It's a Small World

 Six Degrees of Separation or…Kevin Bacon, Are You Out There?

“What a small world!”

You’ve heard the phrase. A 1929 short story by Frigyes Karthinthy and a 1990 play by John Guare came out purporting that everyone is connected by six degrees or less. Sort of a small world ideology, if you will. For a while, people would suggest that everyone in show business was somehow connected to the actor Kevin Bacon by a mere six steps of separation.

The first time I heard of this “theory” was when I was teaching overseas. One of the teachers invited a few of us newbies on the scene to gather and get to know each other.

Living In Europe Has Perks

As we talked, two of the new teachers noted an immediate connection to me. 

One coming from Pepperdine University in Malibu, had as her professor the woman who started the program I inherited at the University where I taught for over a dozen years. Her professor and I had met and talked on occasion. Another was the daughter of a woman I knew in Cincinnati. 

A third teacher, a woman from Germany, there to teach mathematics in the high school, said it was not likely we had any sort of connection. I agreed. 

Later that evening, the conversation turned to our first impressions of the city we now called home, crazy drivers and unusual traffic patterns came up as we talked.

"I’ve never seen people drive like this,” one of the women noted. 

“Oh, I don’t know,” I offered. “I think this is nothing compared to the traffic in Cairo.”  

“How do you know about the traffic in Cairo?” the math teacher asked in her heavy German accent. 

“I spoke for a group of teachers and parents at an international school there.”

“What school?”

“Hmm…I’m trying to remember the name. The director was Hope Boyer.” (Note, I am not using the real names of any of these folks since many of them still teach abroad.)

“Hope Boyer!” the German woman called out.” She is the reason I became a teacher! I went to the international school in Cairo when my father worked there.” 

I love those kinds of interesting ways complete strangers come together and find they have something or someone in common. It seems to happen to me quite often. 

This past week, Mike and I went to a great little diner in Inverness a few miles south of where we live. We’ve eaten there before. The food and service are great. 

The name of the place on US 41 in Florida is simply “The Diner” and I DO recommend it. 

During the “snowbird” months, they host a Friday evening car show on the premises. As Mike and I ate, our server told us they are trying to boost their clientele. I offered to put some pictures up on Facebook. I walked around the restaurant and took a few photos. One couple said I didn’t need to cut them out, they didn’t mind if I shared their picture. Then Mike and I headed outside to sit with the Chevelle for the show. 

A restored 1950 Ford coupe had parked near us. Not long after, the pleasant couple from the diner came out. It was their car. Their son joined them for a while and we all engaged in easy conversation on a comfortable November evening in Florida. 

Soon after their son left, the woman, Jill, asked where we live. 

“Inverness” we replied. Mike went on to tell her exactly where we were located. When he started offering landmarks on the road leading to our house, the expression on the woman’s face changed. 

“What color is your house?” she asked.

“Uh, we had it painted gray,” I told her. 

“Was it an ugly pumpkin orange?” she asked.

Mike and I looked at each other. “Yes.”

“That was our son’s house.” They shared his name and sure enough, though we had never met him before, that was the name of the previous owner. “The man who just left,” she said. That was our son. It was his house.” 

Jill and her husband, Patrick, and Mike and I enjoyed our time together.

 Oh yes…it is indeed a small world. As for Kevin Bacon? I’ll let you know. I’m only on step one…