SURREAL COÏNCIDENCES FROM
YEARS OF TRAVELING

© 2006 by Orchid Land Publications  (20051230-10080114)

1. I had been invited to the Univ. of Hyderabad in SE India─a sprawling city with the most imposing citadel one can imagine.  (Arriving on an Islamic holy day, the university was not functioning.  The faculty got a car and laid on a great tour of the place.)  As soon as I arrived, I recognized a friend of mine from the other West Berlin University─also in English linguistics.  The coïncidence was quite unbelievable both in the locale and in the timing.  (The same is true of the following.) 

2. In a small place in Jamaica, while staying at the town's hotel, I ran into two men from Knoxville, TN, which is near my hometown (founded and laid out by members of Cecil Rhodes's family). They turned out to be the son's of a lawyer (I believe his name was Jenkins), the one who finally defeated Sen. McCarthy in the famous trials.  (He had also done some work for my father.)  As I had no way to get to Kingston, they insisted I go in the car they had rented; they wouldn't let me contribute to costs.  Over the mountain, the road was really a widened path.  Seeing that the cabins along the way opened directly onto the road, the local driver exclaimed, I hope we don't run over any kids along here; it would hold us up at least an hour or so!  I later found out that one of my cousins had a young relative (not a relative of mine) who lived live goat boy on land he inherited (when his parent perished when a bridge from NJ to NYCity collapsed and the train they were riding fell into the water).  I was sad not to have known of this when I went right by the place.

3. On my last trip from Europe to Hawaii at my retirement, I went to Pinang Island in Malaysia.  Arriving as it was getting dark, it was ascertained that all hotels near the airport were full.  Renting a car and driving to the north of the island, one booked into a nice hotel and hurried to the dining room.  It was closing as the manager came out.  He, a Chinese Malayan, and I instantly recognized each other.  He had managed the Statler dining facilities in Brunei during the months I was there, and I came to know him by talking with him after my late lunches there.  He re-opened the dining room and delighted one with his best.
     4. On a flight from New Orleans to Cancún, I happened to be sitting next to a person I had visited at Vanderbilt University some time earlier. 
     5. On a trip to Luzern, I ran into someone I had known as an undergraduate at Harvard.  He happened to come there the very same day that I did!

    I experienced unlikely coincidences on trips to Rio de Janeiro and elsewhere, but nothing so unlikely as the foregoing . . . with one strong exception which I recently remembered but have now forgotten.

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