Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Truth is stranger than fiction!


HowManyOfMe.com
LogoThere are
12
people with my name in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?


On that note I should relate a strange incident that happened almost 2 years ago now.

We live in a small town in an area called the Big Bottom Valley. Didn't know if you had guessed that or not:) The Big Bottom Valley is not heavily populated. Two years ago this Oct./Nov. we had some unseasonal and very bad flooding in our area. There was a news program on it showing one young woman getting evacuated from her home. I had friends that saw the news clip and were horrified when they heard my name mentioned. Then they looked and saw it was not me. I had several people tell me about it. I didn't think much about it until that Christmas.

I got a Christmas card in the mail that seemed weird. I didn't recognize the return address, but it had my name on it. I opened it expecting to be able to figure out what odd relation sent me a card. When I opened it a check fell out. The card was signed from Grandma. I was horrified when it sunk in that it really was not my Christmas card. When I couldn't get ahold of the real recipient I packaged opened envelope, card and check into a bigger envelope. I enclosed a note explaining what had happened and posted it back to the return address. I felt like a criminal. I was taught to NEVER, NEVER open someone else's mail!

Then later that year I started getting strange things in the mail. The address was for around the corner, but it had MY NAME on it. The other disconcerting thing was I was not getting some things I should. Finally, a young woman showed up at our house with my son's CDs we had been expecting for an overly long time. She was the girl with my name from the flood and she had temporarily moved down the street with relatives. She had put in a change of address form at the post office. Our poor mail lady had been very confused.

The mail lady knows everyone on her route so she had thought the mail was misaddressed. She then tried to kindly correct the mistake. I finally went in and righted the wrong in the post office. They were so embarrased. At least the other person with my name has a different middle name. Still what are the odds to live down the street from someone with the same name? Especially when they are no relation to you whatsoever! It isn't like my name is John Smith!

2 comments:

Michele @ Frugal Granola said...

Wow! Crazy! :) I'm glad you ladies got the mail straightened out. How funny! :)

Michele

Valerie said...

That's wild!