Insane coincidence stories...

[CVLion]

I love this topic…crazy coincidences, or “synchronicity” as Carl Jung dubbed them, have long fascinated me.

I’ll share a few that happened to me.

The first one happened in the late 90s… I was reading a novel that made a passing real-world reference to the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, where the contentious nature of the times had led to clashes between protestors and police, and other unrest. I was completely unfamiliar with this topic, having never heard of it before in my life. When I finished the current chapter and put the book down, I turned on the TV. Whatever channel it was on was in the middle of a documentary about the tumultuous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

 

[CVLion]

Another one is Penn State football related! Also happened in the 90s. I may have mentioned this here before.

I was at a home game with my sister on a warm sunny fall afternoon… it was one of those quiet times when the game was in a bit of lull, the stadium was pretty quiet and not a lot happening. As the teams lined up for the next play, I randomly turned to my sister and said, “Omar Easy… 60 yards for the touchdown.”

Omar Easy broke off a 60-yard run for the touchdown.

I don’t know that he ever scored any other touchdowns… certainly nothing spectacular like that one.

 

[CVLion]

I also have a “same name” story like someone else. My first and middle names are common, but my last name is very rare.

When I moved to Northern Virginia for my first job after my PSU graduation (90s also!) I started occasionally getting phone calls asking things such as how is my sister Jennifer doing. I have three sisters, but none named Jennifer.

Turned out there was a guy in that area, about my age, in the same line of work, with my same first, middle, and last name.

A few years later, the company I worked for and the company he worked for were both bought up by the same parent company in Colorado… and merged. So we worked together for a while. I remember getting a call from HR in Colorado and having to explain why I apparently had two social security numbers. And the local Best Buy once charged a computer that he bought to MY Best Buy card, when he forgot his and they looked it up for him.

He was a nice enough guy, but it was a pain in the @SS situation sometimes lol

 

[EricStratton-RushChairman]

Another one is Penn State football related! Also happened in the 90s. I may have mentioned this here before.

I was at a home game with my sister on a warm sunny fall afternoon… it was one of those quiet times when the game was in a bit of lull, the stadium was pretty quiet and not a lot happening. As the teams lined up for the next play, I randomly turned to my sister and said, “Omar Easy… 60 yards for the touchdown.”

Omar Easy broke off a 60-yard run for the touchdown.

I don’t know that he ever scored any other touchdowns… certainly nothing spectacular like that one.

I was sitting low in the end zone at 1994 season Rose Bowl... right before first play from scrimmage i turned to my buddy and said "how about Kijana to break first run for 80yard TD"... then BOOM.

 

[CVLion]

I was sitting low in the end zone at 1994 season Rose Bowl... right before first play from scrimmage i turned to my buddy and said "how about Kijana to break first run for 80yard TD"... then BOOM.

Love it!

Disclaimer: I may well have posted the below story before also…

I was there too, with my dad. Sitting right behind us was one of THE most obnoxious opposing fans I had ever encountered… a woman in a bright green sequined Oregon cap, wearing a huge wooden duck call around her neck that she kept blowing in our ears. She kept screaming “Go Ducks!!!” in the most loud and raucous voice when there was nothing to be cheering about. Before we even got to kickoff, she had thoroughly aggravated everyone in our section, Oregon and Penn State fans alike.

When Ki-Jana took off on that opening play… before he had even reached the end zone, as the crowd was starting to go wild… my dad turned to the woman and happily laughed, “Duck you!!! Duck you!!!”

Side note: sitting immediately in FRONT of us was the reigning Miss America at the time, Heather Whitestone. She was also the first deaf Miss America. There were times that the wacko Oregon woman blew her duck call so forcefully that the deaf Miss America turned around. No joke… she was trying to make as ALL deaf.

 

[CVLion]

Back to the coincidence topic…

As I mentioned, Carl Jung wrote about these as “synchronicities” and discussed the fact that when they occur, they’re accompanied by an eerie type of sensation that something meaningful yet not fully understood is transpiring.

It could be simply that our brains are wired to watch for patterns, so that when coincidences occur we feel a lot of neurons lighting up in response. Or, do these moments actually reflect some property of the universe that we don’t comprehend? Some sort of quantum manifestation or resonation at play that brings related things together in a way that surprises us.

The wildest example of this that I’ve ever heard is a story that Jung himself cited, which was supposedly true. You can Google it, you’ll find it. It happened in some earlier era in Europe I believe… the gist is, there was a man who was once presented with a serving of plum pudding by another man… someone whom I think was either a stranger or a distantly connected person whom he hadn’t met before.

He didn’t come across plum pudding again until years later, when he saw it on the menu in a restaurant. He decided to order it, but was told the last bit had just been served to another patron… glancing over, he saw it was THE same man who had given him the plum pudding years before!

Years further down the road, he was at a party where plum pudding happened to be served. He told the story about the coincidence with plum puddings and that random other guy. And moments later, THAT SAME GUY came through the door… now a senile old man who had stumbled into the wrong house by accident!

Supposedly, those were the only times in his life he had encountered plum pudding OR that other man. They all synced up.

 

[Dragons 62]

Was sitting in the Lewisburg Legion some years ago, and was talking to another Lewisburg alum that was 5 years older than me. His name is Curt. I said I had been in the Army....He says me too.
- Curt says he was with the 1st Infantry Division at Ft Riley...I said me too
-I said my Unit was the 937th Engineer Group, 34th Engineer Battalion...Curt says...Me too. Then he says he was In
Headquarters Company....Yup....me too.
- This is where it gets real ****** up! I told him My room in the barracks was on the 3rd floor, 2nd room on the left.....Him too!!! Curt said that his bunk was the solo on the left side.....HOLY ****!!! That was my bunk also!!
So he was there a few years before me....2 Alums from Lewisburg High went to the same Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company, and slept in the same fecking bed. Weird as hell
-

 

[SleepyLion]

Was sitting in the Lewisburg Legion some years ago, and was talking to another Lewisburg alum that was 5 years older than me. His name is Curt. I said I had been in the Army....He says me too.
- Curt says he was with the 1st Infantry Division at Ft Riley...I said me too
-I said my Unit was the 937th Engineer Group, 34th Engineer Battalion...Curt says...Me too. Then he says he was In
Headquarters Company....Yup....me too.
- This is where it gets real ****** up! I told him My room in the barracks was on the 3rd floor, 2nd room on the left.....Him too!!! Curt said that his bunk was the solo on the left side.....HOLY ****!!! That was my bunk also!!
So he was there a few years before me....2 Alums from Lewisburg High went to the same Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company, and slept in the same fecking bed. Weird as hell
-

Thank you for your service and sacrifices.

 

[LionJim]

Was sitting in the Lewisburg Legion some years ago, and was talking to another Lewisburg alum that was 5 years older than me. His name is Curt. I said I had been in the Army....He says me too.
- Curt says he was with the 1st Infantry Division at Ft Riley...I said me too
-I said my Unit was the 937th Engineer Group, 34th Engineer Battalion...Curt says...Me too. Then he says he was In
Headquarters Company....Yup....me too.
- This is where it gets real ****** up! I told him My room in the barracks was on the 3rd floor, 2nd room on the left.....Him too!!! Curt said that his bunk was the solo on the left side.....HOLY ****!!! That was my bunk also!!
So he was there a few years before me....2 Alums from Lewisburg High went to the same Division, Brigade, Battalion, Company, and slept in the same fecking bed. Weird as hell
-

I was expecting you to tell us that he was your wife’s first husband. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)

 

[Bwifan]

This happened to me yesterday and got me wondering about other crazy coincidences...

I was talking to a colleague about the show Hogan's Heroes and decided to Google if any actors from that show were still alive. Turns out two are... the black supporting actor that joined just for final season and the woman who played the Russian spy (Nita Talbot). I always thought Nita was a bit of a smokeshow back in the day so I looked into her a bit more, currently 94 and living in NYC. Later that night I am channel surfing around midnight (unable to sleep) and came across an old episode of Rockford Files. My pop loved that show so I clicked on it. Boom, first scene i see features Nita in a supporting role in the pilot episode about 4 years after last HH episode. How crazy is that.

The thing that always amazed me was pretty much all the cast who played German Military and Gestapo were Jewish. Always wandered what their thoughts were when putting on German and Gestapo uniforms. Talked to James Garner many times at many auto race tracks growing up. Super great guy, would talk to you forever about racing. Didn't want to talk about acting or movies, but loved to talk about auto racing, that was his passion. Said the racing bug bit him hard when he filmed the movie Grand Prix.

 

[PSU87]

I was sitting low in the end zone at 1994 season Rose Bowl... right before first play from scrimmage i turned to my buddy and said "how about Kijana to break first run for 80yard TD"... then BOOM.

And where were you for last year's CFP semi game, huh? What have you done for us lately?

 

[LionJim]

The thing that always amazed me was pretty much all the cast who played German Military and Gestapo were Jewish. Always wandered what their thoughts were when putting on German and Gestapo uniforms. Talked to James Garner many times at many auto race tracks growing up. Super great guy, would talk to you forever about racing. Didn't want to talk about acting or movies, but loved to talk about auto racing, that was his passion. Said the racing bug bit him hard when he filmed the movie Grand Prix.

Yeah, same with Conrad Veidt, the actor who played Major Strasser in Casablanca. He wasn’t Jewish but his wife was and he left Germany instead of getting a divorce. Once in Hollywood he insisted that if he played a Nazi in any movie he had to be a villain. I salute his memory.

 

[PSU Mike]

I told this before. Here goes my best shot at keeping it brief but understandable.

I dated my dream girl at the end of my two years of grad school in Iowa - 1992. Fly fishing was always a passion of mine. Riding horses was always a passion of hers. Hold that in memory. Short version: we weren’t together after I moved to DC that year.

Passage of time …

In 1996, when the interwebs was just getting momentum my friends were playing with a search tool. Just for the hell of it I searched for this girl (who had a very distinct spelling of her first name) to see what it would dig up. (Note, this was about a two minute exercise, not some all out stalk!) Anyway, it found such a person, now married with a very distinctive last name.

Fast forward to 1999 and Dad and I are on a fly fishing trip in Montana. One morning we are at the fly shop awaiting the arrival of our guide. Another guy walks up to the counter alongside me and says he’s there to meet his guide as well. They ask his name, and he responds with that same distinctive last name I found in the search 3 years earlier. Figuring I’ll never have the chance to ask this again, I get up the nerve to ask him if he knows any Iowa grads. He says yes, my wife. Okay, time for the big one: is your wife’s name E***n? Yes it is! Oh, she was a friend of mine from grad school…

Anyway he was using the same guide service, same day, for the same purpose as I, 500 miles from their home. I was there 2000 miles from my home facing my way-too-similar replacement. She was, of course, out riding horses that day …

 

[CVLion]

After having read and posted in this thread today, I went to a book sale at the local library this evening… and came across this book, which I picked up

 

[1995PSUGrad]

Years ago, when seatbelts first became mandatory here in NC, I was pulled over for not wearing mine one morning driving to work. The officer took my license and went back to his car. He was there for a long time. He came back to me and was asking a lot of questions, then he went back to his car for awhile. Eventually he let me off with a warning (your first violation at that time was a warning). Before he let me go he told me that the delay was due to someone from Texas having a warrant for his arrest (for murder) who had the same name (first, middle, and last) and date of birth as I did.

 

[laKavosiey-st lion]

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or divine intervention. Or as a friend of mine would say, “Godcidence”.
In spring of 1997, my life wasn’t going anywhere. I was working in a liquor store, had just decided not to complete training for the utility company, had failed out of college and quit going to church for a few years. It was somewhat of a Costanzaesque existence.
The day I decided to quit the utility company training I prayed for the first time in a long while. While I was praying to God for help and a sign for what to do with my life, the phone rang. It was my brother calling from KY, telling me I should come down to work at the summer camp he had worked at the past couple of summers that was mainly staffed by volunteers. I blew him off and said I couldn’t do it because I needed money to pay back some college money that was owed. After that call, I couldn’t ignore the timing of it all but still didn’t commit to doing it. A couple of days later my brother called back saying that he had spoken to the camp director and she would be able to pay me to be a counselor that summer. I committed to do it.
I ended up doing that summer, then two full years as a volunteer for the Christian Appalachian Project, deciding to get back to college and get a social work degree (or 2 of them, I guess). The greatest coincidence of all? The camp director that found a way to get me paid had a younger sister who came down to volunteer for two years that fall. I married her the day after finishing my third summer as a camp counselor (her 2nd) in 1999 and we have been in Lexington for almost 26 years now, raising our 4 children.
Coincedence? “Godcidence”? Divine intervention? You can decide.

I like this story very much signed drunk at 210 west

 

[NavyBlue]

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or divine intervention. Or as a friend of mine would say, “Godcidence”.
In spring of 1997, my life wasn’t going anywhere. I was working in a liquor store, had just decided not to complete training for the utility company, had failed out of college and quit going to church for a few years. It was somewhat of a Costanzaesque existence.
The day I decided to quit the utility company training I prayed for the first time in a long while. While I was praying to God for help and a sign for what to do with my life, the phone rang. It was my brother calling from KY, telling me I should come down to work at the summer camp he had worked at the past couple of summers that was mainly staffed by volunteers. I blew him off and said I couldn’t do it because I needed money to pay back some college money that was owed. After that call, I couldn’t ignore the timing of it all but still didn’t commit to doing it. A couple of days later my brother called back saying that he had spoken to the camp director and she would be able to pay me to be a counselor that summer. I committed to do it.
I ended up doing that summer, then two full years as a volunteer for the Christian Appalachian Project, deciding to get back to college and get a social work degree (or 2 of them, I guess). The greatest coincidence of all? The camp director that found a way to get me paid had a younger sister who came down to volunteer for two years that fall. I married her the day after finishing my third summer as a camp counselor (her 2nd) in 1999 and we have been in Lexington for almost 26 years now, raising our 4 children.
Coincedence? “Godcidence”? Divine intervention? You can decide.

My sons did CAMP HOPE for years in middle and high school and had extremely rewarding experiences. Thanks for the reaffirming story.

 

[CDLionFL]

In 2018, I went with friends to the PSU-Indiana game in Bloomington. Just outside of town, we stopped at a convenience store for beers. While in line, a woman in her 70s commented on my PSU garb and asked where in PA I was from. I told her and she said she was originally from ‘outside Williamsport’. Being familiar with the area, I asked which town and she said Montoursville. I asked her if she graduated from the HS there and she said I did. So I called my dad, also a graduate of that HS, and gave her my phone. They knew each other as she was 2 classes ahead and is the sister of one of my dad’s close HS friends. Of all the gin joints in all the world…

 

[Lionville]

About 15 years ago the night before a PSU home game I watched the movie Invincible on tv with my wife. We went to the PSU game the next day and stopped at the Unimart on College Ave to fill up with gas. I go into the store to buy some Middleswarth chips and when I am paying for my chips the guy in front of me looks familiar. The only reason I noticed the guy is because he pulled out a wad of $100 biills to pay. It was Vince Papale.

 

[CaseStudy]

I've had a few but one I'll never forget is walking home from class one warm afternoon on Pugh street (I wasn't coming from the Skeller) for some reason as I was about to walk beneath some power lines I looked up and saw a bird on the wires directly above and immediately had the thought it was about to take a dump. So I stopped for a second and sure enough it dropped a load a foot or 2 in front of me. I ***** you not. Strange how you remember stuff like that.

 

[CVLion]

I've had a few but one I'll never forget is walking home from class one warm afternoon on Pugh street (I wasn't coming from the Skeller) for some reason as I was about to walk beneath some power lines I looked up and saw a bird on the wires direly above and immediately had the thought it was about to take a dump. So I stopped for a second and sure enough it dropped a load a foot or 2 in front of me. I **** you not. Strange how you remember stuff like that.

More importantly, the bird ****ed you not, thankfully

 

[Fac]

I was with my girlfriend at the time at the Statute of Liberty Park in 1976 when a pigeon crapped in her hair. We were sitting on a bench.

 

[Ludd]

I was coaching my son in baseball and we were up to bat. One of my assistant coaches was sitting next to me and his son came up to bat (he was our clean up hitter). I said “he’s going to jack one over the fence in dead left center right over that sign” (I can’t remember what the sign was an advertisement for). Anyway, he did exactly that. Then my son came up next and the assistant coach said “same spot, but about 30 feet farther.” And that’s exactly where my son hit it.

 

[Nittany.Lion]

Early in my career, I worked in southeast Florida. At the time, I was actively looking for a new job and had interviewed a few times at companies in Florida.

One of the interviews was for a position near Melbourne, FL. When I arrived for the interview, I was chatting with the secretary while waiting for the interview to start. I asked her what happened to the person who just left the position. To my surprise, she was willing to tell me that he had recently resigned and went to work for company A. Coincidentally, I also worked for company A at the time. Neither company was local or even FL-based, and both recruited from all over the US. The interview went well, and I got an offer from company B. In the meantime, I called my home office to get the name of the recent hire from company B. Before I accepted the offer, I called him to get all the info I could on the Project Manager. All he could say about the Project Manager was negative and led me to decline the offer.

 

[LionJim]

A cousin of mine died yesterday, drank herself to death. She wasn’t a good person, was always out for herself. She actually spent a couple years in prison for fraud. Her daughter is a wonderful person, one of the finest people I’ve ever met. (She has an extraordinary father.) Daughter hadn’t spoken to her mom (other than to tell her that she had nothing to say to her) for a decade. Daughter posts on Facebook on Saturday that she had gone to see her mom to say goodbye and said that she was finally able to forgive her. Anyway, on Sunday I’m re-reading Richard Russo’s “Everybody’s Fool” and this line (which I had forgotten) popped up: “We don’t forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because we deserve it.” Words to live by.

 

[Firestarter05]

A cousin of mine died yesterday, drank herself to death. She wasn’t a good person, was always out for herself. She actually spent a couple years in prison for fraud. Her daughter is a wonderful person, one of the finest people I’ve ever met. (She has an extraordinary father.) Daughter hadn’t spoken to her mom (other than to tell her that she had nothing to say to her) for a decade. Daughter posts on Facebook on Saturday that she had gone to see her mom to say goodbye and said that she was finally able to forgive her. Anyway, on Sunday I’m re-reading Richard Russo’s “Everybody’s Fool” and this line (which I had forgotten) popped up: “We don’t forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because we deserve it.” Words to live by.

i love that quote, and have had to remind myself of it more than once

 

[PSU Mike]

I once had sex with a woman I was thinking about at the time.

 

[manatree]

Hand to God, I once was in a car that drove through Minersville, PA and caught all eight traffic lights on green. Once.

 

[Big_O]

I had just moved to the Detroit area to start my fellowship year after residency. I’m standing on my front porch and a guy goes walking by with his huge yellow lab, still to this day the largest that I have ever seen. We strike up a conversation and I find out he is starting his Internal Medicine residency at Henry Ford. So I ask where he is from and he states Allentown, PA. I said that I found that interesting since a few of my friends were from Allentown, and they all graduated from Allen HS. He then stated that’s where he graduated from.

I told him I doubted he knew them because he likely was 4-5 years younger than my friends. He then goes on to tell me he went to Lehigh and got a degree in engineering and worked in the field for a few years before going to medical school. So I asked him if he knew any of my friends and he says those are all the people I hung out with in high school. Then he tells me his name, and I say I know who you are - from the department store family in Allentown. He was surprised I knew this. Then he tells me two of our shared friends (married to each other) introduced him to his wife while the were attending Lehigh University. Just crazy.

 

[Grant Green]

Thought of this thread last week. Buddy and I are camping and listening to a Spotify playlist on shuffle that is over 500 songs long.

He brings up a song that we both know and he had just listened to recently. The song came on next.

 

[manatree]

Thought of this thread last week. Buddy and I are camping and listening to a Spotify playlist on shuffle that is over 500 songs long.

He brings up a song that we both know and he had just listened to recently. The song came on next.

I use the free version of Pandora to listen to as I get ready for work in the morning. I always try to guess the first song each time I start a different artist station. Back in February was the first time ever in my long Pandora history that I successfully guessed the first song. Joe Jackson’s ‘Breaking Us In Two.’

 

[saturdaysarebetter]

I dated a woman that would talk incessantly while I was trying to watch an NFL pre-game show. During the game, a player made a nice play and I remarked what school he went to and some statistic and like an echo the play-by-play announcer said the very same thing I just did. My girlfriend turned to me and said, "how do you know all that?" To which I replied, "I TRY and listen to the pre-game show." I think it went over her head.

 

[manatree]

I dated a woman that would talk incessantly while I was trying to watch an NFL pre-game show. During the game, a player made a nice play and I remarked what school he went to and some statistic and like an echo the play-by-play announcer said the very same thing I just did. My girlfriend turned to me and said, "how do you know all that?" To which I replied, "I TRY and listen to the pre-game show." I think it went over her head.

I dated a woman. Once. It might have been the same year I caught all caught all eight traffic lights in Minersville on green.

 

[kgilbert78]

I don’t know if this is a coincidence or divine intervention. Or as a friend of mine would say, “Godcidence”.
In spring of 1997, my life wasn’t going anywhere. I was working in a liquor store, had just decided not to complete training for the utility company, had failed out of college and quit going to church for a few years. It was somewhat of a Costanzaesque existence.
The day I decided to quit the utility company training I prayed for the first time in a long while. While I was praying to God for help and a sign for what to do with my life, the phone rang. It was my brother calling from KY, telling me I should come down to work at the summer camp he had worked at the past couple of summers that was mainly staffed by volunteers. I blew him off and said I couldn’t do it because I needed money to pay back some college money that was owed. After that call, I couldn’t ignore the timing of it all but still didn’t commit to doing it. A couple of days later my brother called back saying that he had spoken to the camp director and she would be able to pay me to be a counselor that summer. I committed to do it.
I ended up doing that summer, then two full years as a volunteer for the Christian Appalachian Project, deciding to get back to college and get a social work degree (or 2 of them, I guess). The greatest coincidence of all? The camp director that found a way to get me paid had a younger sister who came down to volunteer for two years that fall. I married her the day after finishing my third summer as a camp counselor (her 2nd) in 1999 and we have been in Lexington for almost 26 years now, raising our 4 children.
Coincedence? “Godcidence”? Divine intervention? You can decide.

"Godwinks" is one of the terms used....

 

[kgilbert78]

Mrs KG and I are watching a Phils playoff game, I forget which one, but a Phils player hit a lazy fly--and she suddenly yells "Drop it!!". He did. the runner scored, and the Phils went on to win.

 

[kgilbert78]

I dated a woman. Once. It might have been the same year I caught all caught all eight traffic lights in Minersville on green.

After the Philly Firebirds won whatever championship it was (Lockhart Cup??). I made every light up Broad Street from City Hall to Old York Rd.

 

[SleepyLion]

Mrs KG and I are watching a Phils playoff game, I forget which one, but a Phils player hit a lazy fly--and she suddenly yells "Drop it!!". He did. the runner scored, and the Phils went on to win.

She was just showing you how some guys will actually do what she tells them to do.

 

[kgilbert78]

A cousin of mine died yesterday, drank herself to death. She wasn’t a good person, was always out for herself. She actually spent a couple years in prison for fraud. Her daughter is a wonderful person, one of the finest people I’ve ever met. (She has an extraordinary father.) Daughter hadn’t spoken to her mom (other than to tell her that she had nothing to say to her) for a decade. Daughter posts on Facebook on Saturday that she had gone to see her mom to say goodbye and said that she was finally able to forgive her. Anyway, on Sunday I’m re-reading Richard Russo’s “Everybody’s Fool” and this line (which I had forgotten) popped up: “We don’t forgive people because they deserve it. We forgive them because we deserve it.” Words to live by.

Unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.

 

[Fac]

Twice I had a dream of a snake in my back yard and when I went to my back yard, I saw a snake each time.
I don't usually have snakes in my yard. Just a few in the springtime. Yes, they are still alive. I do try to catch them and relocate them and never, never tell my wife if I see one.

 

[olelion]

While in high school I worked at a car dealer in Braddock washing cars (mid 60s, Braddock was booming). A guy from US Steel had his car regularly serviced at this dealer and he always included a car wash. I got to know him and he steered me toward EMS once he learned I would be attending Penn State. Twenty years later I had contracted some work with US Steel at the research center in Monroeville. While there I inquired about the guy from my car wash days. It turned out it was his last day before retirement so I was able to wish him well. He actually remembered me!