It’s a small, SMALL world…

So my front tooth is chipped…. every day for 45 years of my life, I have looked at this chipped tooth. About once a month, I think about how said chip came to be. Today was one of those days when this fond memory came to the forefront of my mind.

It’s dumb really. I was a 9 YO visiting my grandparents in Florida. We were at the Publix grocery store and I was bored out of my mind…. for some unknown, disgusting reason, I put my mouth on the shopping cart handle while my grandfather perused the eggs.

When I wasn’t paying attention, probably eying all the “gross”, healthy vegetables in the basket, he pulled the cart towards whatever, possibly the processed meat section…. before I knew it, CHIP. There goes the corner of the front tooth.

It startled me for sure. Not sure I ever told my parents how it happened and have never bothered to get it fixed. I figured it’s always given my smile “character”.

Fast forward 44 years…. Just last November, I was working on a project in Oklahoma City. One of my colleagues, whom I just met, mentioned he was going to Florida for Christmas break. While we were waiting for others to join our tortuous hour-long conference call, I asked him “Where in Florida?”.

Kyle: “Oh, just a small town in central Florida, I’m sure you don’t know it.” (He’s generally right, chances are HIGH you have not spent much time in central Florida)

Me: “Oh really? My family is from central Florida. Which town?”

Kyle: “It’s a town called Lakeland.”

Me: “Next door to Winter Haven?”

Kyle: “Yep, my dad was the general manager of the Publix grocery store in Winter Haven for 50 years.”

Me: “Whaat?!!!”

This puts his dad working (or possibly there) for the grocery store when the tooth incident went down!

I’m not sure WHY I thought this was sooo crazy. But honestly, of ALL the places in the US this kid’s parents could live and work.

I took it as a sign, the tooth is getting fixed.

The chapter on this will soon be closed! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE when life throws out these little gems!

….i choose this….

Pam

This post is part of the 30-day November blogging challenge known as NanoPoblano2019. Our challenge is to write for 10 days, read others’ posts for 10 days, and share our posts for 10 days – could be to other social media accounts like Facebook, Twitter or Instagram or simply sharing with friends with a text link.

Check out this NanoPoblano2019 link and discover some talented writers/bloggers!