Emily Paine Carter

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Coincidence: I've been thinking about that.

It's not that I've had an abundance of time to spend thinking about such weird things. Our three grandchildren -- however precious, of course -- have us surrounded here at Bearpaw and Bunny's Bide-a-Wee Camp. Baby Collier has clung to me like a corsage; he is decorative, dear and warm, but a challenge to my to-do list.

Plus, like so many folks, we've all been ailing. For days my elusive goal was simply to take the orange peels all the way to the backyard compost tumbler -- so near and yet so far.

Recalling a classic movie, my ex-husband came up with a fine punning title for such times: "The Days of Whine and Noses, Running."

So, what cheers us then? Maybe that old cliche: misery loves company. "How wonderful!" my laryngitic voice croaked when a store clerk confessed that as of Jan. 22 she still had not finished packing away her Christmas decorations.

Anyhow, during this nonproductive time I rocked the baby in the wee hours. Since the TV remote "had turned up missing" (as old Southerners say), my fevered brain entertained itself by thinking of coincidences on Salem's Broad Street.

Such as:

• I'm pleasantly surrounded by women named Barbara: Barbara Bell. Barbara Garden. Barbara Gresham.

• Likewise -- just within a couple of houses on either side of mine -- are women whose first and last names start with the letter B: Betty Boothe. Betsy Barker. Barbara Bell. Such letter-B alliteration seems appropriate, since for decades the Broad Street neighbors have called themselves "Broad Street Broads, Bums and Brats." We even had Mooch Semones of Spartan Silk Screen print some T-shirts -- now collectors' items, surely -- for each category.

• Wendy is not such a common name, but now thanks to our excellent new next-door neighbors, the Routt family, our little neighborhood has two: Wendy Routt and Wendy Rotanz.

• Even more coincidentally is how many neighbor families have either three boys or three girls. Barbara and Van Gresham: three sons. Bob and Wendy Rotanz: three daughters. Just-moved-away Jerry and Dee Light: three sons. Nancy and Steven Helm and their three sons moved into the home formerly inhabited by Patsy and Rivers Claytor and their three girls. For years the offspring of Butch and Genia Johnson (Genia grew up on Broad Street in a home of -- yes -- three daughters) consisted of three daughters, until son Cord was born.

• A number of ministers and chaplains live or have lived on these two Broad Street blocks -- convenient to churches and to sinners (speaking for myself): Both Peggy Lindsey and husband Dean are Presbyterian ministers. Susan Bentley is an Episcopalian priest. The (Methodist) Rev. Bret Gresham was reared here, so may we count him? Marty Woodward served as an ordained college chaplain when she lived on Broad Street. The Rev. Conrad Johnston lived here for years; in fact, his home used to be the manse for Salem Baptist Church. My own house was once home to a pastor -- coincidentally -- the Rev. W.H. Carter.

• And thinking of Emily Carters ... I know three with Salem roots. Moi, Emma Carter (now of Northern Virginia), and Sam and Lonna Carter's daughter, Emily.

• Just down Broad and around the corner on Clay Street, three women in the same family came pretty close to sharing a birthday: Hazel Ballentine, daughter Ann Lynch and granddaughter Kitty Lynch. Two were born on the same date; the third missed by hours.

So, do you have any coincidences to share with Neighbors readers? Birthdays, names, numbers? Have you traveled the world and run into someone from home? Do tell -- or e-mail emilypainecarter@email.roanoke.com. Maybe you have noticed such things even without a case of feverish brain.