Bet You Know Someone I Know

I came to the realization that I have six degrees of separation syndrome. Okay, so that may not be necessarily the most accurate description but it is really freaky when I get to visiting with people and realize how inter-connected we all are. We know somebody that knows somebody and that knows someone else. Perhaps it is a place that links us or the people in the place that we will have in common.

There was a salesman at the work one day that was chatty. Perhaps I was chatty in visiting when he was waiting for his appointment. I found out he lives near Omaha but grew up in Casper. He mentioned he had a daughter at UW. When he said Casper, I told him I grew up in Wheatland. He knew people there but the names weren't familiar. He said he went to college with a gal that was a year older than I was in high school. I told him that I hadn't heard her name in years. He and I both wondered what had happened to her.

I had a nice lady here in town specifically come to work to introduce herself because she had read my blog. She been a Kiwanian in McCook. She had belonged to the group before my time but we had mutual friends and acquaintances from when I was a member. We had a nice chat and I thought it was very kind of her to go out of her way to stop by.

Then at work the one day, I was chatting to my co-worker and we got on the subject of the new minister. I mentioned the minister that had baptized the girls in Chester had moved to Falls City back in the early 90's. Lo and behold, my co-worker was best buddies with the minister's wife when they lived here. I think it may have surprised her more that me at the time.

One of my co-workers also lived in Torrington for years and I spent a great deal of time in Torrington at ball games growing up. It gave us a connection or some common ground.. She teases me that I cannot be a true Wyoming native if I never attended Frontier Days. I didn't realize it was a pre-requisite but it makes me giggle. I will be the first to admit I grew up 70 miles from Cheyenne and don't ever remember ever going to Frontier Days.

There are the Chester connections that run through the Falls City ones and the McCook ones. Imagine my surprise in the drive thru bank in McCook to be asked if we had lived in Chester. Yes indeed, we had lived there and I had to find out which 'kid' she was. We later worked together and it was nice to have something in common. We shared a sense of place even if hers was a younger perspective than mine.

The Chester connections even married into the family. Okay, yes, technically Belleville is the connection but son-in-law went to church in Chester and so that is what counts. And the Chester minister helped marry the kids.

There are the Girl Scout connections. My kids know those because they run into some of 'my' volunteers depending where they are. These connections are also connected to the UNK and Chadron State connections. The Girl Scout connections also connect to the Kiwanis connections.

Attending Chadron State college provided quite a few links to friends near and far. The connections were classes taken, professors, finals and bars frequented. Seriously, if you were at Chadron in the early 80's, there is a good chance you had two-fers at Herman's - provided you were of legal drinking age.

Again, it is just freaky we are so inter-connected. But my reality is most of the connections have been fairly positive in my Wyo-braskan experiences. Even if I do fail at being a 'true' Wyoming native. LOL