The players:
Farmer Bob.
First, he is not a farmer, farmer Bob is a consultant for farmers in Tennessee. Here is a very brief and simplistic explanation of what farmer Bob does.
If farmer John’s crop is not quite right he calls farmer Bob and sends him a plant or soil sample, farmer Bob can then possibly tell Farmer John what he needs to do to grow a healthier crop.
Secondly, his name is not Bob.
Lab technician Clarice.
Who is really the Assistant supervisor in an environmental testing lab. In brief, Clarice tests plants (and water) for a variety of chemicals for a variety of reasons mostly for the betterment of growers and researchers to produce better products.
Her name is not really Clarice, (but she is my wife).
So what in blue blazes is this post about? It is about small worlds.
Farmer John in Tennessee is having problems, so he calls farmer Bob, who gets plant samples which he sends to the lab (here in Pennsylvania) where my wife works. There is a slight glitch and Bob calls Clarice, and as always happens with my wife, they get to talking.
Before Bob went to Tennessee he was in California. My wife lived in California until she was 19. Bob used to do consultant work in California one of his clients was a poinsettia farmer. My wife used ride her horse on the same poinsettia farmers land. Bob raced motorcycles, my wife was also involved in motorcycle racing, (see where this is going?) it turns out not only were they part of the same SCORE (International Off Road Racing) for the famous Baja races in mexico, they also raced at the same raceways in California. They clearly didn’t know each other back then, but chances are pretty good that they crossed paths, probably more than once. Here they are 30 yrs later in different parts of the country doing business and sharing shared memories together they didn’t know they had.
Kind of makes you wonder how the moron driver you flipped off on your way to work this morning is going to fit into your life 3o years from now.
PanningForGold 
I’ll find out that the moron I flipped off will be a relative of Tim’s that he’ll introduce me to at the next family reunion! (He’s related to “everyone”!) *lol
Part 2.
How cool is that, Denyce?! The world keeps getting smaller! 🙂
When I was a young child I lived on Clark St. in the east end of Montreal.
The north half of the street which were 3 story flats were inhabited by Jewish immigrants, which included my parents who came from England and Poland as children.
The south half of the street was inhabited by French Catholics. There was an invisible line which we never crossed except to go to Tannenbaum’s which was the corner store at the south corner.
In our half we knew every single person and what everyone was making for supper. In their half we knew nothing.
When I was 7 we moved to the west end of the city. Fifty years after we left Clark, I took my aging mother to a senior’s place where they were giving art courses as therapy. The art teacher was lovely and she said to me,”pardon my English. I don’t speak it very well as I grew up on a street and half was English and half French and we never played together.” “Was it Clark?” Her mouth dropped open. The other participants of the course were listening to our conversation and it turned out more than half of them had lived on Clark.
All this to say, your past does eventually catch up to you.
That is a post in itself, you know you can always be a guest blogger on my blog. Fits right in with my theme. Of course my theme has taken a back seat as of late.