Chevy Chase Coincidence

Hippest Spot in C-ville

Having just returned from visiting Bennington College in Vermont, hoping to see a Charlottesville musician attending there, I was interested to overhear the group of young C-villians sitting next to me at the C&O restaurant discussing that very school.

Turned out one was a musician, which made me nod inside. Most all of my central Virginia coincidences involve musicians. These kids were discussing their dorm "pod" at Bennington, relating stories thereof.

We were enjoying the live act—The Skip Castro Band—and I saw my musician friend Paul Curreri sitting at the bar. Conditions for coincidence were ripe.

I opened up a conversation with the young gal sitting next to me—Anna(?)—opening with the usual question: "What are your plans now that you've graduated college?"

"I don't know."

"Some kids go to grad school."

New "house" at Bennington

"If I had to, I guess I would." (Oh.)

It transpired that her father was from Hawaii and her mother from Maryland. The latter fact drew me in.

(with a gulp)

"What part of Maryland?" "Montgomery County," she replied.

(gulp again)

"What part of Montgomery County?" I asked, fully sensing where this was going. "Bethesda-Chevy Chase."

(big gulp)

"What street did you live on?" "I don't know," she said "But it was right next door to Donald Rumsfeld." (Oh.)

I took another look at her and said, "Your mother would be about my age." "How old are you?" she asked. Telling her my age, she said: "Yes, she's the same age as you."

Paul Curreri

"So," I said, building up to something big. "I probably went to elementary school with your mother. I went to Chevy Chase Elementary School."*

"She went to Chevy Chase Elementary School."

After naming the two teachers who taught our class there—Miss Page and Miss Kopp as a duo—and mentioning the names of some of my classmates, I said it was absolutely certain that I went to elementary school with her mother.

She seemed unsure as she got up to go.** I guess I just couldn't help myself when I added . .

"You know, if things had turned out differently between your mother and me in the sixth grade . ."

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Other schoolmates in Miss Page and Miss Kopp's 6th grade class at Chevy Chase Elementary School in 1970-71 that I remember (perhaps imperfectly) included Phil Urquhart, Phil Augustine, Rudy DeSeife, Louis DeSipio, Sharon Flood, Adam Kolker, Maya McGee, Carol Engler, Jack Roche, Mike Spaulding, Harold Patch, Diana Stone, Beth (?) Stoner, etc. 

Many, including myself if we had not moved again, would have ended up Class of 1977 at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School.

*for just one year (1970 to 1971) because we moved to Vermont (the tie-it-all-together coincidence in this Vermont-Virginia story).
**she would later confirm that it was all so horribly true.