Six degrees of separation is the idea that all living things and everything else in the world are six or fewer steps away from each other so that a chain of “a friend of a friend” statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps.
Who doesn’t love playing the Kevin Bacon game? The one where the goal is to link any actor to Kevin Bacon through no more than six connections? It is amazing to see how that can truly work out. Maybe I am connected to Kevin Bacon? If I am, then I am unaware of that awesomeness! Or maybe, I have stumbled on a little six degrees of separation in my tiny town in Alabama while working on my onehundredstrangers project. Follow along……..
I am currently a member of the Trussville Photography Club and we have monthly field trips to various locations. This particular month, we attended Tannehill State Park. This trip was more of a landscape type photograph trip and with all the rain that we received, I was super excited to shoot the waterfall and gristmill. Upon arrival, that is exactly what we found. The waterfall near the gristmill was raging. Some members shot downstream, others went to the right and I went to the left. After taking a few shots, I was ready to move onto the Blacksmith of Pioneer Farm. They were starting a demonstration and I thought it would be fun to try and capture some photographs of them working.
I begin to discuss my blog with a few people in the club. I was excited to share that I found my perfect stranger and I only had 99 more to find. I explained that the project is more of a self-awareness project, so I can become comfortable asking questions, developing better listening skills and become least introverted. As we are talking and walking toward the Blacksmith of Pioneer Farm, I think I to myself, I may have found stranger number two.
We walked closer and the Blacksmith disappeared. We talked with the other workers and discovered they have a blacksmith school on the grounds and a they are students. They tended to the fire and talked with us about the school. The Blacksmith returned. I asked, “excuse me, may I take your picture?” This time with less apprehension. I felt like I was on a mission.
“Yes, you may!” he says. He sits down in the doorway of the shop and I explain it will be a close-up portrait and about my project. He explains to me while I am taking his portrait, that he, too was introverted until he became a blacksmith working at Tannehill. We exchange a few stories about being introverted and how the feelings that come with being that way. I laugh and continue with my the thoughts behind my blog and what I hope to accomplish when I am finished. I jokingly stated that I needed to practice my writing skills because I didn’t learn to write well at Tarrant Elementary and, of course, blamed it all on my first-grade teacher, Mrs. Morgan and that reading round robin game. I asked him his name and he says, “James.”
James is very well spoken. Almost intimidating, but I continue. He starts to speak and points his finger up and says to me, “did you say Tarrant?”
“Yes, I did.” I respond. He continues, “I dated a girl around the 1970’s and she was from Tarrant.” What? I am thinking to myself. I know a lot of people from there and the seventies is the time in which my sisters were dating and graduating from high school. I, of course, being significantly younger than them. I would be considered a “surprise” back then, a “miracle or blessing” in today’s language. I jokingly asked James if her name was Barbara by chance knowing that it couldn’t be my sister because she only had one boyfriend during that time and they were married.
“No, her name wasn’t Barbara. What was her name? I do know a Barbara but that is not her name. Oh, yeah, her name was Brenda. That’s it! Dated her in 1970.” I told him I only knew one Brenda, but he stated that wasn’t her last name. I offered to find her on Facebook, because finding people was my talent. Then, he continued. “There was a Barbara who married my best friend.” In my mind, there are tons of Barbara’s in Tarrant during the 70’s. Chances are, I probably didn’t know her or him, but am nosey. He says, “his name is Freddy Berry!” Am I hearing correctly, did he just say Freddy Berry? I look at him and grab by chest in disbelief. “James, Freddy is my brother-in-law. Well, he was until they divorced.” (not true, I omitted the snide comment about why they divorced.) Everyone was in shocked and amazed at this connection. Just by talking with James, maybe the six degrees of separation is a true theory. I had never met James. been to Tannehill or even met a blacksmith.
“Yes, I was shocked by Freddy’s behavior. He wasn’t at all like that in school.” I nod in agreement. He talked about spending his days after school at Freddy’s house and we exchanged memories of Papa Fred, Freddy’s dad. He loved two things, a cold beer and the Atlanta Braves. It took me back to when he passed away. I always liked Papa Fred. He talked about Mable and how her and Papa was so different. It just brought back some memories of my childhood and when my sister was much happier. Those days have been long gone. It seemed like her happiness was signed over to Freddy in the divorce. James continue to describe the directions to my childhood home and he was exactly on point. He could even remember where Brenda lived but, still could not remember her last name.
James, stranger number two who isn’t really a stranger at all. #justbenice #onehundredstrangers #sixdegreesofseparation #tannehillstatepark
onehundredstrangers 