BOCA INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY

Friday, December 30th, 2011 4:45 a.m.

I just fininshed watching a film on Netflix. It sure is a great site. The background reminded me of Western Canada which keyed to other memories. I have this thing about coincidences happening to me that do not happen to others. I do not know if I make them happen or if they just happen by accident. Here are four examples. In 1965 when I worked at the head office diamond department as a salesman  in the Montreal store of Henry Birks and Sons, I served a customer at the counter who was in from Victoria B.C. on her annual shopping trip to Montreal. I sold her a simple bulldog, the lock that goes on the back of an expensive pin. It was only worth 50 cents at the time. With the sale completed, I said to her that I would probably see her again sometime, at which she told me of her annual trip. Later that week I sold a very large ring and earned enough to go to my brother's wedding in Victoria along with my parents. It was a dark cold crossing on the ferry to Victoria and as I looked out the window I could see a woman hanging over the railing having a smoke. I went outside and saddled up beside her. As she turned her head to look at me, I simply said, "See, I told you I would see you sometime."

My second journey began about 1 a.m. on a fog stricken highway in Northern Ontario. I was driving a 1964 VW Bug to Calgary from Montreal having been transferred by Birks to Calgary to eventually take over the Chinook Shopping Center store. At some point, another white VW Bug of the same vintage came up beside us on a hill where one car could pass another. It was in the wee hours of the morning and for fun, we waved. I was travelling with my sister at the time. She was on a vacation. The two girls waved back and since both Bugs had governors on them that prevented them from going over 72 miles per hour, to protect the engine, we travelled together for at least an hour. Seeing a Chinese restaurant ahead, we all decided by hand signals to stop.

The two girls, for no other reason than I forget one of the names, will be Pat and Carol. The were returning from a vacation and had to drive right through to make it back to work at the Kamloops Bank of Montreal branch. We were planning to find a motel and have a sleep as I was doing all the driving. As we parted the restaurant, I said those fateful words again, "I will see you sometime." Sure enough, a year later on my return trip from being a the best man at a wedding in Victoria for an old Montreal Birks buddy, I stopped into the Bank. Finding Carol, I surprised her and waited to have dinner with her. She offered me the couch overnight which was nice. Pat had gone home to the Yukon and so I simply said that I would see her sometime. In 1967, I returned to Montreal to visit Expo67. I went into just about every pavillion, from the largest to the smallest. The smallest was in a food mall, the Yukon Pavillion. I came into the two roomed pavillion when it opened and stood waiting to be served. The girl at the desk looked up and I said, "Hello Pat, I told you I would see you sometime."

I was at a Kin National convention in Victoria and since the airlines was offering a triangle fare for the same price as a return trip as one of their promotions, we chose to vacation in San Francisco for a week after the convention ended. I said goodbye to my friend at the end of the convention buy saying, "I will see you again sometime." It was there in San Francisco that we met the friend from the convention again, not to mention sighting Glen Campbell, the then very popular folksinger heading through the airport.  

The last of my stories goes back to England and my honeymoon. Since both my new bride and I had family there, it was planned also to give British family a chance to attend a reception. Our plane landed at Heathrow Airport and before I could meet the genteman who was going to taxi us back to the village the family lived in, I stopped twice in the line to say hello to old friends from Montreal who had settled back into England. Even the two groups did not know each other. Such are the coincidences that seem to occur in my life. I am told that I could talk to anyone in the world and we could find a common connection six people apart. I must say that I am really beginning to believe that.

So, if ever I say to you "I will see you again sometime."...........you know I will.