Encounter at a Park

Encounter at a Park(Hillary) Chance encounters and meetings with random people happen every day. You pass someone in the hallway at work or have a brief conversation while waiting in the checkout line at the grocery store. You don’t give them much thought. In fact as soon as they are over you tend to forget about them. Every now and then, though, a random encounter turns into something more and you wonder if it was really random at all. In seventh grade I had one of those encounters….

At South Valley Junior High there was always end of the school year trips. That year the eighth graders got to go to Great America. My fellow seventh graders and I got to go to Hecker Pass: A Family Adventure. Hecker Pass was the predecessor of what is now Gilroy Gardens. It was a park with picnic areas, a pool and a few small rides. It wasn’t our first choice for an end of the year trip. It didn’t have the cool rides like Great America. Still a trip is a trip and it got us out of school for the day.

It was a hot, sunny day. My friends and I spent the better part of the day splashing around in the pool. In the afternoon, we decided we should explore the rest of the place. Eventually we wandered over to the rides area. The rides were what you might find at a fair and not particularly memorable. The one ride I do remember was a small roller coaster. The roller coaster was basically a small circular track with a couple of small hills. It was completely cheesy. I got in line to ride it anyway. As I waited in line, I started talking to a nice boy standing in front of me. We couldn’t believe we were actually waiting in line to go on such a cheesy ride. We talked and laughed all the way through line. We finally rode the little coaster. It really wasn’t worth the wait, but it was good for a laugh. Afterwards we parted company. He went off with his friends and I went off with my own friends. I spent the rest of the day having fun with my friends and never gave the nice boy a second thought.

I finished my seventh grade year a couple weeks later. A year later I finished junior high altogether and went on to high school. I made some new friends along the way. One of them was my dear friend, Joel. A couple years later, Joel and I were chatting. We got in to a discussion about how we met our friends and how we met each other.

“Now we met in 8th grade,” I said to Joel.

“No we didn’t. We met in 7th grade,” Joel replied.

“No we didn’t. It was 8th grade…pre-algebra class.”

“We got to know each other in 8th grade. We met in 7th grade at the end of the year trip to Hecker Pass.”

After I thought about that for a moment I said “I do remember talking to a boy while I was in line waiting to go on a cheesy roller coaster.”

“Yeah, that was me,” Joel said, smiling. I smiled back in amazement.

Who would have thought that a chance encounter at a cheesy amusement park ride would turn into a wonderful friendship? Looking back, maybe it wasn’t by chance at all. Maybe it was part of God’s plan for us. We could have easily gone on that ride at different times or gone to two different rides. As it was we happened to be in the same line at the same time. Coincidence? Maybe, but I don’t think so.

Joel became one of my best and dearest friends. We participated in various activities together in high school, especially our senior year. We graduated together. After high school, we went to junior college together. Eventually we did go onto separated four year colleges. Despite whatever changes life had in store for us, our friendship always remained. Six years ago Joel passed away. While he may be gone, he is never forgotten and he’s always in my heart. Someday I’m sure we will meet again in heaven. Who knows- maybe there will be a cheesy roller coaster ride there.