" Is it you?"

When daughter was about 15 she ran away to Spain to meet an older man she had met on holiday.He was a bouncer in a club and didn't look after her, no food in the flat only drink etc.
Luckily my friend and her husband were on holiday and quite surprised to bump into her. They fed her and lent her money to get home. He had the cheek to phone her and ask if he could visit us but hubby soon sorted him out.
She grew up very sensible after this episode!

All the time, the world is indeed VERY small, especially if you are a well travelled family of multiple immigrants.

We were on a cruise and went to the cabaret club max 50 guests. Drag queen decided to focus on me DH said just go with it we don't know anyone here and will never see them again. At the end of the evening the couple at the next table came up to us to say her DM lived 10 miles from us and she visited weekly!

My friend's son was standing at a bus stop in Brisbane. A young man asked if he'd gone to BIFFY. This is a college in Belfast and yes they had both attended there at the same time!

Many years ago, we ran into our old next door neighbour in a swish Hotel in Paris. We’d been invited to watch the tennis, as DH’s company was a sponsor. Our neighbour was working in Qatar and came in with a group of robed Arabs for a meeting. I couldn’t help myself and shouted ‘bloody hell, it’s Peter R!’

Some years ago I was interview for a nanny position in London. The lady was a lovely American lady, but I didn't accept the post as it wasn't as long-term as I would have liked. Some months later, and in a new job, I was out in Manhattan with my charge, when I heard my name being called. It was the lady who had interviewed me in London. It turned out that shortly after she interviewed me she had been called back to the US to work. We had a lovely chat. What a small world!

I haven't had this experience but once went to speak to a man in a pub who was the absolute double of a guy I'd known well at uni. I addressed him by name and he looked quite confused and insisted he was someone else. His girlfriend gave me such looks! She obviously thought I was making a move on her man!

It’s a small world - and getting smaller with each day. It’s not unusual to run into someone you know (or a mutual friend) half way around the world even, when you least expect it.

It would be amazing to me if someone recognized me after 50 years.
USA Gundy

I once chased an old classmate around town trying to catch he up. Finally I touched her shoulder. Hi. Long time no see. Its me T....
Your are J Herring
No she replied I'm I....Haddock.
Oops
Another Oops moment
A good friend had a controlling husband who bought her a racing bike to firm up her 'flabby thighs'.
In town I spotted her standing with two others. Long dark hair, parka, racing bike. I crept up behind her, grabbed one thigh with both hands, rubbing it vigorously. "Cor lovely pair of thighs". I growled. She turned and yup. Wrong pair of thighs.
Oops sorry I said before fleeing. I thought you were my friend.
I bet she's glad she wasn't.

I was returning an item at a customer service desk in a large department store when a voice behind me in the queue actually said “It's you isn’t it?”
She hadn’t even seen my face.
Apparently she recognised my voice from school a good ten years previously.
We weren’t even close friends in class.
I found it rather scary that my voice should be so memorable.

I am in a Community Choir. At our last concert I went down into the audience at the interval. A female almost pounced on me saying my name and that she had spotted me up on the stage. I hadn't a ckue who she was until she said her name and where we had known one another. Hadn't seen one another since age 11 65 years ago when her family emigrated to Australia. Absolutely flabbergasted. Her second visit back to UK in all those years and spending a few days with a family relative who was also in the choir hence being in the audience. Perhaps it was the choir dress code, almost like a school uniform that jolted her memory. Managed a quick catch up the next day, but 65 years, astounded!

Back in 1965, my friend and I took our very first holiday abroad. I was 17 and she 18. Walking along the beach in Majorca, we saw three young men walking towards us and recognised them as living in the same town back home. Small world!

During a holiday in France many years ago we were parking in Perpignan when someone called our names and it was a family that lived near us at home, their children at the same school as ours. It was quite unbelievable to see such familiar faces so far from home!

My son and his uni friend were doing their gap year Australia, NZ etc. Stood at a bus stop in NZ waiting for a coach, he heard someone say...Hello there Fella......it was the younger brother of a school friend who was also doing a gap year trip!

On the beach in Barbados last winter with my little grandson who is mad about fishing. Along came a couple with all their fishing gear and we got chatting about fishing. They asked where we were from, I told him it was a very small village in Ontario and was sure he won’t have heard of it ( he was an American from the mid west).When I said the name he said his best friend lived there. His best friends wife was my hairdresser 🤷‍♀️.

Before i met my husband he was on a solo holiday in Portugal, fishing off a pier when a voice behind him said "have you caught anything?" When he turned around they were both flabbergasted, it was his aunt!