The strangest coincidence...like ever!

I was thinking today about the most bizarre coincidence that ever happened to me. In fact, it was such a bizarre coincidence that I defy anyone to tell me one that is more bizarre. I don’t know what the odds of what happened to me in the spring of 1971 would have been, but I would guess they would fall somewhere between getting hit by lightning and winning the lottery.

In the summer of 1970 and into early fall I was involved with a folk singer named Nancy, but everyone knew her as Bart, a play on her last name. We were casually involved in Lexington, Kentucky, where I went to school, until December, 1970. She moved from Lexington to Atlanta to live with a mutual friend Sylvia and her boyfriend Jody. During Easter break of that year (my senior year) I decided to hitchhike from Lexington to Atlanta to pay Bart, Sylvia, and Jody a visit. Lexington to Atlanta is about 375 miles. My first ride got me as far as London, Kentucky, about 70 miles down the road. After standing on the ramp to I-75 for about 20 minutes a car stopped to pick me up. Inside were three guys who looked like they enjoyed a good time, 1960’s style. They asked, “Where you going, dude?” I told them Atlanta and they said it was my lucky day…that’s where they were headed.

The ride to Atlanta was fun if uneventful. We drank a little, smoked a little, and made small talk. About 10 miles outside of Atlanta we hit a sharp turn. “You ought to have seen my old roommate Jody go around this curve in his car” said the driver. Knowing that Jody wasn’t that common a name for men, I asked him, “Does Jody drive a Volkswagen?” He said, “Yeah, how the hell did you know that?” I said “I’m going to visit a girlfriend and she lives with another girl who lives with her boyfriend Jody”. “No shit! Is her name Sylvia?” He exclaimed. “Yes!” I replied. He said, “Man, we’re going to the same house!”

I often think of what a confluence of events had to take place for that to occur. I was going 375 miles. I had to be dropped off in London, a town of 10,000. They had to be getting gas at that exit at the same time. Atlanta was a city of over a half a million people at that time. As I said, it has always struck me as one of the strangest coincidences that could ever be.