American meetings

The following all happened on my first research gthering visit to North America in 1968. 1. The first person I saw on clearing immigration was someone with whom I had shared an office in the UK for four years, but with whom I had had no further contact. 2. On the Statten Island ferry a young American lady standing next to me askeed if I knew the name of an island we were passing. On hearing my Scottish accent she asked where I came from. I replied "Aberdeen" and she introduced me to her neighbour who was visiting form Aberdeen. This neighbour lived in Sunnyside Road, where my mother had been born and where a first cousin on my father's side lived. She knew my cousin had had helped him run a youth club. The neighbour said she worked in the Rowett Institute, and it transpired that she shared an office with my first cousin on my mother's side. 3. In 1957 I had had a joint 21st birthday party with four friends in Edinburgh. Three of these were now in North America, and I had arranged to visit them all. I had lost touch with the fourth, but met her by chance on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC. 4. Visiting Yellowstone I had rented a car, and the owner of the hotel invited me to give a lift round the park to two students from Glasgow. I met one of them again in Disneyland a few weeks later. 5. On my flight home I sat next to someone whom I did not know, but who was three years younger then me and had attended the same small school in Edinburgh. I had known his name, and his parents knew my parents.