For Granny, Papa, and the Eldon Jazz Band

My all time favorite "small world" moment came during my Junior Year at OCC. Brianna (Davis) Mertens was a freshman living on my dorm floor. She grew up in Cabool, MO, over 2 hours away from Eldon. We quickly became best friends by sharing a mutual obsession over the St. Louis Cardinals. (To add to our becoming friends in 2011, the Cardinals won the World Series that year! But that's a different story I blogged about last year, Rally Squirrel and Happy Flights.)

Once Brianna and I got to know each other better we learned two things:

1. She knew of the Eldon Jazz Band. Like any true, evolving friendship in the 21st Century, I had creeped on her Facebook photos and found a picture of them. I, not wanting to sound creepy and ask her about it, conveniently brought up Eldon Jazz Band in conversation. I was in concert and marching band, so it wasn't much of a stretch! Come to find out, Brianna played basketball in Cabool and always noticed the Eldon Jazz Band at the State Tournament. She and her cousin, Taylor, thought it was humorous how excited the announcers got to introduce the jazz band. They had also put together our basketball team was never there and found it strange our jazz band was. Eventually I taught her even though Eldon's basketball teams never made it to State, the Jazz Band was frequently invited to play at the State Tournament through an audition.

The infamous, creeped on Facebook picture.

2. Later we discovered an even more bizarre connection. Her great grandpa had grown up in Eldon. After a few discussions with my Granny and her Papa, we discovered they knew each other AND had gone to high school together in the 1940's! My Granny found her old high school yearbook and we went through it so I could show Brianna all of her Papa's pictures. To make it a little weirder, we called our grandparents the same names. Growing up I had also called my grandpa, Papa. She called her grandma, Granny. Since then, they have all passed away, but I still get goosebumps thinking about how our grandparents' paths crossed through their granddaughters so many decades later.

My Granny and me.

Taylor, Papa, and Brianna
I did some creeping for this one.

I'm thankful I was able to take Bri to Eldon where she met my Granny once before she passed. I also was well acquainted with her Granny and Papa, because I was their Eldon girl. Now, because they were dead set on being buried in Eldon, I wave to them every time I drive to my parents' house. For the first time this year, Bri also got to meet Mr. McCargar, the band instructor for the infamous Eldon Jazz Band.