Wondering about strange events.

Did you ever have something happen that at the time seemed very ordinary but proved to be unexpectedly tied into something else that was part of your past, present, family, friends, etc.? You know, like something unexpected or a remarkable occurrence that at the time seemed completely random but later proved somehow to be tied to you? Maybe I am confusing you, I sure am confusing myself, and so let me just tell you what recently happened to me.


As you know, if you read my blogs, I frequent the local flea markets. Well, a few weeks ago, I was walking along and stopped at a table and just casually looked at the lady’s items that were for sell. There was this book propped up and on the front cover was a picture of two people riding horses up a hill at a fast gallop with a huge red sun and many birds behind them. I thought that it must be a western novel. The title was “THE DEAD RIDE HARD”, by Louis Joseph Vance. I never heard of the author and didn’t know anything about the book. The lady said it was printed in 1926 and I could have it for $4.00. Well, I thought to myself that it would be really interesting to read a western written back in 1926, so I purchased it and took it home. There it laid for a week or so. Here is an image I borrowed from Amazon.com:

Like I said, it laid around the house awhile, but I finally picked it up one day and looked at it closer. Started to read the first page and realized that it was not a western but was about a revolution in Hungary. So the book laid around another week, but after I finished up my “paying” job, I decided to start to read it. After the first chapter, I was into it and am still reading it when I get the chance.


OK, this doesn’t seem like a strange occurrence does it? Are you ready to stop reading and go on to someone else’s more interesting blog? Just wait, this surprised me.

I had read about a quarter of the book when for some reason I looked inside the front cover. There, written in pencil, I found a note. It said, “Charles Groover, Greenville, Pa., R.F.D.#3 – Please read and return”.

I’ll bet you still don’t see the connection, do you? Remember the cards that my wife and I make up every day and send to my Aunt who had broken her hip and the screws came loose from the surgery and she can’t have another operation because of her breathing problems? Well, she lives in that town in Pennsylvania.

What would be the chances of a book published in 1926, purchased in Greenville, PA and wind up in a Texas flea market for my to buy for no good reason. I have never bought any books to read from the flea market before. It just hit me as being so such a huge coincidence.