Ten years ago, on April 15, 2011, I wrote my first Rearview Mirror column. Ten years is not all that much in the newspaper business. Ferd Lewis and Bob Krauss both topped 50 years. Still, it’s a lot for me.
I did worry, 10 years ago, that I would run out of interesting things to write about. But thanks to readers asking questions and sharing their stories, I don’t think I’ll ever run out of material.
Last week I wrote about reader small-world stories, and my inbox was flooded with more. Here are a few.
Ireland
Dr. Stephen Arnold told me: “In spring 2011 my daughter, Monica, was doing a semester abroad in London. My wife, Emi, and I joined up with her to spend her spring break exploring Ireland.
“We stayed in a small B&B in Dingle. National Geographic Traveler named it ‘one of the most beautiful places on Earth.’ It is so far west in Ireland that the locals of Dingle tell you that ‘the next parish over is Boston.’
“We were having breakfast and looked across the room to see familiar Honolulu faces: fellow physician Dr. John Houk, his wife, Jane, and daughter, Laura, who was doing a semester abroad in Galway.
“They were traveling counterclockwise and we clockwise on our journey of the Emerald Isle. How odd to meet 7,000 miles away on a single day in County Kerry.”
Tom Moffatt and Bob Apisa
Former newsman Don Chapman wrote: “I’ve never experienced any small-world happenstances in all my travels, but was told of two instances by people whose names you may recognize. …
“Tom Moffatt, the late, great radio deejay and concert promoter, was just exiting a restaurant at Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, said to be the busiest pedestrian intersection in the world, when he was almost hit by a bicycle — ridden by his good friend Kamasami Kong (aka Bob Zix), the Honolulu deejay who is a big radio star in Japan. …
“Bob Apisa, the former football All-American at Michigan State from Farrington who went on to a Hollywood career as actor, stuntman and producer, was about to board a flight at the Stuttgart airport in Germany 15 years ago with his wife, Arlena, when he suddenly heard someone calling out, ‘Papu! Papu!’
“It shocked him because that was his boyhood nickname, known only to close friends and family, and he had indeed been spotted by an old Halawa housing friend halfway around the world.”
Kindergarten
Sue Atkins sent me a story related by someone who went to the same school she did in Orleans, France.
“An American woman driving somewhere in America picked up two young hitchhikers. It turns out they were a French couple.
“She took them to a friend’s house. The friend was an Army brat who had lived in France as a young person.
“The young Frenchman walked over to inspect a photograph on the wall. He inquired about it. The owner informed him that it was her younger sister’s French kindergarten class picture.
“The Frenchman pointed to a little boy in the photo and said, ‘That’s me.’”
Frankfurt
Brian Fukunaga told me: “In 1962 I was on my way to an assignment in the Air Force to Turkey and stayed overnight on base in Frankfurt, Germany, while awaiting a flight.
“Heading to the latrine, I was stopped by a staff sergeant who asked if my name was Fukunaga, to my shock, because I had never met him before.
“After replying ‘yeah,’ he explained that he was stationed with a Clifford Fukunaga in ‘the States’ and that I looked a lot like him.
“Upon returning to Hawaii, I called my cousin Clifford and told him the story. To this day I don’t think we look that much alike.”
Bloomington
Roger Kobayashi said: “I was walking along the sidewalk in Bloomington, Ind., just after finishing a 10K run.
“A car traveling in the same direction pulled into a driveway and blocked my path. The driver pointed at me and asked, ‘Kobayashi?’
“The driver and I had been in the same unit at Schofield Barracks five years earlier.
“When I asked how he recognized me from the rear, he said that there couldn’t be anyone else who walked like me.”
Mazatlan
David Yee said his small-world story took place in Mazatlan, Mexico. “My wife and I were on vacation there in the early 1980s. While shopping in a small neighborhood convenience store near our hotel, I heard someone call out my name.
“I immediately looked to see who did that because I certainly didn’t think I knew anyone in Mazatlan.
“It turned out to be Fred Brown, a classmate of mine from Roosevelt High School. We hadn’t seen each other since graduating from RHS 25 years earlier in 1959!
“He lived in Washington state and I lived in California. Of all the places to run into a high school buddy! The world gets smaller every day.”
Suva, Fiji
“In 1969,” John Veltri told me, “I was walking on the sidewalk in Suva, Fiji, and ran into a childhood friend. We grew up in Idaho in neighboring towns and had competed in sports against each other.
“He was on R&R from the U.S. Navy in Perth, Australia, and I was on R&R from the U.S. Peace Corps in Tonga. We had taken different life paths to meet 6,000 miles from home.”
France
“My wife and I had rented a drive-it-yourself boat on the canals of Aquitaine in France,” Frank Haas, former dean at Kapiolani Community College, told me.
“On the boat we were flying the Hawaiian flag (which always starts a conversation). We had stopped at a tiny village and tied up.
“The port master came by to collect the fee, but before he came aboard he walked back and forth looking at the flag.
“When I told him it was Hawaii, he was very excited and said no one had ever been there from Hawaii.
“About an hour later he came by again and said there was another boat in the town with the same flag. It was Randy and Jean Wilcox of Kailua, that I knew from KCC.”
Pidgin
Lowell Angell told me: “Several decades ago a friend and I were touring France in a station wagon. After driving for hours one day in the countryside, we came upon a nice-looking country inn and were seated in a very large dining room. There were only two other parties, one nearby and one at the other end of the room.
“During our meal I heard the unmistakable sound of pidgin, although I couldn’t hear what they were saying. I listened closely and, sure enough — no question — it was indeed local pidgin.
“After we finished our meal, we got up and walked over to the table and asked, ‘By any chance, are you from Hawaii?’ Yes they were!
“One of them was Dave Dumas, the owner of Honolulu’s Appliance Parts store, of which I was a steady customer. We chatted amicably for a while, then departed, still surprised that we connected with some locals 7,500 miles from Hawaii.”
Small-world stories intrigue me. For instance, I would think witness protection programs would be undermined by these chance meetings of people from your past. What do you think? If you have a story, send me an email.
Have a question or suggestion? Contact Bob Sigall, author of the five “The Companies We Keep” books, at Sigall@Yahoo.com.
