I wanted to share this story. I work on fire sprinkler systems as my job. Today we went to a plant called Ferno in Wilmington, Ohio to do a bit of work on an addition they had. They produce backboards, embalming tables,stretchers, etc. I got talking to the maintenance man there as we drained the system and he spoke of how their company is worldwide. On one occasion, he had to go to Holland spur of the moment to fix a piece of equipment. He spoke of the beautiful areas he went…the tulip fields, canals, women… After he was done, I said, “You didn’t happen to be near Rotterdam and a couple windmills and meet a feller in coveralls with a beard hustling around the mill, giving tours and such?” He just stood there, silently staring at me with his mouth dropped…and said"How the hell did you know!!!" Yessir, Jaap Bes is an “International Man”, known the world over!. Very fortunate to have folks like that on this site.
Haha, Bart, that is a great story. Thank you for sharing.
May the wind always fill your sails!
that is awesome. I hope you lied and said that ever since the accident you just know things.
Haha! I did tell him Jaap gave me some seeds. He kind of avoided me the rest of the day…
thought you were stalking him globaly
That’s a great story.
@Bart: Thanks for sharing. It is really possible. We get about 1000 visitors per year and about 10% of them comes from abroad. The old miller told me another remarkable story. A group Americans visited the mill and one of them took a tobacco leaf from an oxhead in the mill, examened it carefully, smelled, tasted, and said: “You know, that’s from my neighbour!” Jaap Bes
Loved the story, yes it is a strange, small world. I was on a plane going from my home at the time near Chicago back to my air force base in Florida. I switched planes in Atlanta Ga. I got on the plane in uniform and saw a sailor and wanted to sit next to a G.I. to avoid the " Do you fly a plane, are you in Viet Nam?’ etc from well meaning civilians. I asked if I could sit down, and he said ok. I asked him what he did in the Navy, "Seabee’ I told him my first cousin was as well. "where is he stationed’ Bermuda says I, "what is his name’ he asked. "Ed Burash from Streator Illiniois. He then pulled out a photo from his pocket of Ed and him together, they were drinking buddies stationed as seabees together…what are the odds?
Graybear and Roderick, those two stories both struck me as particularly awesome, each in their own unique way. ken
When I was 14, my parents sent me to Germany to go see my relatives before they died. I was on a train from Frankfurt to Marktredwitz to visit my maternal grandfather. The train was very FULL, and I didn’t have an assigned seat. I eventually found a seat next to a 14 year old girl and her parents. Turns out they were not just from Edmonton like I was, but lived 3 blocks from me. They had lived there for 10 years, and in all that time I don’t think I ever saw her (she went to the Catholic School while I went to Public School, although we were in the same grade). I still find it marvelous that I had to travel half-way around the world to meet someone who lived in my neighborhood. Unfortunately I didn’t make a new friend - her parents were jerks and didn’t want her to associate with a non-Catholic. She went on to become a teacher at the same Catholic school she attended back when, and still lives in the same general neighborhood. I know this only because I ran into her on the street in Vancouver about 8 years ago (again, 700 km from my home and 1500 km from her home…). Random chance happens more often than people think… G
I lived in Edmonton for awhile. My favourite city in North America.
Mr Snuffypants, If you’re going to tell me you dressed up like a Catholic school girl for Halloween on a train from Frankfurt to Marktredwitz years ago, and it is true your parents are jerks, (though that’s a bit harsh), I’d say it’s strange you two are now meeting again on this site…now some of these stories are freaking me out 
when I was a lad I knew a catholic school girl.;-/
@Nachman, I also new a catholic school girl. Very naughty, she was. We boys were very glad about it. She did not make it as a nun. You can guess why!
@Bart I guess my secret is out. My parents used to put me in Catholic school girl uniforms on trains so they would only have to pay half the fare.
Well, don’t feel so bad. When I was a boy,I used to hear other little fellers say they’d…" love to get into a Catholic girls uniform" It was only when I showed up in my checkered jumper that I realized that statement could be taken two ways.
well thats nothing, when i was a boy i had to pretend to be a dog as my parents never wanted children.
anyway, back to subject, i cant really tell a great story as everyone else has so far but theres been a few times ive met old work pals in different jobs over the years or met people that used to work at the same company as me and now work for the same company.