Have you ever been out and about, just doing life, going on vacation to a different country and accidentally ran into someone out of the clear blue?

[sage2021]

This happened to me. I was at a fast food place, in line to get breakfast one day. I looked at the people in the line next to me. I couldn't believe my eyes👁️👁️ when I saw my very first boyfriend from junior high school. We were 500 miles from where we were together, then many years later we are at the same place at the same time. Nights later I went dancing at a club, and guess who was dancing right next to me? Yes, it was him! Totally not planned either.
A friend of mine went to Greece for vacation (he is from California) and ran into a friend out of nowhere. Strange huh?
Anyone experience this?

[FunkyMonkee]

Yeah, I have cousins that grew up in Gary, Indiana, an 8-hour drive west of here.
In early `77, my dad decided to go to Florida to visit his childhood friend that grew up 2 blocks from our house. He decided to take the whole family. We were only there for 2 weeks but his friend invited us to stay for another 2 weeks. During the month that we were there in Clearwater/Bradenton, we decided to take a trip to Disney World. While we were there, we ran into my cousins from Gary!! I'm not sure why but, we didn't hang together and each group went their separate ways after we talked for a few minutes.
In `78, I went to work a few months at Cedar Point, a 4-hour drive west of here. One of the sweeperettes there, who quite the same day or the day after I started, ended up not only being my guitarist's girlfriend 2 years later when I joined the band in 1980 but, 2 years later, became MY girlfriend for a short while! We never actually met at Cedar Point but, I told her about my having worked there after we met and she said she worked there the same summer I did. She claims that she DID see me there once or twice before she quit but, I don't recall ever seeing her there. I just turned 21 2 weeks after I got there so, she would've been 18 going on 19 (in two months) that summer.

[Lliam]

Not really.
I worked with a girl for a while in a department store. I heard that she later got married. About 15 years later, I went into a restaurant and she was working there. We chatted. It was still in the local area, though, so it wasn't too odd bumping into her.

I've had a few things like that happen.

My first girlfriend was 14 when I was 16. We were together for almost a year before I moved on. She's really good people.
She later married one of my best friends. We stayed in touch for a few years, but they moved out of town an we eventually lost touch. They had two daughters.
I heard that she served two terms as mayor of Temecula. He was a pot head and philanderer and worked as a handyman. They later got divorced.
In my late 50s, I called another good friend who had Parkinsons. I talked to his wife for a few minutes and she said that someone wanted to talk to me.
I recognized the voice immediately. It was my first girlfriend. We had the friendliest conversation and then connected on Facebook. We're still Facebook friends.
She is now a happy grandma.

[Monalisa77]

Happens all the time, usually when you least expect it

[art84]

I was at a Denny's with my mom and dad and we had ran into a girl and her mom from a church we attended about 20 years ago. She was married with her daughter and she recognized me as I hadn't changed since middle school which I knew her when she was in high school.

Another time about 13 years I was at the grocery store walking inside and this lady recognized me with her daughter. We were friends as we meet in church in middle school and had both gone to the same high school. My dad had gone to high school with her mom back in the 1960's. It had been 8 years since I seen her till my parents visited a church in 2001 and nearly everyone from our old church had switch over. I actually was surprised to see her and her mom and older sister. Her daughter smiled at me and waved and her mom asked me about my mom and dad. I told her both were fine and that was the last time I saw of them.

[Likes2drive]

Not yet, maybe it happened and didn’t recognize each other since it’s so many years, I did run into my old boss about 35 years later when making a delivery to a business of his that was totally different than what he used to do, he didn’t charge much but he didn’t recognize me since I was maybe 22 years old when he last saw me and now I’m much bigger not fat but more built than I was so long ago

[Surely]

Can’t say that that has happened. But I did talk to a person when I was in Alaska that only lived an hour away from me back home.
I live in Pennsylvania!

[slatyb]

It happens more frequently than most people expect. We all know a good number of people, and if we're in some reasonably popular locale, there's a chance we'll encounter someone we know.