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8th March 2019, 10:47 AM
#1
Scarey coincidence
During 1980 I was painting a shop front in Barnard Castle when a chap and his wife asked me for some directions to Raby Castle,during the conversation I recognised his accent as Canadian ,I told him i Had been in the MN and had been in a few Vancouver Iland ports loading cargoes of timber ,he replied we lived in Crofton then ,and said he was on security duty from 1955 to the early 60s on the dock I told him I was crew on the Lynton in 1959 there,during the conversation I said I had spoken to a dock guard after returning from drinking in the timber men's cabin ,anyway I had run out of ciggies to which the guy replied I have some McDonalds here and gave me a packet and wouldn't take any cash for them.during chatting I said I had been born in Whiby ,believe or not he had been born there to and told me he was the guy I had got the fags off on the dockside.If that ain't a creepy coincidence what is !!!.He was staying locally a few nights during this time we had a few drinks together and had a real good old Chinwag about old times ,we kept in contact over a few years but he passed away in the early nineties.i still get the shivers about this meeting.
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9th March 2019, 12:26 AM
#2
Re: Scarey coincidence
Hi Dave.
As they say, it's a small world. Down her in Cooma thousands of miles from civilization we have a prison, My daughter was talking to one of the Guards who said he used to be a seaman, she introduced him to me; and he went to the sea school in Gravesend sister to the Vindicatrix where i went
Cheers Des
Last edited by Des Taff Jenkins; 9th March 2019 at 12:32 AM.
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9th March 2019, 05:30 AM
#3
Re: Scarey coincidence
Originally Posted by
Des Taff Jenkins
Hi Dave.
As they say, it's a small world. Down her in Cooma thousands of miles from civilization we have a prison, My daughter was talking to one of the Guards who said he used to be a seaman, she introduced him to me; and he went to the sea school in Gravesend sister to the Vindicatrix where i went
Cheers Des
Des, civilization, where is that in Oz I sometimes wonder/ LOL
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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21st March 2019, 12:04 PM
#4
Re: Scarey coincidence
Definitely not scarey!
In July last year my wife and I, along with 84 other Kiwis, 10 Australians, and a small assortment of other nationalities, did a 14-day river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. About the 4th night, in the bar after dinner, we got talking to the group of Aussies beside us. One bloke's wife then got up and went to the bathroom, and he leaned over and said "Don't tell these other Aussies, but I am a Kiwi!" "Where from?" I asked? "Christchurch" he said. When were you born? 1950, he said! What schools, I asked? Burnside High & Wairakei Rd he replied! Who was your Std 2 teacher? "Fud Ellmers" he replied!!
Bloody Hell - we were in the same class together 57 years previously! And it eventually turned out 5 of the 10 Aussies were originally Kiwis as well!
We had a lot of fun on that trip. I e-mailed the school in ChCh when we got home 3 months later and they sent me the class photo, where we were standing one row apart. Definitely a small world. Photo shows 2 x 68-year-old schoolboys in Germany.
Skilly5048a_With Geoff Bell_from 1961!.jpg
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22nd March 2019, 05:07 AM
#5
Re: Scarey coincidence
Quite amazing who you can meet in the oddest of places.
Christmas/New Year cruise to NZ last year.
In Dunedin we met a couple of guys from Melbourne, one of them Irish.
We were all inside the local church, now only open for one service per year but open on all days a cruise ship is in.
My wife being from Ireland got talking to the young Irish man.
After the first few comments they discovered they were from the same part of Ireland.
Then the real thing, the Irishman was from a town only 5 klm up the road from where my wife is from.
Then to her surprise it turns out his mother went to the same Convent, in a town a bit further down the road, for their education.
Relaying the story to her brother in London it appears he was also at school with a man who is now the great uncle of this man.
Happy daze John in Oz.
Life is too short to blend in.
John Strange R737787
World Traveller
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3rd April 2019, 11:40 PM
#6
Re: Scarey coincidence
The world is not that big, Long Beach, Saint Patricks day1979. I was in a pub , Irish band giving it out, me being single at the time. Got chatting with the barmaid turned out we grew up in the same street.
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8th April 2019, 02:20 AM
#7
Re: Scarey coincidence
I have had a couple of these types of meetings, one was when walking down the main st. in Auckland in 1956, I passed a man who I thought i reconised, he must have done the same as we both turned around and faced each other.... "Allen", I said whilst at the same moment he said "keith" his mother was the landlady of a pub in Dove the same as my mother, Allen and I went to school together and knew each other very well. he was on one of the star boats and I was on the Ruahine of NZSCo.
3 years later I was at the cinema in Sydney, at the intermission I saw him again when he had to go for a p... I followed him in and had a good laugh over meeting up agaain like this.
One other time back in 1961. I was working on the cargo boat MV England. loading china clay in Fowey when this local chap comes on board to tell me there is a phone call from Canada waiting for me on shore, It was one of my old girlfriends who had tracked me down, anyway forward to 1998 I am again in a pub in Fowey with my son, then i hear this other man telling a tale about how he had to go to one ship to get this man for a telephone call to Canada, this chap is leaning on the bar with his back towards me, so I turn around and finished the story for him, you should have seen the look on his face.
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8th April 2019, 03:18 AM
#8
Re: Scarey coincidence
Originally Posted by
Samuel Denton
The world is not that big, Long Beach, Saint Patricks day1979. I was in a pub , Irish band giving it out, me being single at the time. Got chatting with the barmaid turned out we grew up in the same street.
Long Beach California? Which bar?
SDG
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8th April 2019, 11:07 AM
#9
Re: Scarey coincidence
On the World Cruise on the AMSTERDAM in 2014 ...........
A strange encounter happened on our way.
I accidentally bumped into a middle-aged lady. We spoke to each other and noticed she had a South Africa accent.
She said she was from Cape Town. I said I used to fly with Court Helicopters from Green Point. She said her husband used to fly with them as a Pilot and when were you there?
I said 1976. She then said then you would have known my husband. He was Fritz ********.
Yes I know him; I flew with him a lot in those days. Is he onboard.?
She said No, he was killed in 1977 when the helicopter went down south of the Cape.
I was stunned. I did hear at the time that one of the helicopters went down but never knew about the casualty. I suddenly felt ice cold. We had crashed into the ocean in 1976 but we all survived.
I had even been to her home in Paarl to a party in 1976,
It was a strange feeling, She had traveled to Miami from Cape Town, I had traveled to Miami from Bolton and we met in the South Pacific with the sad news.
Amazingly, I never saw that lady before or again for the rest of the voyage. A strange encounter.
Last edited by Captain Kong; 8th April 2019 at 11:11 AM.
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9th April 2019, 01:16 AM
#10
Re: Scarey coincidence
Hi Keith.
Out of curiosity the bloke wasn't called Snowy Allen was he? As I sailed on the NZ coast in 57\58 with a Snowy Allen from around Dover way, was called snowy for his fair hair.
he had jumped ship there.
Cheers Des
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