Forget six degrees!

So when I was working at my previous company, I met this guy in a training class who worked 2 floors below me and we became fast friends. There were only so many black folks at my level in the company and our groups worked on similar projects so we just sort of bonded and had lots of things to comiserate about. A self proclaimed techie, he became my technology consultant for all the electronic, computer and cellular purchases I was considering, as well as my A/V go to guy when I couldn't figure out the bext way to hook up my tv, dvr, dvd player and reciever (and helped me set everything back up again when I moved......and moved again....) A totally platonic relationship, he has also become my sounding board and a good source of advice while navigating the dating world and explaining to me all the crazy, stupid, illogical things that guys do!

So about 2 months after we met, we were talking and I said something about my hometown. He said his wife was from there too. Well, not only were we from the same place, we were in high school together! Talk about ironic! I didn't even know we were in the same city. Now, she was a couple years older than me so we were not close but we also grew up about a 1/2 mile from each other.

Over the years there have been a number of other coincidences like this, although never quite as surprising.... I became good friends with someone at my new job and turns out she takes her kids to the same daycare as he and his wife that their kids . Another guy at my new company is a frat chapter brother...... But a couple weeks ago, we got the kicker....

I sent an email out to my family and friends about some article in the news about my company. My mom wrote me back and said "who is _____ _____? Ask him if he had a relative that went to unnamed HBCU in the 60's." So he has a very distinctive name and he is named after his father so I had a feeling that he had to be talking about my friend's father. And lo and behold, my mother and his father went to college together! They were in the band together and both played clarinet! They were one year apart (although they graduated the smae year because my mom graduated early) and both went into education --- his dad as an elementary school principal and my mom in deaf education.

Talk about irony! My friend is the son of my mother's college classmate and husband of one of my high school classmates. And we met randomly because we worked at the same company. What a small world! So forget six degrees of separation, I would say that between college educated black folks it is more like 1-3degrees, tops!