When my father-in-law retired from Western Electric in the mid 80's, he went to work in a local nursery. While employed there, he befriended a gentlemen and his wife and they have since stayed in touch.
Well, this summer while he and my mother-in-law were on vacation in Florida - they decided to visit the couple. They chatted about many things and somehow the conversation came up about how the woman works at a local Publix and on many days in the summer a nice young girl comes to the store with her husband and they buy lunch. As people do, they get into conversations about where they are from and she mentions she is originally from Illinois but lives in Hawaii and visits Florida every summer for a time.
She mentions this to my mother-in-law because she grew up in Illinois. It turns out that the couple from Hawaii that comes to Florida every year is my mother-in-law's cousin!
Story 2
I happen to mention to a client that I am from Easton, PA. He says inquisitively "Oh, where in Easton." "Forks Township, just up from Lafayette College." I respond. "Really, where in Forks Twp.?!" I can hear his voice getting excited. I explain the neighborhood and he gets even more excited. It turns out that the house next to us is his childhood home!
On top of that, I know the current owners of the house (not because we are neighbors either), I worked with his father as a sales rep - he is a CPA in Pen Argyl.
Story 3
My wife's niece was studying abroad in London and took a weekend trip to Italy. While sitting on a train, she peered out to people watch and thought she recognized someone. She did - it was her great Aunt and Uncle from Illinois! Neither one of them know the other was there!
Do you have a small world story? I'd love to hear about it!