Friday fun: Any trivial event/decision in your past that actually profoundly impacted your life?

This was a topic that came up on another discussion forum I'm on, and which resulted in a very entertaining and thought-provoking exchange. Some people offered some fascinating examples of what I'm talking about.

As the thread title suggests, in each of our lives there may be events encountered or decisions made which, at the time they happen, seem entirely trivial or totally unimportant, but which, as it turns out, have a profund impact on our lives.

For instance, on that other forum I gave an example from my own past that demonstrates that.

When I was a student at Florida State University in the fall of 1971, one Friday evening I made such a seemingly insignificant, almost laughably trivial, decision that turned out to have a colossal impact on my future life.

I was sitting in my off-campus apartment around 6 PM reading the campus newspaper I had picked up earlier in the day. I noticed an announcement that a dance was to be held in the campus union building at 8 PM. "Should I go?" I thought to myself. "Nah, I've got too much to do, a paper due next week that I need to work on, so no, I'll have to skip this one," I answered myself.

The end of it, I thought, and proceeded to think about other things. But, for some reason, I kept thinking about that dance, and even though, logically, it made sense for me to stay home and work on that paper, and going to that dance seemed like such a totally trivial decision at the time, I finally decided, virtually on a whim, "Okay, I'll go."

So I went to the dance, walked around the floor a bit, and -- there she was! -- this absolutely gorgeous brunette, who totally got my attention! I asked her to dance and she accepted. Her name was Marilyn and we absolutely "hit it off!" So much so that we were married a little over a year later, were happily together for 39 years, had two fine sons, and a wonderful life together.

All because I decided to go to that dance. As I had trivially decided to do. What could be more trivial than a decision to go to a dance?

But that trivial decision wound up having a totally colossal impact on both of our lives. That petty little decision on my part utterly changed everything for both of us forever.

Of course if I had decided not to go to that dance, stayed home and worked on that paper as originally planned, Marilyn and I would have never met, and both our lives would have been completely different.

Or was I meant to decide to go that night, so that we would indeed meet, and our lives go the way they did? But that's a question for another thread.

But what about you? Do you recall and would you like to share some small, one might think ridiculously unimportant decision or event in your own past that, as it turned out, actually had a major impact on your life? Something as seemingly trivial as whether or not to go to a dance?

Tell us about it if you would like. It might not only be amusing to recall and share such an experience, it might also provide us with some insight into just how curiously fate sometimes seems to cause little things to happen in our lives in order to bring about certain major desired ends.

Great story, Gobucks!

For GoBucks, my wife and I also went to Cedar Point one June for her birthday. We rode the new Gemini roller coaster, the biggest and baddest in the world at the time, on its opening day. Quite a thrilling ride, to say the least.

Several weeks later, we discovered she was pregnant and due the following late January/early February. Then a few months later, we learned we would have twins. Then, when they were born that they are identical.

To this day, my wife swears that the June (month of Gemini sign of the twins) ride on the Gemini is what split the single egg in two and hence our twins.

I went to Cedar Point in May of 1976 for Senior Ditch Day. No romance happened...but I fell in love with Coasters there. The Blue Streak was one of the best.

An unexpected, but somewhat random event was in the summer of 2006. My employer (a large, midwest Utility company) had an employee health screening every year, and in 2006 they were doing skin exams for signs of hexavalent chromium poisoning. The screening doc said, "You have a couple of suspicious moles on your back. Please have your regular doctor take a look--and here's my card, give me a call if it's anything."

They turned out to be Malignant Melanoma, one was a IA in situ and one was a slightly deeper IB.

In the same area.
I tried to join the Navy at age 17 because I thought I'd be sent far from the action in Viet Nam.
I went to Whitehall street but failed the physical unless I went to "fat camp" I said the heck with that and decided to not join.
Then came the draft lottery and my birthday came up 289! Yea no trip overseas!
Kinda happy I was 225 pounds.
Then I heard the Navy could send you into Viet nam so yep good luck

Glen

about 13 years ago I had a triple hernia repair. The operation went fine, but since then I would get sporadic GI problems - intestinal pain that would come in waves and last for a few days. A Gastroenterologist friend told me the only way to know for sure what was going on was the next time it happened head for the ER and have them do an Xray. So about 2 years ago it happened again, and this time it turned into a full-blown small bowel obstruction - probably due to an adhesion left from the hernia surgery. After 3 nights in the hospital the obstruction started to resolve itself. The surgeon asked if I wanted him to go in and look for (and repair) the offending adhesion. The timing seemed good - with the obstruction resolving he would be able to find the adhesion, but I would be better able to tolerate the surgery than if it was still obstructed. So I said, yeah, let's go for it!

We start doing the pre-op tests, including an EKG. The surgeon takes one look at the EKG and says, "Hold Everything! Are you having chest pains? Because this machine says you are having a heart attack!" Bemusedly, I say I am feeling just fine. Well, that called off the surgery, and 3 cardiologists later I had my diagnosis of Brugada Syndrome (BrS). Most asymptomatic BrS patients (like me) are only diagnosed post-mortem - after Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Who knows if I would ever have had such an event - I have had many fevers in my life and a few surgeries and I am not dead yet - but had I not opted to have that surgery at that time I would still not know of my BrS.

When I was graduate student at MSU I met a beautiful freshman at a mixer (remember those). We hit it off, I was smitten, and I got her telephone number. But I was busy with studying and teaching duties. I just got sidetracked and lost her phone #. 3 months later it showed up... in the dryer (it had been in my pants pocket). I called, we got together, started dating, and eventually moved in together. Incidentally, she was 6' 2" tall and I was almost 6' tall. She was often mistaken for Michelle, the tall girl in The Mamas and the Papas group. So there's a picture for those old enough. Eventually I got a job teaching about 110 miles from MSU. I thought she would join me after her graduation. The day before I left, she broke up with me. I was devastated. I thought things were going great. I was wrong. With hindsight, I realized she needed to experience more of life. I had tasted enough and I was ready for the meal. The timing seemed lousy. What kind of mood was I in starting a new job. Well, she actually timed it perfectly. I was able to throw myself 100% into the job. It helped with the ensuing loneliness/depression.

In my new city, I did start hitting the singles scene, but I was still a mess, hurting over the breakup. At one of the bars, I met a guy, Dave. He was one of those extroverts with a gift of true people skills: smart, funny, personable. We had fun and I left. I swore off the bar scene, for a few months. Then one evening, I decided I was over my heartache. I went to the bar just to hear the band and NOT to hustle chicks, as we used to say. As I walked in, Dave saw me. He was holding court with about 6 people. He saw me and yelled, "Hey, Mel. Folks, this is Mel, he's a great friend of mine." That was perfect. My loneliness dissipated as I joined my new friends. I was myself... especially so when a couple of young ladies sat down at the next table. I struck up a conversation with one of them. They had been bowling next door. Bottom line: the night I relaxed and stopped trying to meet someone, I met Cheryl. We dated for a year, were engaged for a year, and we will be celebrating 46 years of bliss in early August.

Mel

Not an event but a decision...when I decided as an axiom of truth without caring if it was true (I would create its truth)..the axiom being I would always believe instead of know...to know stifles...to believe rifles...

When I was in elementary school, I decided to walk downtown after school one afternoon. Summertime had JUST begun!

Just about a block from my boyhood home, was my great-grandfather's newspaper office.

The newspaper had been in his family since the late 1800s, and remained in my family for well over a century.

Over a century ago, their first printing press was powered by a horse named "Old Dobbin" --- who walked in a circle behind the newspaper office, which turned the mechanisms to print the newspaper in the 1890s! They also had an 1800s "rolling pin" manual press, back in the day.

Back to the days of my youth ...

Since it was summertime, and the soda fountain shop was right next door, Great-grandpa decided it was time for a summertime treat. So, we walked over to the soda fountain shop next door -- to get a cherry Coca-Cola with chipped ice for me and a new package of Prince Edward cigars for Great-grandpa.

Working downtown, Great-grandpa always wore an Oxford shirt and necktie, but he kept a stash of Prince Edward cigars in the pocket of his canvas printer's apron!

Returning next door to the family newspaper business, Great-grandpa asked if I would like to stay and help with a few chores, now that summertime had begun.

I wasn't very old --- perhaps 7 years old or so -- but I swept the floor, used a feather duster to dust some of the printing presses, helped him tidy up the office, welcomed customers, and took some letters to the nearby post office.

I grew up in a small Midwestern town, with all those quaint shops on both sides of "Main Street" --- back in the day!

At the end of the day, after completing quite a few chores, I received a couple of Kennedy half dollars from Great-grandpa! I felt like a prince with those in my pockets! Memorable!

As I left to return home, Great-grandpa asked if I would like to start "helping out" --- as my dad had done a generation before, back in the 1950s.

From that time forward, I was Great-grandpa's errand boy, messenger, and apprentice!

In time, he taught me how to help write articles, use the typewriter, edit, proofread, and help with each edition's lay-out --- to help get the latest edition of the newspaper ready --- which we then hauled to the nearby post office for mailing, each week.

I think my favorite job, each summer, was delivering the freshly printed July 4th PARADE & CARNIVAL posters --- to all the merchants in town. I can still visualize those July 4th carnival posters, printed with blue, yellow, and red ink.

Great-grandpa taught me the value of WORDS --- that each word has its own nuance --- that there's a craft in writing --- the burst of an idea --- a flow of words ---then the precision of editing --- and his trademark method of proofreading.

He had a way of proofreading that never failed --- two "editors" --- standing face-to-face about five feet apart --- each holding the draft. One editor reads the draft aloud, the other listens ...no distractions allowed! The roles are then reversed ... re-reading, listening again --- and this process was repeated THREE times before he would give his final "approval" for the polished final draft to be included in the next edition!

His weekly editor's column was entitled "This-N-That" and he wrote it faithfully every week, for decades.

Everyone in town loved his column ... he always used a manual typewriter. I can still hear the clickety-clatter of his typewriter ...

He carried a tiny notebook in his breast pocket, and jotted down notes, day and night, with writing ideas for future columns.

I never saw him without that tiny notebook. It's where the writing ideas began! That magnificent moment ... the writing "spark" --- jotted in his notebook!

One day, while working together, he said, "You now have printer's ink and the love of WRITING in your VEINS, my boy ----- passed down in our family, from generation to generation." I will never forget that day.

At day's end, we used a special bar of gritty "printer's soap" ----- infused with grains of pumice --- to wash the printer's ink off our hands.

The ink on our hands, at day's end, was a sign of daily accomplishments, Great-grandpa often stated.

From him, I learned the value of a day's work --- rolling up one's sleeves --- and finding quiet satisfaction in a job well done.

I was the last of the grandchildren to have the privilege of working alongside my great-grandfather --- but our time together lasted through all the years of my youth.

A testament to his work ethic --- he never retired --- and when he passed away at nearly 80 years of age, he had just completed another week's edition of the town newspaper.

As a sign of honor & respect on the day of his funeral, every shop and store closed for an hour on Main Street, where he had been a mainstay for decades --- and every merchant in my hometown attended his funeral. I never saw more funeral bouquets in my life.

He was also a World War I veteran and the last surviving World War I soldiers from my hometown sat together in a reserved church pew.

I can still visualize them sitting there side-by-side ... the last of their generation ... "the twilight's last gleaming" ... loyal comrades to the end.

When "TAPS" was played at the cemetery, there wasn't a dry eye in the crowd that day, including my own. I have never met anyone as patriotic as Great-grandpa.

I believe those early experiences with words, language, reading, writing, spelling, and editing led to my decades as an educator in the classroom --- teaching all of those subjects to hundreds of 🏫 school students.

It all began on that summer day, with a trip to the soda fountain downtown --- to get a cherry Coke for me, and a package of Prince Edward cigars for my great-grandpa.

There is never a day that I don't think of those early experiences, working together with him ...such formative experiences ... building those foundational skills ... those treasured times together.

I remain, to this very day, a fortunate grandson ...

CYCLONE ~~~ # Iowa State University

Post Edited (Cyclone-ISU) : 6/3/2021 9:38:25 AM (GMT-6)

81 GyGuy, Thanks for the post of this topic!! If you had not posted, I may have not had this vivid memory to flashback to today, when I needed it, today especially.

Cyclone-ISU-Darrin, --That was a wonderful story about your Great- Grandpa. I now see where you get you superlative writing skills. (Is that word use OK??) For a moment, when you mentioned the horse powering the printing press, I was thinking ….how old is old man Cyclone-ISU? When you mentioned JFK Half dollars, that made me realize ..not too old, I remember collecting those!

In any case, my moment of insignificant decision.... to keep with the theme of meeting my future wife…I was laid off
of a great job due to the recession of 1983, and then answered and add, and got a temporary job at a small company doing Drafting work...on the board. She was there in a cage, a tool crib, when I first saw here. My prior employer was a huge company of over 3,000 employees, and then I happened to get a job in my hometown for a small company with 60 employees. My drafting job involved taking my electronic parts drawings to the tool crib for “blueprints”. I was immediately met and was attracted to Rose, but I heard she was married.
I had to stay way. At work, I always brought my lunch until one day, I decided to go to the cafeteria lunchroom, and happened to sit next to her best friend and co-worker. Nancy informed me that Rose was NOT married, and I should ask her out. I did, and soon we were having lunch together everyday. We had our official first date at the local County fair, where we rode to Ferris wheel together. Soon we moved in together and now, here we are happily married since 1987, (actually divorced in 1996, but remarried in 1997) so I call it 34 years married, with a short time apart!
We often think if we had not worked at the same place in 1984, would we have ever met. I think yes we would have, (fate) we both lived in the same small town since the early 1970’s, and we both still live there !! I think I would have eventually seen here across the grocery store aisle, and we would have run into each others arms in the flower section!!!
Keep the faith! and fate!!!
Wings aka Dan in So Cal (after I proofread this, and read it three times, I made some needed edits)

Post Edited (Wings of Eagles) : 6/2/2021 9:04:22 PM (GMT-6)

Employment related:

In the spring of 1980, I had a job working at a small (5 aisles wide) grocery store. One of the other workers was a college student, and I (having graduated that year) was helping him struggle through Organic Chemistry. HE came in one day with a slip of paper with a name and a phone number on it. He told me that one of his fellow students knew of a job I might be interested in and qualified for, and here was the name and phone number of someone to call.

So, I called the number, scheduled an interview for my next day off, and was almost hired on the spot. I started 2 weeks later, and started a 36 year career. Here's what I didn't know: The name I was given was the Superintendent at a power station--and he had the power to hire and fire. The other student was his daughter.

So, the random sequence went from a guy I knew asked for some help with his studies, he knew someone else who knew of a job opening 20 miles away--that was never in any of the local papers.

This has been a very enjoyable thread, one of the best in my 15 yrs on the forum.

<< "Our lives leave a wake, waves of interactions that propagate out in time and space away from us, eventually landing upon shores we'll never see. It's quite an existential meditation, isn't it?" >>

Well stated, Redwing. The fact that we are here collectively is astonishing. Things like an asteroid strike clearing a path, a protective moon, a geologically active planet, distance from the Sun, and 10,000 years of an uncommonly favorable climate allowing civilizations to thrive -- just a few of the crazy things that allow us to be here.

Then there's the almost infinitesimally small chance that each of is here individually. Those millions of sperm cells are fighting it out to fertilize that egg. A change in the very minute, or probably the very second, our parents completed the deed likely would have changed which sperm got there first.

I try not to ponder these things too often.