town you have never heard of, New Richland. I said wanna bet! My grandparents lived there. Come to find out she grew up right behind them and back when I was very young we had played together during my summer visits.

My wife an I left Kansas for a short vacation in St Louis, next door neighbor got on the tram with us to go to the top of the Arch - neither knew the other was there until we got to the top.

It did have a 351M. It had the other V8, don't remember the size. I installed the 351M after I had it for a while. The guy I sold it to said it still runs good. Stan

I sold my old Ranger pickup to an old guy in town many years ago. When visiting a local restaurant with the wife for breakfast, something we rarely do, when we came out there sat the old Ranger right by the door, a little more rusty but still in pretty good shape. Still had the same tires on it that were put on to replace the ones that were recalled.

Sort of.

I had to fly to New Jersey on business. One night, I went down to the hotel bar for a beer. I picked a random seat at the bar, and sat next to a man from India.

We started talking, he was in from Bangladesh, a little hard to understand, but we managed to have a conversation.

Turned out he was in the fiber optic business, same as my brother - who had spent some time himself in Bangladesh. Sure enough, this guy KNEW my brother - and knew him well. He had had my brother to his house for dinner.

Talk about a small world.

Fly to new jersey and meet a guy from india who knows my brother who lives in the Czech Republic. That was kind of crazy.

a 400 AND A 351m would be the same as far as bolting in.

Four guys graduated from our class in 1966. In 1970 I went to Vietnam with the Army. My first night at Camp Alpha waiting to go to unit was at a USO show. I saw someone I thought I knew and sure enough it was one of the 4 who was in the Navy.

Moved 1200 miles west, guy on my pool team used to haul steel past my high school.