A small world
story told to me by a life-long friend of mine:
I was at a holiday party for staff and friends of staff, and this woman Megan and I ended up on the front steps talking about small-world stories. Megan used to work at the school where I currently work. I relayed this story to her:
When I started working at Delaware Valley Friends School, I met a woman who works in the development office named Kathy Wynn. On a long shot, I asked her if she knew David Wynn, who went to Haverford and was in my graduating class. It turns out he’s her son. He came to Haverford when I was in 8th grade, and I told her I knew he came from Indiana because his father left teaching at Earlham there the same year that my cousin left to go to Earlham. She said that not only does she work at DVFS, but that her son used to work in the math department there.
A week later was September 11. That day we had an assembly scheduled. It was a band called “Live Five Minus Two” (Although sometimes they are as many as “Live Five Minus One” or as few as “Live Five Minus Three”.) The lead singer was this guy named Tom, who, as it turns out, was head of the math department while David was there, and left to pursue music full time. (I found out later that his band opened at the Philadelphia Folk Festival, and I already knew that my cousin, the same one that went to Earlham, volunteers there each year.)
In the spring last year, I was walking the kids around Bryn Mawr, because they had a spring festival, with merchants out and fire engine rides and stuff. There was a free outdoor concert being given by… you guessed it… Live Five Minus Two. And while standing and enjoying their music again, I ran into… for the first time since high school… David Wynn. (He’s married, with a kid, and a career in computers.)
So I finished relaying all this to Megan, and I got to the name of the musician and his band, and she says, “Oh, Tom? Sure. He’s my husband. He’s inside by the piano.”
To sum up, a woman where I work was married to a guy who taught at the college my cousin went to, had a son who went to my high school and taught at the school where I now teach, under a department head who plays at the same place where my cousin volunteers and at whose concert I met her son again, and who is married to the woman to whom I was telling the story.
This small-world story involves 6 people, 3 schools, 2 states, 2 concerts, and a party. At this point I’m tempted to say “Beat that”, but knowing you, you can, and will.
I can not beat that. I hereby invoke the Lazy Web. Write up with your own small world
story and link to this post.
Update: they’re starting to come in.
Russell Beatie: Small World in Greece.
Joe Gregorio: Giant Neck Heights.
David Engel: Disney songs go better.
zia: Small Worlds.
Mike Axelrod: Small World Story.
