I guess it's time for a "It's A Small World" piece from me. I've now been writing these essays for a year and it's obvious from what I've read over the years that it's mandatory for journalists who write such essays to do a "It's A Small World" piece - or at least it certainly seems that way.
So, here goes.
I guess the first "It's A Small World" encounter I remember having occurred in 1990 at DisneyWorld.
My wife, Sandra, and I had gone down during spring break with our daughter, Lisa, who was 13 at the time.
We were standing in line for a ride when I felt someone tap me on the shoulder - and say "who's doing the news back in Gainesville." I turned around it was Ross Burns who at the time managed the Coca-Cola plant in Gainesville.
My second such encounter occurred on the way home. We stopped to visit Silver Springs - home of the famous glass-bottom boats, a Florida tourist attraction that pre-dates DisneyWorld by many years.
We went to the pool after checking into our motel room and there we found another Gainesville acquaintance and his family (I'm embarrassed to say I don't remember their names) - also headed home after spending a few days with "Mickey" and friends.
Chance encounter number three occurred more recently. I was in L.A. in April - that's Lower Alabama for those of you who think it's a big city on the West Coast - for the funeral of my father-in-law. As it turned out, the presiding minister, Rev. James Pitts, has, I believe he said, a son or daughter living in Cumming - and he listens to WDUN (like Accessnorthga.com, a division of Jacobs Media) when he's up this way.
Not long after that, I was reading the weekly newspaper from Sandra's home county - Barbour County, Alabama - and there in the "50 Years Ago This Week" column was a note that the now-sheriff, Marshall Williams, Jr., had graduated in 1955 from Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville.
Also just recently, shortly after Fokes Link began working for me in the Accessnorthga.com/WDUN news department, he spoke up from his desk proclaiming that he didn't know I was from Moultrie, Georgia. It seems he was looking at one of our Web sites reading the biographical information on each of us - apparently trying to find out as much about his new co-workers as he could.
Fokes said his mom was from Moultrie.
I asked what her maiden name was, and he said it was Fokes. Then I wanted to know if she was related to Bunny Fokes and he replied that she was his Aunt Mildred. Well, I told him, Aunt Mildred, or Bunny, and I were in the same high school graduating class.
Not only did that make for a nice little "Its A Small World" story, but it also solved a mystery: where Fokes got his unusual first name.
Thank you, "Aunt Bunny."
Ken Stanford is the news director for WDUN NEWS TALK 550, SPORT RADIO 1240 THE TICKET and MAJIC 1029 FM and editor of AccessNorthGa.com.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2005/8/128801