Two pearoasts:
Number one:
When my son was about 2 1/2, he had just learned to speak and was busily exercising this new skill. We were driving and he started to cry in the back seat. I asked him what was wrong. He told me he was so sad because Baby Jack had died. I was completely taken aback and tried to explain I'd never lost a child. He said, "No, no, before."

I got all goosebumpy (again) and asked more questions. Apparently, we lived long ago and Baby Jack got very sick. We didn't have any money for the doctor and Jack "took sick" and died. James had a different name then and I was married to a different man than his current dad. I was so sad Jack passed away I went down to the bridge and fell in the water. I had a long dress and it held me down and I died, too.

I asked James where the bridge was and he said "You know, the really big bridge. By the really big clock."

He doesn't remember this story now. The odd thing is, I absolutely love England and I'm unreasonably terrified of drowning.


Number Two:
This actually made TV in the States
In one of the classes I taught (before my time , though) there were two friends. One man was a little older by than the other, but they had moved to the same small rural town from opposite coasts, each independently found a job in the same nursing home and became friends. They had a ton of interests in common and really clicked. People used to joke they looked and sounded alike enough to be brothers. They thought it was hilarious and decided to take the nurse's aide class together.

During the segment on early childhood and how early trauma affects people, one guy offered that he understood about that because his mother had abandoned him and his siblings in a drug house when he was a toddler. It was a few days before someone discovered them.

His friend turns to him and exclaims, "Dude, me too!"

"Well, this was in Detroit back in 19whatever."

"Wow, in Detroit? Same as me, only I was so little I was in diapers. I don't have any brothers or sisters. I think."

Now, when I heard this, goosebumps rose up my arms and I got a chill. I asked the teacher, man, what did you think? She said it still hadn't occured to her that maybe they were brothers. Duh.

They were brothers. All 6 or 7 of the family had been scattered amongst foster homes and had lost track of each other. They've found a couple of sisters by now.

What are the odds both of them would come from opposites sides of the country at the same time, go to the same small town, get a job in the same small nursing home, become friends and take the same 24 member class at the same time?
(TDub Nunc id vides, nunc ne vides on, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 22:09, 3 replies)

By my calculations...
approximately 42,500 to 1.

Not bad odds. I would have put a quid on it.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Fri 4 Jul 2008, 23:58, closed)

Kids are good for that sort of thing.
Our two-year-old told us about how we were in 1783 sheared sheep for a living and how she had 'another' mummy and daddy.
( Colonel Boris "...a desperate Buzzfeed imitation...", Sat 5 Jul 2008, 11:10, closed)

what are the odds?
... well, given it happened ... that'll be a probability of exactly one.
(haberman is singing in the changes, Sat 5 Jul 2008, 22:09, closed)