It’s My Imagination

It’s a Small, Small, World

February 9, 2008 on 8:30 pm | In My Imagination | 4 Comments

As many of my few readers know, my family & I relocated, again, back in April, this time to the Dallas area. I have moved so many times in my life that I really don’t have what I would call lifelong friends, you know the ones, the people you’ve known since grade school. I was an Air Force brat, so we moved across the country at least once every two years.

My husband on the other hand was born and raised in Kansas City, MO and didn’t leave until he was about 20 when he decided to head west to California. That’s where I met him. In the almost 25 years we’ve been together, we’ve been to Kansas City a total of 3 times. It seems strange to me that someone who lived in one place for 20 years, has friends and memories of that place, doesn’t have a desire to go back once in a while.

But, then again, maybe all of his friends moved away. We discovered one of those friends this afternoon, totally by chance.

We had been invited to attend the opening day of Northwoods University’s softball team. It was a beautiful day and we decided to head out. The game was a double header against LSUA. The first game was almost over when we arrived, but Northwoods won 8-0. The game was called on a mercy rule at the end of the 5th inning. The second game was a total reversal with LSUA coming on very strong to win in 6 innings, 10-1.

The strangest thing happened though during the second game. My husband had just been sitting there reminding me that his best friend from high school, the kid that lived behind him in KC, now lived in the Dallas area and was a college softball umpire. About 10 minutes after that conversation, one of the two umpires working today’s game, walked past and my husband commented that he look an awful lot like he thought his friend would look. Now he hadn’t seen the guy in probably 15 years, but he really thought it could be him. So, sitting in the stands, my husband starts calling his name out loud. You know, umpires are trained to tune out the crowd, so it took several tries before the ump turned around and we realized that yes indeed, it was his former best friend!

Not only did we spend quite a bit of time talking with him after the game, but it turns out that he lives less than 10 miles from our new home. I just find it so amazing at how small our world really is.

Tags: softball