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Strange Coincidences?

The following came to me during the night, goodness knows why it popped into my head, it happened years ago, but I realised it’d fit in here as a strange coincidence.

I was on holiday at Scarborough (about 100 miles from where I have lived all my life) and sitting in the Corner Cafe on the North Bay (incidentally no longer there) sitting having a coffee with my cousin whilst admiring the sea view. For some reason we got chatting about infatuations and I was telling her about this one lad I’d had a huge crush on at college. I swear this is no word of a lie, just as I had finished talking about him, he strolled around the corner and past the window I was looking out of! I couldn’t believe my eyes and thought it must be somebody who vaguely looked like him and because I’d just been thinking about him I‘d made a mistake. But no, he and the person he was with, then turned around to go back from where they’d just come and I got a clearer view of his face. It was definitely him! My cousin couldn't believe it, I couldn’t believe it. It was the strangest thing, especially since I’d never seen him since leaving college.
 
Swifty said:
Just before me and the ex moved to where I now live, a regular customer in the pub I was working in at the time advised me to place a bet on an outsider horse called 'Deeper In Debt'. I was tempted on the whole 'wouldn't it be ironic if this horse wins and I get 14 times my money back what with the comedy name' thing but then the 'How the hell do I explain to my girlfriend that I've just lost our money and not only that but to a horse called Deeper In Debt.?'. I didn't place the bet thank God because the horse lost the race. She still ran off with another bloke anyway though. She wasn't a redhead.
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Many years ago, I was in my local pub and got chatting to an old guy who told me that a horse running the following day at Newmarket was a cert to romp home. He told me that the horse will also have long odds, but do not let that put you off, and to stick as much money as you could afford on the horse to win.

I can’t remember the name of the horse now, it was almost 30 years ago, but the following day I walked into a bookies and saw the horse in question with odds at 33/1. It’s not even worth putting on a pound I thought as it’s got no chance, and I decided not to bother

After work I went back into the bookies to check and was absolutely gutted to see that it had romped home just as the old man had said it would. I didn’t have much money back then but could have easily afforded £20. That would have been a return of £680 with my stake money back.
 
I was along at my mum's earlier today and she mentioned that she'd like to call one of her cousins she hadn't heard from in a couple of years. I helped her dig through all her notebooks until we found the cousin's address and phone number and just at that moment, the phone rang and it was her cousin who had decided to call her on the spur of the moment.
 
This is weird.

This is a live new story ( and highly unusual event in these parts) about 3 miles from me this evening :

Screenshot_2022-12-23-23-57-44-21_40deb401b9ffe8e1df2f1cc5ba480b12.jpg



Eerily 24 hours earlier I made the following jokey response to a "what are you up to?" message :

IMG_20221223_233315.jpg


If I'd opted for the words post office instead of convenience store I'd probably be needing a lawyer.
 
This afternoon I was watching an episode of Shetland and an actor reminded me of my uncle.
I was going to email my cousin after I looked up the name but was interrupted by a phone call.
Tonight in my emails was one from my cousin saying it's funny how dna works as one of his grandkids looks like his sister and another looks like me.
 
Strange coincidence on Saturday. It was quite random, so I thought I’d post it.

Saturday afternoon I visited my Mum and Dad. I was sitting in Mums kitchen chatting with her, when and the conversation turned onto an incident that happened to a friend of my mums back in the very early 1980’s, I’ll call my mums friend HB.

HB had dropped in to see my mum one weekend afternoon, and afterwards was walking home along a residential street that had derelict houses on either side (much of east London was like this in the 1970’s / early 1980’s) when she heard a child crying coming from one the derelict houses. She investigated and found a 5-year-old naked girl sitting in the corner of one of the houses bedrooms. She wrapped her own coat around the girl, scooped her up and carried her to her house and then the called the police.

My mum couldn’t remember what the back story was as to why a naked 5-year-old girl was doing alone in a derelict house, but she does remember the case going to court and HB having to give a testimony.

Anyway, later that evening, I’m at home and I heard my mobile phone ping, and I was surprised to see it was a Facebook message. Although I’m on FB, I have to say that I don’t really do FB and have never messaged anyone and have never received a FB message from anyone. The message was from none other than HB. She was sitting at home that Saturday evening, and for whatever reason I pooped into her head, so she decided to search FB for me.

Bear in mind however that I have not seen or even thought about HB for almost 40 years. Just a bit strange that I was having a conversation about her earlier that day, then I received a random FB message from her.

Quite weird eh..?
 
Floyd1 said:
I wonder if it was in the local paper(s) at the time? Would be interesting to know what happened.
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I’ve already replied to the FB message Floyd old chap – yesterday in fact. Would it be inappropriate to message her back and ask her about the incident do you think.?

I do remember her going through a distressing time finding that girl like that, and what with the court case etc, but yes you are right I’d love to know what happened.
 
Dick Turpin said:
I’ve already replied to the FB message Floyd old chap – yesterday in fact. Would it be inappropriate to message her back and ask her about the incident do you think.?

I do remember her going through a distressing time finding that girl like that, and what with the court case etc, but yes you are right I’d love to know what happened.
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Try something along the lines of "That's funny, Mum, Dad and I were just chatting about you yesterday - we were talking about that time that you found that girl. Do you remember what happened with that?" and take it from there.
 
SimonBurchell said:
Try something along the lines of "That's funny, Mum, Dad and I were just chatting about you yesterday - we were talking about that time that you found that girl. Do you remember what happened with that?" and take it from there.
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I'll think about it Simon.

Age wise she must In her late seventies now, and I don’t want to bring back bad memories for her. I remember being around her house around the time the young girl was found (their son was in my class at school, and I used to go around their house quite a lot back then) and remember the tears she shed and her husband comforting her. Its likely she knew the back story what with the case going to court and she found all to upsetting etc.
 
Dick Turpin said:
Strange coincidence on Saturday. It was quite random, so I thought I’d post it.

Saturday afternoon I visited my Mum and Dad. I was sitting in Mums kitchen chatting with her, when and the conversation turned onto an incident that happened to a friend of my mums back in the very early 1980’s, I’ll call my mums friend HB.

HB had dropped in to see my mum one weekend afternoon, and afterwards was walking home along a residential street that had derelict houses on either side (much of east London was like this in the 1970’s / early 1980’s) when she heard a child crying coming from one the derelict houses. She investigated and found a 5-year-old naked girl sitting in the corner of one of the houses bedrooms. She wrapped her own coat around the girl, scooped her up and carried her to her house and then the called the police.

My mum couldn’t remember what the back story was as to why a naked 5-year-old girl was doing alone in a derelict house, but she does remember the case going to court and HB having to give a testimony.

Anyway, later that evening, I’m at home and I heard my mobile phone ping, and I was surprised to see it was a Facebook message. Although I’m on FB, I have to say that I don’t really do FB and have never messaged anyone and have never received a FB message from anyone. The message was from none other than HB. She was sitting at home that Saturday evening, and for whatever reason I pooped into her head, so she decided to search FB for me.

Bear in mind however that I have not seen or even thought about HB for almost 40 years. Just a bit strange that I was having a conversation about her earlier that day, then I received a random FB message from her.

Quite weird eh..?
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Not weird, quite normal really! HB obviously detected your thoughts.
 
Dick Turpin said:
I was thinking along the same lines Carl. She was quite a fortean person herself, very spiritual If I remember. And she always maintained that her Mum was clairvoyant. They used to take me on holiday when I was a kid. I was with them on holiday when this incidence happened .

https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/black-stick-man.7411/post-1799260
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There is definitely a genetic factor involved, as well as the obvious fact that if you are brought up in a home where such things are seen as normal, you are more likely to develop such perceptions yourself.
 
A little bit of further info on this. I had a telephone conversation with my mother yesterday and pumped her for more info about what she could remember when HB found the little girl. Unfortunately, she couldn’t remember much, although I did find out that it happened at night, and not in the afternoon as I supposed.

They were walking home from an evening at the local bingo hall, and upon parting company, my mum was urging HB to walk home via the main road and not through the little derelict back streets, but HB insisted as it was more of a direct route to her house, and in doing that heard the little girl whimpering in one of the derelict houses. Also found out that upon entering the house and shouting hello, the little girl (who was not entirely naked but wearing just a vest) ran out of one of the rooms and into HB’s arms. It was then that HB wrapped her up and took her back to her house.

What struck me was how incredibly brave HB must have been in doing that. Picture an unlit derelict side street, in the east end of London. Its 10.30 at night, you’re alone and with only the moon as a light source, then hearing a small child whimpering coming from one of the derelict houses – mothers instinct perhaps..?.

There is a chance that I’ll hear back from HB, as in my last message I asked her if her Son (my old class mate) wanted to hook up for a beer, so if he agrees and I do hear back , I will ask her directly about the little girl and what the back story was and what happened after the court case etc.
 
Dick Turpin said:
how incredibly brave HB must have been
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However, sounds like it was many years ago. People still had the memory of enduring the second world war, and for London also 'the blitz' etc. Even if HB had not been around, or had only been tiny, at the time, there would still be an enduring 'mass memory' of it.
These things harden people.
Plus I expect that the East End of that period would have been a much more different place to that which stands today. It's likely that the mainly demolished areas that got bombed heavily were still being tidied up well into the 60s and 70s, so would have had very few people living there.
 
Trevp666 said:
However, sounds like it was many years ago. People still had the memory of enduring the second world war, and for London also 'the blitz' etc. Even if HB had not been around, or had only been tiny, at the time, there would still be an enduring 'mass memory' of it.
These things harden people.
Plus I expect that the East End of that period would have been a much more different place to that which stands today. It's likely that the mainly demolished areas that got bombed heavily were still being tidied up well into the 60s and 70s, so would have had very few people living there.
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Most definitely Trev. I can still remember bomb sites from when I was a growing up as a kid, especially in Haggerston and De Beauvoir town areas. I was once told that many central London NCP carparks were created on old bombsites.
 
Dick Turpin said:
Most definitely Trev. I can still remember bomb sites from when I was a growing up as a kid, especially in Haggerston and De Beauvoir town areas. I was once told that many central London NCP carparks were created on old bombsites.
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As kids, we often played and searched in such places as bomb craters in South London - usually some rusty old car or such like would be sitting in the bottom of them, and we used to use them as our playgrounds.
 
My colleague came in and told me this today. He'd been out at a Lodge dinner last night with Masons from all over Devon - and bear in mind that Devon is a BIG county. 42 diners, randomly assigned to tables, and the chap opposite my colleague was a 70-something called Peter who had come down from North Devon for the evening. After a while Peter said to my colleague, "You're not from round here, are you?", to which colleague replied "No, I'm from Brecon." (In Wales, for our non-UK friends - a good 100 miles away by road.). It turned out Peter had grown up in Brecon - and a little more chat revealed that colleague's aunt had been Peter's first love. As a consequence Peter knew colleague's grandmother and all sorts of family stories! (The only downside was when Peter asked "And how is Roz?", and colleague had to say she'd been dead for six years... Peter didn't say anything for 5 minutes after that.)
 
bugmum said:
My colleague came in and told me this today. He'd been out at a Lodge dinner last night with Masons from all over Devon - and bear in mind that Devon is a BIG county. 42 diners, randomly assigned to tables, and the chap opposite my colleague was a 70-something called Peter who had come down from North Devon for the evening. After a while Peter said to my colleague, "You're not from round here, are you?", to which colleague replied "No, I'm from Brecon." (In Wales, for our non-UK friends - a good 100 miles away by road.). It turned out Peter had grown up in Brecon - and a little more chat revealed that colleague's aunt had been Peter's first love. As a consequence Peter knew colleague's grandmother and all sorts of family stories! (The only downside was when Peter asked "And how is Roz?", and colleague had to say she'd been dead for six years... Peter didn't say anything for 5 minutes after that.)
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That broke my heart. :(
 
bugmum said:
My colleague came in and told me this today. He'd been out at a Lodge dinner last night with Masons from all over Devon - and bear in mind that Devon is a BIG county. 42 diners, randomly assigned to tables, and the chap opposite my colleague was a 70-something called Peter who had come down from North Devon for the evening. After a while Peter said to my colleague, "You're not from round here, are you?", to which colleague replied "No, I'm from Brecon." (In Wales, for our non-UK friends - a good 100 miles away by road.). It turned out Peter had grown up in Brecon - and a little more chat revealed that colleague's aunt had been Peter's first love. As a consequence Peter knew colleague's grandmother and all sorts of family stories! (The only downside was when Peter asked "And how is Roz?", and colleague had to say she'd been dead for six years... Peter didn't say anything for 5 minutes after that.)
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Must have been a bit of an awkward moment.
 
bugmum said:
My colleague came in and told me this today. He'd been out at a Lodge dinner last night with Masons from all over Devon - and bear in mind that Devon is a BIG county. 42 diners, randomly assigned to tables, and the chap opposite my colleague was a 70-something called Peter who had come down from North Devon for the evening. After a while Peter said to my colleague, "You're not from round here, are you?", to which colleague replied "No, I'm from Brecon." (In Wales, for our non-UK friends - a good 100 miles away by road.). It turned out Peter had grown up in Brecon - and a little more chat revealed that colleague's aunt had been Peter's first love. As a consequence Peter knew colleague's grandmother and all sorts of family stories! (The only downside was when Peter asked "And how is Roz?", and colleague had to say she'd been dead for six years... Peter didn't say anything for 5 minutes after that.)
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That amazing coincidence has a truly sad ending. Your colleague couldn't have helped it once the two of them shared their mutual connections, it was unavoidable. Awkward, yes, but unavoidable.
 
I was in the lab this afternoon when our enthusiastic American postgrad started talking about offering somebody some volunteer work - obviously somebody she vaguely knew who was associated with a vegan deli in town. Opening up FB this evening, I've been tagged by an old school friend (who lives in Sussex) regarding the same ad for the chap from the vegan deli, wondering if I knew anyone who could help. I messaged her back to say that we were already on the case - and then I spotted that I had a FB friend request from the same enthusiastic American postgrad who had originally mentioned it. All a bit circular.
 
bugmum said:
I was in the lab this afternoon when our enthusiastic American postgrad started talking about offering somebody some volunteer work - obviously somebody she vaguely knew who was associated with a vegan deli in town. Opening up FB this evening, I've been tagged by an old school friend (who lives in Sussex) regarding the same ad for the chap from the vegan deli, wondering if I knew anyone who could help. I messaged her back to say that we were already on the case - and then I spotted that I had a FB friend request from the same enthusiastic American postgrad who had originally mentioned it. All a bit circular.
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I live in the hope that, one day, you will start a post with "I was working in the lab late one night..."
 
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