The Strange Coincidences Archive

My small world story.
Back in 1991 I was at a festival in my home state of Pennsylvania and met a woman who was from Nebraska. We got along well and a few months later, I moved out to Nebraska and we became engaged within the year or so. As we were making our wedding plans, as usually goes, family names were discussed.

One of the conversations between My mother-in-law and her father brought a rather startling coincidence to light. Here is a rough transcript of the conversation. My name, as will be discussed is Wil, short for William Roy Ogden Jr.

Mother-In-Law: Dad, Wil’s middle name is Roy, it’s a shortened version of Leroy, his grandfather’s middle name. It’s interesting because his grandfather’s first name is Bertram.
Grandfather-In-Law: That is unusual. As you know, my first name is Leroy and my middle name is Bertram.
Mother-In-Law: Yeah, that’s why I’m telling you. It’s not a common name, I just thought it was unusual to have two people getting married whose grandfather’s have reversed first and middle names.
Grandfather-In-Law: I was named after my father’s best friend. His name was Bertram Leroy, too.
Mother-In-Law: What was his last name?
Grandfather-In-Law: His last name was Ogden. We used to vacation with them and spend all the holidays with the Ogdens. Before I went off to WWII, we all used to live near Philadelphia. The Ogdens had a grocerys store. I was close friends with the daughter, Dorothy. I remember they had a small baby, Roy.
Mother-In-Law: Dad, do you know what Wil’s last name is?
Grandfather-In-Law: No, I don’t think I do.
Mother-In-Law: It’s Ogden.

After little research, it was easily confirmed that my wife’s grandfather was indeed named after my grandfather. Her great-grandfather and my grandfather were best friends. Her grandmother and grandfather met in WWII in the pacific theatre. After WWII her family moved to Nebraska, where her grandmother was from.

It was pure coincidence (perhaps fate) that she happened to attend the festival in Pennsylvania with her friend and meet me there.

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, my family lived in an apartment in Lithonia, Georgia. One night, I had a dream that I was walking down a dead end dirt road with my family. There were large pastures on boths sides of the road with a barb wire fence along the road. We approached the end of the road, and noticed that the road ended at the front of an old house. There were ghosts flying around in and out of the windows of the house, so it became a nightmare, helping me to remember the dream. Several years later, we lived in a house in McDonough, Georgia, and I was about 11 years old. My step-brother picked me up from school in his truck, and on the way home, he saw a dirt road that he wanted to explore. We drove down the road, and it was exactly the same as the one in my dream.

Up until about 2 years ago I had maybe 3 or more coincidences per day. I think we go through phases where we are more deceptable. I started writing my coincidences down about 5 years ago and thought that there must be something behind this phenomina, but as it so comes, never came across this site or something similar,not even thinking it was anything special. After finding this site, I just decided to tell anybody about my thoughts. I think if more people would invest in their thoughts and write something down,however little, we could all profit from it!!

Friday January 9, 2004
Hello…

Strange coincidences have been happening to me since about 1990. The coincidences started out as being very infrequent but as the years past by, the coincedences quadually became more frequent. These coincidences mainly arise from the media ( TV, Radio, Newspapers, Magazines etc… ). In the past couple of months, I have had many strange coincidences ( 2–3 a week sometimes ) and am starting to get a little freaked out by this. The people that I tell these coincidences to say there is noting to it but a mere coinicence. I think there is more to it than that.

Today for example, my Dad told me that he was talking to an old friend of mine. My friends name is ‘Sherlock’. My friend told my Dad that his name is Sherlock as in ‘Sherlock Holmes’. Then about 3 hours later ( out of the blue ), I decided to watch my Law and Order – Criminal Intent DVD. I noticed that the last disc of 6 had bonus material which I had yet to see. I played the bonus material and the shows creator ( Dick Wolf ) at one point refered to the main charater ( Vincent D’Onofrio ) as “Sherlock Holmes”.

Yesterday at work, a buddy and I were talking about the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s music and I told him that I don’t know many of the newer bands. When the ‘60s and ‘70s music was mentioned I thought ( out of the blue ) the Moody Blues and The Doors. A bunch of us went to the local Pub last night after work and a Moody Blues song, Nights In White Satin was played. It’s been years since I last heard that song.

A few months ago 3 of my work buddies and I went to the same local pub. After a few beers, two of my friends had to leave. That left just Ray and myself. Ray and I had a few more Pints and he said okay let’s go, but I wanted to stay. Ray said that he wanted me to go with him as I would end up getting into trouble. “Well” I said, “Guess I’m the last man standing eh?” ( last one of the four of us that wanted to stay longer ). The very next day at work, there was a Sports Illustrated magazine on a desk in my work area. I picked it up and opened it up to a random page and the title of the article that I opened the mag up to was “LAST MAN STANDING”.

At work one day, I made reference to Buzz Lightyear ( Toy Story – Toy Story 2 ) as saying “To infinity and beyond….” A few hours after making that reference, I was reading a magazine and saw a car ad for the Infinity car manufactuer. The slogan of the ad was ‘To Infinity And Beyond’.

Here’s a really spooky one for ya! About a week ago I was thinking of ways to pre-treat my drive way so that the snow and Ice would be easier to remove. I thought of making a salt/liquid solution and spray it on the drive. Not intending to ever do it mind you but it was just a tought. Then, a few days later on the radio, I hear that the city is thinking of using a salt/liquid solution ( ‘mash’ I think they were calling the solution ) on the roads instead of rock salt in an attempt to minimize the cost of salt usage during the winter months.

Theses are just a few of the coincidences that I have encountered. How can these accounts be ‘mere’ conincidences? I don’t think that they are. Something else it going on here. It is very spooky to say the least!

John Paul Bell
Brampton, Ontario Canada
snafue@rogers.com

My father’s birthday is November 18th.My son was due on November 18th but born on the 29th. That is 11 days difference. Eleven years later—
My sister’s son was due on November 18th and born on the 18th.
My daughter was due October 13th but born on the 11th. Four years later—
My sister’s daughter was due on October 11th and born October 11th.
We have 4 others relatives born on October 11th.

I was working a crossword puzzle and watching Star Trek at the same time. For almost an hour, I alternated between looking down, working the puzzle while listening to the program and then looking up to watch the show while I tried to think of an answer to a clue. I had finished the puzzle except for one word and I was stumped. I had a few of the letters and it looked like this:
__ r b o r __ __ __ __

I can’t remember the clue but I do remember that I knew that I didn’t know the answer and that I had never seen this word before. Common sense told me that the first letter was an “a” so now I had:

a r b o r __ __ __ __

I was saying out loud to myself “arbor…arbor…arbor….arbor what?”

Instantly, at that very second, Lt. Barkley said to Deanna Troi “Come walk with me——walk with me through the arboretum.”

My jaw dropped, to say the least! It was a very strange feeling, indeed!

For Months I was seeing a certain time on digital clocks and watches, I was seeing it so frequently that I thought about telling my doctor about it, Thinking he could offer an explaination. I told a coworker about it, he thought it was interesting enough to write it down on his calender, after I told him I felt it was a date, not a time. I felt something was going to happen on this certain date, something that would impact the way we live. I jokingly said maybe a meteorite will impact causing severe damage. The numbers I was seeing repetitively for months on digital clocks was 9:11. You dont need to post this, I just thought you might find it interesting. Email me if you like. Thanks, Bryan.

hi!for the past few months whenever i look at a clock the time is like… for eg. 12:12 or 20 :20 or 16:16 always same digit/s repeating.
iam jus totally perplexed about it and its relevance.

I was searching for my birth mother. When I received some papers from Social Services I wondered how they knew the name of road in which I had lived when I was about 18 years old. It seems that my mother had lived in the same road when I was born and cared for me there until I was 2 years old when she gave me up for adoption.

For some reason (or perhaps no reason at all) I am “coincident prone”. And strangely enough, many of my coincidences have an inexplicable connection to the King of Horror, Stephen King.
Here is a rundown of some of them:

1) When I was a teenager, I gave my older brother a book for Christmas. It was King’s vampire classic, ”‘Salem’s Lot”. At the time, I had no idea who Stephen King was. I simply liked the cover and bought it on a whim. When it came time to exchange gifts, my brother and I were startled to see that each of our presents were the same size and shape. What’s more, both were wrapped in the same type of wrapping paper. Yep. My brother and I had given each other the exact same present. Granted, this isn’t all that amazing, but it’s unusual enough to be a one-time-only event. Even now, some 25 years later or so, my family still recalls that moment with some level of disbelief.

2) My cousin and his family lived for many years in Bridgeton, Maine. Stephen King, too, once called this place home. My cousin, in fact, would occassionally receive some of the writer’s fan mail. Why? Well, coincidenatally, my cousin’s name is Steven King.

3) Back in my college days, I read King’s novel, “Firestarter”. At one point in the story, the characters find themselves in a small town in upstate New York, (sorry, I forget the name). At the same moment that I read the town’s name, my foot brushed up against something on the floor. It was a high school class ring that a friend of mine had lost a few days earlier. When I took a closer look at it, I was stunned to see that the name of the town engraved on the ring was the same town in the book. My friend was equally surprised and to a greater extent, relieved.

4) This one and the next one both involve my favorite novel, “The Stand”. One night back in ‘88 or ‘89, while reading “The Stand” for a second time, a great friend of mine noticed it and said, “Hey, guess what. I’m in that book.” Of course, I was a bit confused by what he meant, but then he explained. Back in his high school days, he invented a mechanism that made it possible to open a garage door by remote control, using walky-talkies. He said that his idea had earned him a blue ribbon at a national science fair. Stephen King had apparently discovered this fact and his name and incorporated them into the story. My friend then correctly named the page on which his name appears. His name is not so unusual, so I wondered if he was joking around. But he insisted it was the truth. I hope to, some day, meet Stephen King and ask him if my friend was telling me the truth. If not, I have to get some payback, big time.

5) This one is the corker. Back in 1981, I took a big trip from upstate New York to the Maine coast to do some birdwatching with my father and brother. I brought along my new copy of “The Stand” to read in the car. At one point in the story, two characters are driving (I believe) North on U.S. 1 in the town of Ogunquit, Maine. A Dairy Queen figures into the narrative as the characters stop to buy ice cream. Seeing that we had crossed into Maine, I wondered if there really was a town named Ogunquit, and if so, how far we were from it. I asked my brother to check the map and he said, “This IS Ogunquit.” Then I notice the route sign. It was U.S. 1, North. As I began to ponder the coincidences, my Dad said, “There’s one! Let’s get some ice cream, guys.” He then pulled into the parking lot of a Dairy Queen. Hmmmm. The same town, the same road, the same direction, the same restaurant, and the same food at the same moment in time. This one remains the strangest of my
many Stephen King coincidences. But still, if each one alone has zero value, the same holds true when they are all tallied. 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 0 So go figure. I can’t attach meaning to any of it. But I hope it does serve to amuse you on some level, at least.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.