h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My Grandfather lost his sight in the years after the war when he lived in Devon. My whole family come from the west country although I spent my teenage years in Yorkshire before moving to N London / S Herts when I was 20. When he lost his sight he was sent to a training centre in Letchworth to learn a new trade before returning to work in the west again.

Fast forward 40 odd years and I find myself dating and then marrying a woman from Letchworth. At this point I still didn't know about my Grandad training in Letchworth until when talking with my wife and mother we discovered that she had worked in the same training centre that my Grandad had been to.

Some years later obviously.

PP.

I'm more of the small world kind of guy. And mine are all military related.

My wife is from a village of perhaps 500 people in New Brunswick. One night while on a smoke break, chatting with 4 other guys - all 4 were from less than 8 miles from my wife's childhood home.

I am also from a small village, never exceeding a population of 350. Attending a leadership course some 1,300 miles from my starting place, the guy sitting beside me had worked with me as lads of 12 and 13. The chap seated behind me had quite a crush on my elder sister in high school.

And one other: having drinks in a hotel bar in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia during a work trip - I learned that our waitress was the sister of my current next door neighbor. Some 1,000 to 1,100 miles apart.

It no longer surprises me when I'm far from home and I run into someone I know.

When I was working in Shanghai in the 1980's my sons were at boarding school here. I phoned Thos Cooks in Grimsby to see if they knew anything about their travel arrangements for the summer, stressing that I was making a (very) long distance call.
"I am very sorry I can't help you, Mrs Jones, but it looks as though someone has just come in who can" - My elder son took the phone from her

I was in the library a couple days ago and happened upon a book that was titled "Gnomon".