It is Such a Small World
Woman in the Middle | June 5, 2012A while back I met up with some ladies for lunch at a local sandwich shop. We weren’t sure who all was going to come so three of us killed a few minutes, waiting to see who would show up, by talking to a sheriff’s deputy who was also there having lunch. As a new city we contract with the County Sheriff’s Department to provide our police force. We chatted about various things going on in the area and also about a raid that recently occurred on a cock-fighting ring. Yep, yep, that sort of thing does occur around here. My two friends, Sheila and Linda, are very involved in and concerned about animal treatment issues.
Well, the deputy mentioned that he is also very concerned about animals because he grew up around horses as his dad trained racehorses. I mentioned spending a good bit of my youth at Santa Anita, a horse track here in So Cal, watching people like jockey great Willie Shoemaker. Turns out that the deputy spent a lot of time there as well, so we bonded over that. As a matter of fact, Shoemaker would give him rides on his shoulders! The world got a little smaller at that point.
Then Sheila, who had noted his name on his badge (and which in So Cal is fairly common) asked if he was any relation to the man of the same name who used to have a horse ranch down by the town of Perris. Yep, that was his father! Turns out Sheila had been on that ranch a number of times! What a small world! At that point it had shrunk to the size of a little sandwich shop! Who would have thunk???? Sheila told a funny story that happened on the ranch, we all laughed…and I like to think we brought up some good memories for him, since his father had passed away two years before, and Sheila, Linda and I certainly enjoyed the chat.
All of this makes me want to run up to every stranger I see to find the connection between us. My own personal version of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” Of course, then I would become known as the “Crazy Lady of Jurupa Valley.” But then, I might already have that title so what is the harm???
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