Bud's: Coincidences

Back in the late 1930's we finally got a home of our own in Ft. Myers, FL. We had been living in rented houses which were nice, but were on oyster shell roads which were somewhat smelly when newly deposited. Our new home was not only on a paved road, but THE paved road- McGregor Blvd. This is the road with all the beautiful Royal Palms you see in pictures. It is the same road that the estates of Edison, Ford, and Firestone are on, but they are located about 2 miles closer to downtown.

Our new home was a large two story stucco house, with the bedrooms, two baths and a sleeping porch on the second story (no air conditioning at the time). There was a two car garage and attached garage apartment, with a solar heater on the roof.

I thought Dad had really hit it big. It wasn't until years later I learned how he got it in those very austere times. There was a couple from New York motored down to Ft. Myers every year on the first of January and stayed until the middle of February, then motored back. That was the tourist season, because of mosquitos and temperature. A black man drove them down and back.

The couple had been coming down for almost 20 years when the man died. The surviving lady sold it to Dad, because she wanted young children to be in the raised in it. The price was $4,500, no interest, pay when you can. That's hard to imagine today, but it wasn't uncommon in those days.

Jump in a “worm hole” and fast forward to a couple years ago. The house is long gone, and replaced by a parking lot for a church.

My sister, Barbara, who was a motivating force in the local historical society, picked up the society's mail one day. It included a letter from a man who wrote that his parents used to have a winter home in Fort Myers, and were driven down there every year by a black man. He just wondered if anyone happened to know what became of the house. Barbara explained to him the strange coincidence, that she was raised in that house.

Several weeks later, Barbara read the letter at the historical society meeting, and explained the strange coincidence that she had related to the man. A black lady in the audience raised her hand and said, “My daddy was the man that drove them down from New York”.

Now how's that for coincidences. OK all together now---

“IT'S A SMALL, SMALL WORLD-------”

OXYMORONS

Act naturally

Loners Club  

Postal Service

  Happily married

  Holy war

  Found missing

  Resident alien

  Minor Catastrophe

Affordable housing

  Near miss

Great depression  

Phone sex  

United nations

  Advanced BASIC

  Genuine imitation

  Death benefits

  Airline Food

Women's rights  

Good grief  

Same difference

  Almost exactly

  Sensitive man

  Government organization

  Everything except

Civil War

  Good kid

Sanitary landfill

  Alone together

 Legally drunk

  Silent scream

  British fashion

  Living dead