Mike and Michael Share Stories

Here's one of the most startling synchronicity stories I've ever heard. It was told to me by my late father on the very day it happened to him... Back in 1976 my dad was very active in amateur radio in Toronto.

His call sign was VE3 FBO and he was fascinated by radio, having taught radio communications in the British Army in WW2. One day a friend of his came over to pick up some radio gear he had bought from my dad. Dad got a dolly from the underground parking lot of our townhouse and lugged the stuff out to the guy's car. They loaded everything and then stood by the car chatting. My dad asked his friend if he'd ever heard of a "19 set". His friend asked him what it was and my father replied that a "19 set" was a Russian tank radio that the British Army had used to teach radio courses in the war. Apparently the gauges were in Russian, but the radio had been simple to use and train with.

My father remarked that he'd love to get hold of one, although it seemed unlikely as they'd vanished with the end of WW2.  His friend jokingly said "I'll keep my eye open for you, in case one shows up". Then he drove away. My father took the dolly back to the underground parking lot and walked past a pile of junk over by the wall. On top of the junkpile was a "19 set" Russian Tank radio! Dad said he got a chill when he saw it and couldn't believe his eyes. He took it from the junk pile and carried it up to our townhouse. He plugged it in and it worked perfectly.  All the ancient tubes were intact. All his inquiries led nowhere. No one knew who put it there. When my father passed away the "19 set" was donated to the National War Museum in Ottawa where it resides to this day with a photograph of my father seated at it.

-Mike Mandel

Here's a cool synchronicity story for you...it happened 1 week ago.

For the past year or so I have had my own customized excite page that is set up as the default site for my web browser. It's a page that most of the search engines offer that enables you to have a customized page with your own specialized links, your own customized news, etc.

The URL for this page which is generated by excite is about 30 or 40 letters or digits long. It is set up as my default page on my browser. If I were to try to find it on somebody else's computer it would be pretty much impossible.

Anyway, last week I was travelling. I was in a mall in Menlo Park New Jersey (about a 9 hour drive from my home in Toronto, Canada) My friend and I were walking through a mall and we saw one of those vendors that sells products from a cart off in the distance. It was an internet service provider with a computer set up for people to surf the net for fun.

As we were approaching it, my friend said he would like to check the stock markets. I told him he could go to excite.com because they have a link to the markets there. We got in front of the monitor and I noticed it was already on excites page. Then I noticed it wasn't on excites main page, but it was on somebody's customized page because it said "Mike's page" in the top corner.

I then looked at it closely and noticed the customized links, the customized news, customized reminders, customized weather forecasts, and noticed this internet connection was at MY PERSONALIZED PAGE! This wasn't the browsers default. It just happened to be there.

I couldn't believe it! What are the chances of me being 600 miles from home and walking up to a monitor and finding my page at that specific moment?

UNBELIEVABLE!

We asked the fellow in charge how this could happen to be sitting on my page right now. A page which I wouldn't know how to find on another computer, never mind my friend. (who had been with me all along.) No, he didn't do it as a joke. He wouldn't know how.

The fellow in charge was freaked out as well. He said it made him feel like going to church.

I'll just mark it down as one of life's bizarre events which will forever go unanswered.

-Michael Anthony
http://www.michael-anthony.com