by Donald Hancock

Created on: October 17, 2008

REFLECTIONS: SMALL WORLD
(The incidents in my reflections are all true, but all of the names have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.)

Most of us have had at least one incident in our lives that has caused us to use the expression, "Well, it's a small world after all!" I can remember three such happenings in my own life and I would like to share them with you.

When I was eight years old I attended the third grade at 38th Street Elementary School in Savannah, Georgia. I have a group picture of that class, taken on the front porch of that school in 1942. I treasure that picture, of course.

Forty years later I was working as a chaplain in a hospital in Augusta, Georgia. In one of the units I saw someone who looked vaguely familiar. I doubted that I could have known this person before and after all I often see people that I think I have known before and it seldom turns out to be so. But the feeling persisted so I approached the man and saw an identification tag that identified him as Dr. Benfleld.

I said "Dr. Benfleld, I am Bob Ringwald and I can't help feeling that I know you from somewhere, did you ever live in Savannah?" "Why, yes, in fact I grew up in Savannah." "What schools did you attend there, Dr. Benfleld?" Well, I went to 38th Street School." "Well, so did I. Were you in Mrs. Hager's third grade?" "Yes, I was." "Are you Daryl Benfleld?" "Yes, I am!" "Daryl, you haven't changed a bit. The other night I was looking at a picture of that class and you are standing right next to me and we're both wearing short pants!" "Hey!, I'd love to see that!" "I'll bring it tomorrow!" "Wow! It's a small world!"

When I was 9 years old I was surprised one day to hear my name on the radio. I heard this very melodious voice saying, "This is Bob Ringwald, speaking to you from New York and this is the Columbia Broadcasting System.. "Wow", I said, "there's somebody with the same name as me and he's talking on the radio all the way from New York". After that, whenever someone would ask me my name they would say, "Bob Ringwald, just like the radio announcer?" And I would proudly say, "yep, same name!"

About forty four years later, in the same hospital in Augusta, there was a reorganization and I, as Chief Chaplain was placed in a Department of Coordinators with the Head of the Physical Therapy Department. His name happened to be, yes, you guessed it, Bob Ringwald. We would get each other's mail and enjoyed other confusions from our identical names.

One day

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