Gransnet forums

Chat

Where is the most random place you have bumped into someone you went to school with?

(73 Posts)
Snuggy Thu 04-Sept-25 19:44:13

Post school obviously

Mollygo Thu 11-Sept-25 11:01:29

In a sort of related theme, my strangest encounter was being hailed by an unknown lady asking, “Are you xxx’s mum? She’s our head and she said you’d be on this ferry?”

Which is how I learned that DD has a photo of us in her room.

nanna8 Thu 11-Sept-25 02:55:17

Singapore airport. Very strange.

Beechnut Wed 10-Sept-25 23:44:32

Allira

^But, in a sort of related theme, IsNibs looked up his old schoolboy association, a few years back, and found a few of those massive school photos that used to be taken, one per year (took an age, while the camera panned slowly round, kids organised in a semi-circle?).^

DrWatson and there was always one who ran from one end of the group to the other, so they appeared twice on the school photographs!

My husband had a friend who used to put a pair of funny glasses on 😂

Allira Wed 10-Sept-25 22:23:20

But, in a sort of related theme, IsNibs looked up his old schoolboy association, a few years back, and found a few of those massive school photos that used to be taken, one per year (took an age, while the camera panned slowly round, kids organised in a semi-circle?).

DrWatson and there was always one who ran from one end of the group to the other, so they appeared twice on the school photographs!

Crossstitchfan Wed 10-Sept-25 21:08:49

Aldom

*Snuggy*. I think it's time for some input from you.
You now know a bit about a lot of people on this forum. We know nothing whatsoever about you.
Funny that!!??confused

I have remarked before about people who come on here, start a conversation, or ask a question, both of which need answering. We respond, then it all goes silent! It really gets my goat and is almos putting me off responding, which is a shame. Why do some people do this? Do they enjoy spoiling things for people?
As for ‘Snuggy’ who-ever you are, please answer, or else go and play in the traffic, preferably at rush hour!

DrWatson Wed 10-Sept-25 20:48:58

Nowhere exciting at all, to answer the OP's question.

But, in a sort of related theme, IsNibs looked up his old schoolboy association, a few years back, and found a few of those massive school photos that used to be taken, one per year (took an age, while the camera panned slowly round, kids organised in a semi-circle?).

He found lists of names for his year, and noted that the majority of those who back then were, er, a bit on the rotund side (!), hadn't made it past their 60s or sometimes only 50s.

mabon2 Mon 08-Sept-25 11:26:55

Not at school with, but worked with in the early 1960s. I was in a local store when a lady tapped me on the shoulder to ask me if my name was ......I replied that I was. She then introduced me to a white haired man, her husband who said he recognised my voice but didn't like to approach me in case I thought he was being "weird". We moved from Liverpool in 1971 to our present home but they still live there. I could hardly believe it after 64 years.

Marg75 Sun 07-Sept-25 10:05:13

Not school friends but we met a couple who lived around the corner at home, in a car park in Perpignan. We were all on holiday in the area and decided to visit the city.

Shel1951 Sun 07-Sept-25 08:21:49

In a small town in Ireland the hairdresser was in my year at school,
We came from north London

Twopence Sun 07-Sept-25 07:21:17

My brother in law met someone who had been at school with his brother, my late husband, on a remote beach in Borneo.

CanadianGran Sat 06-Sept-25 20:39:27

At an airport in Cancun, Mexico. It wasn't the main terminal, but a small side terminal. We had just taken a small plane from Belize, and saw another couple from our town who were waiting for a flight to a small island off the coast.

REKA Sat 06-Sept-25 20:31:21

A lift in a hotel in New York. She was the year above me. And it was term time.

Diggingdoris Sat 06-Sept-25 20:29:54

I went to see Lee Mead in Joseph in 2008 and bumped into my best friend from school in the ladies toilets! Hadn't seen her for 45 years but I recognised her straight away.

Drewntee Sat 06-Sept-25 20:24:46

I’ll pass too. Starting to wonder about all the questions from the OP recently.

TanaMa Sat 06-Sept-25 19:36:28

When I went to Malta I sat behind a boy from my Grammar School.

Mojack26 Sat 06-Sept-25 19:24:44

A lift in San Francisco!

Grannybadger Sat 06-Sept-25 19:17:56

Not from school, but I remember as a child when on holiday in Anglesey we went for a ride on the Festiniog Railway and when waiting to board the train my father recognised his cousin he hadn’t seen for years, getting off the train we were waiting g to board!

missdeke Sat 06-Sept-25 18:47:13

Not quite from school but my daughter and I were waiting for a bus on the mainland in Brisbane. We needed a bus for a ferry over to the tiny island where my aunt lived. We waited a long time and were wondering if we were in the right place when another woman came aalong, so I asked her. She said yes and asked if I was English, I said I was and I was visiting relatives. It turned out she was a £10 Pom. As we got chatting we found at that we were born in the same hospital on the same day in 1948 in London. We must have shared the same nursery for around 2 weeks in the hospital.

Vintagegirl Sat 06-Sept-25 18:18:36

Rhodes airport... she was leaving the plane that we were waiting to board... so just a quick hello from one Q to another!

MaryXYX Sat 06-Sept-25 18:17:48

One person from my year went to the same university, although not the same course. I never saw anyone else from my school again.

ufix1 Sat 06-Sept-25 18:05:30

Something I will never forget and not bumping into school friends BUT! I was working in a school as the school nurse and we went away for February 1/2 term to Istanbul. I came down to breakfast and there were 2 sisters and their parents already sitting waiting to be served. Luckily I remembered their names and was able to go over and say good morning -phew.

JPB123 Sat 06-Sept-25 18:05:06

Bag n Bean Orrell, near Wigan. Xxx

allsortsofbags Sat 06-Sept-25 17:58:07

I met someone I went to school with in Charles De Gaul airport in Paris and one of my old students in a department store in Christchurch New Zealand.

DH met his Singaporean school friend at Dartmouth Navel College 6 yrs after leaving Singapore. He met the same friend years later in the training centre at Heathrow. Small world.

We also had a funny encounter in Tesco Handforth Dean Cheshire after we get back from visiting the USA we went shopping at about 2am and the only other customer was a chap called Ed. He was with Federal Aviation Authority, DH knew him so of course they had to have a technical conversation in the middle of the store at that ungodly hour and all I wanted was to gt to bed :-)

DH has bumped into other colleagues and ex students in some unusual places like Uzbekistan, Entebbe, Santiago plus the usual UAE, round Europe and the med. It really can be a small world.

Harris27 Sat 06-Sept-25 17:40:20

In the Lake District in a garden centre.

Nellygran Sat 06-Sept-25 17:30:39

In a small town in India. We’re both from the UK.