A Summer's Tale

I mentioned in yesterday's post that there was one anecdote from our week in Hilton Head I wanted to share separately. But first, the back story. 

Because there always is one on From This Side Of The Pond. 

Also, it's not as much fun if I just get straight to it, so let's roll back time to the 1990's. 

Remember the 90's? 

Thirty years ago but whatever. Hubs started working in 1985 for the company he then stayed with for thirty years. The company's headquarters were in Northern New Jersey and we lived there two different times during his career. He started as a rep in Richmond, but we moved not too long after (1989 to be exact) to the main office in NJ. As hubs says, those were some of the most fun years of his work life and this was mostly due to his colleagues. 

Colleagues who became friends. 

New Jersey geography is funny. It's a tiny state but there are many many towns squished side by each and lots of traffic. Lots. Hubs office at that time was situated almost in NYC. Not quite, but close enough you had to get into all the Lincoln Tunnel traffic just to get to work. 

I know young adults today talk a lot about how they can't afford to buy a house, but let me just tell you in 1989, five years married, working good jobs, and we bought a house with no air conditioning, a one car garage, an hour+ commute in some of the world's worst traffic, and a mortgage interest rate of more than 12%. 

Hey, the 90's wasn't all neon windbreakers, beanie babies, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. 

I'm not saying it's not tough out there today, but our expectations for the kind of house we'd live in were pretty small. 

Anyway, what does all this have to do with Hilton Head in 2025? 

I'm getting there. This post is 90% a trip down memory lane and 10% present day. Back to the 90's. Work friends lived in various towns all around the office town. Nobody lived in office town, and very few lived in the same town as any other but that didn't stop us from socializing together. We thought nothing of driving 45 minutes to have dinner or go to a party at someone's house on weekends. 

We were all young (ish) and most of us were raising children and trying to get ahead, but also loving life and sharing life and encouraging each other in whatever way we could. It's a mega ginormous beast of a company today, but back then it still felt a bit like family. 

After five years in  New Jersey (that first stint) we moved to Maryland, still with the same company, and other friends moved around too. Some we kept in contact with for decades, are still in contact with today. Some have visited the lake and some were in our lives for just a season. When we think back on those friendships, those early hard years of working like crazy and raising children, we think of them with tenderness. 

Okay, back to 2025. Finally. We had plans to go into Harbour Town on Thursday evening, but the kids were worn out and decided they wanted to stay home and order pizza, so hubs and I were on our own.

We walked around for a bit and had a drink at the Quarterdeck's Umbrella Bar in the marina there. 

Charcoal roasted oysters and spicy strawberry margarita with a view. 

We shopped a little then decided to grab dinner at The Crazy Crab. So cute! It's exactly what you think of when you think of a beachside restaurant with it's nautical decor, fishing nets, that sort of thing. 

We'd ordered our food when we noticed a family being seated at the table beside ours. There was a mom with her three small children and what we guessed were the grandparents. As they were seated hubs said,  'that guy looks just like Dan C'.  So I looked more closely at his wife and said, 'you know I'm pretty sure that IS Dan C.' 

Dan C. and his wife are some of those 90's work friends I mentioned above. Friends we haven't seen since the 90's. 

So hubs said, 'Dan?' and the guy immediately turned his head and then he did a triple take before giving hubs a big hug. Their daughter was born about a month after my youngest, and now here she is with her three kids, and we're all grandparents trying to cram thirty years of catching up into an aisle conversation at a Hilton Head restaurant. 

We exchanged new contact info and since they live in HHI now, and also want to come our direction sometime, we hope to make another get together happen. 

I'm a sucker for a small world story. Hubs and I marveled at the odds of this happening and they're miniscule. We've had a few in our lifetime and they always make me feel grateful. I guess some would call it coincidence, some say serendipity. I say it's just one of the many ways God shows us He's got this whole big-little world in His hands. 

Linking today with Joanne at Talking About It Tuesdays