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People Explain Which Things Still Give Them A 'Kid In A Candy Store' Feeling

It's easy to forget what true excitement feels like. When you can't contain yourself and your hands start to shake, surging forward with the uncontrollable urge to run, to jump, to do anything but stand still staring at the thing you want. As you grow older those feelings are metaphorically beaten out of you through time, but it can come back occasionally under the right circumstances.


Reddit user, u/takaperoinen-miete, wanted to know:

What gives you that "kid in a candy shop"-feeling?

Seeing The Dusty Alongside The Clean

Giphy

A really good independent bookstore that stocks both new and used books, e.g. Powell's in Portland OR. No feeling like it.

ItAllDepends99

Just Look At All The Art Pens...

When I walk into a hobby shop or art supply place. Just endless possibilities.

KingDuck13

I'm at nightmare at Michael's. Just drop me off and come back in two hours.

VaguelyArtistic

Gotta Find The Good Ones

Thrift stores. Never know what you'll find. People donate some real gems but I especially love finding the bizarre sh-t. Each time feels like a treasure hunt.

secondhandsisters

Wait Till The Overture...

Orchestras. I go starry eyed and it completely blows me away. Its top of my bucket list to go by myself in a beautiful ball gown and see a live orchestra performing all the classics. I've only ever seen them on my phone

Hopewolf115

Oo I do this! It really is something. People have forgotten that these arts encourage a level of decorum and even the workers commend my party on our dress haha

I recommend looking into whatever big city is near you and their concerts or opera or ballet, they have different themes shows and artists every couple weeks. If you only plan on going a couple times, research the concert hall to find the best bang for your buck seat.

CounterintuitivePaw

Glad I'm Not The Only One With An Extended Wish List

Steam sales

pm_me_eu_PSN_keys

I just instabuy whatever is discounted on my wishlist and then proceed to never playing them.

Ivan723

Just Like Calvin Did

The forest. I forage wild foods and find a lot of really old things left behind - like axes, traps, old mining equipment, old cars etc

justmethirty3

Nature is so beautiful, I live on a mountain and our country is shutting down because of coronavirus so I'm just gonna be hiking all the time of the weather is good enough

kiwihavern

Going To The Source

Stores located in the same country as the manufacturer of whatever they sell. For example Yonex is a sports company from Japan, and the stuff they send overseas has much less variety than what they put on the domestic market. So checking out stores in Japan that carry Yonex stuff is an awesome experience, I'm constantly surprised by seeing things that I didn't even know existed.

Not_In_West_England

Lookit All The Good Boy Sneks...

Pet shops.

I get to ogle at all the cool reptiles that I can't own, while buying food for the current cool reptile I do own

stresstive626

I Can Get What I Want!

usually being hungry, and then having money to buy/get what food you want, and you can choose

cracklecougar

It's Sooo Fresh!

Most recently, I walked into a fish market on a wharf in New England. It was one of those places where the boats that caught all that beautiful ocean seafood are tied up on the other side of the shop - like you walk in on the north side of the shop, and the ocean is literally on the other side of the south wall of the shop.

So much beautiful incredibly fresh seafood.

Thirty_Helens_Agree

Seriously. BOOKS, PEOPLE.

This probably marks me as being remarkably lame, but I always get a thrill of excitement when I walk into a certain variety of shop that sells secondhand books.

For as long as I can remember, I've associated stores like that with a feeling of there being magic in the air. Walls lined with leather-bound tomes and yellowed manuscripts have always given me the idea that I might find a spellbook or a compendium of lost secrets, and even though the rational side of my mind knows better than to get carried away, the sense of mysticism-induced enthusiasm has stuck with me.

Mind you, some of that may have been prompted by the specific shop that I visited when I was a kid.

In addition to rare editions of various novels (and so on), there was also a prominently displayed copy of some borderline-pornographic coffee table book, its cover depicting a barely covered woman.

Suffice it to say that I spent quite a bit of time glancing in that direction.

TL;DR: Bookstores make me feel like a kid in a candy shop... for more than one reason.

RamsesThePigeon

It's Like Liquid Adult Candy!

Giphy

Liquor store that has a "build your own 6-pack" with tons of options.

-eDgAR-

I was wondering when someone would say liquor stores. Whenever I see a new one, I spend around 30 minutes browsing each shelf and making sure I analyze everything so I don't miss any bottles in weird places. Never know what you might find.

CthulhuSquid

Historical Events So Ridiculous They Sound Made Up

A Redditor asked: 'What’s an event in history that is so ridiculous it sounds fake?'

historical reenactors
Sigmund on Unsplash

We've probably all heard some variation of the saying "Truth is stranger than fiction."

Real life isn't just strange, it can also be downright ridiculous.

History is riddled with moments of absurdity.

So ridiculous that people have a hard time believing real life is, well, really real.

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person holding photo of three girls near chainlink fence
Anita Jankovic on Unsplash

Life is all about learning new things, including learning new things about the people in your life. Sometimes, the things you learn are shocking, disgusting, or even scary.

I was the new kid in town when I was in fifth grade and my first friend was this quiet (and cute) boy in my class. He and I remained friends through middle school, and even though we drifted apart in high school, our interactions when we ran into each other in the halls or the cafeteria were really nice.

All throughout school and even beyond, he remained quiet, polite, and reserved. Just a few years ago, I read a news article written about him. He had apparently fatally wounded his father after an argument.

I had to reread the article several times to make sure it was really about my old friend. I think about it a lot, and still can't believe it!

I'm not the only one that has a shocking story like that. A lot of Redditors learned shocking or scary things about people from their childhood, and are ready to share.

It all started when Redditor ValuableHovercraft90 asked:

"What's the scariest thing you have found out about someone from your childhood (old friends, teachers, etc)?"

So Creepy

"That the boy who lived across the street and moved when I was 6 is still obsessed with me and my sister 30+ years later and posts ramblings on Facebook with our names and that he's going to be with us. Pretty terrifying honestly."

– mrscrawfish

The Worst List

"A neighbour died when he was 30. Police searched a trailer he owned and found weapons, bombs and a list of people he wanted to kill. My uncle was on that list."

– Flashy_Somewhere_648

"I'm glad this ended the way it did."

– CreepyCandidate4449

Terrifying

"One of my best friends (and locker partner) from high school was kidnapped by terrorists in Iraq. After a nightmare of 6+ months, all went silent. We buried an empty casket in his memory 10 years later."

– francois_du_nord

"This is horrifying. How incredibly sad for family to never get any closure. Very sad to read this. :("

– fizzycherryseltzer

"About 15 years ago my dad received a very good offer for work in Iraq, as a construction specialist. He was considering going, since at the same time the financial crisis started in Europe, but then one of his friends, a civil engineer, was kidnapped. Never returned back either."

– 19lgkrn70

"Same thing for my dad old coworker told him how great the money was. Dude got sniped working on a radio tower or something. My dad luckily was like, "I got a wife and family that would kill me for doing something so dangerous.""

– tristanjones

End Of The Friendship

"One of my dad's good friends, and my "uncle", just stopped coming around one day. I was told he was always busy with work, away, etc."

"Turns out, he killed 3 people in a drug deal gone bad and got life in prison."

"What's scary, is that we were over at his house for a weekend BBQ with a bunch of people earlier in the day of the night he did it, and it happened at his house."

– pnwking509

School Friends

"Don't know if it was scary, but I grew up with a kid whose birthday was the day before mine so we almost always shared birthdays in elementary school. We were friends, even spent the night at his house growing up. Later on in our teens, he started getting into some really dark stuff. I recognize that now as his being a sociopath, but like most everybody else at the time, figured it was just him going through some kind of emo phase. Over the years, we lost touch but I would occasionally run into him around town and our meetings were cordial, if not friendly."

"Last year, he was sentenced to 35 years in prison for killing a man back in 1993, roughly 3 years after we got out of High School. Apparently he, his sister and another man lured this guy out to the boonies and killed him to steal money he had gotten in an insurance settlement."

"The only reason they were caught is the other guy got religion, felt remorse and went on the local TV station and aired a confession before turning himself in (He got 25 to life)."

– 530_Oldschoolgeek

"A girl I went to school with did the same thing. She was the nicest girl, got good grades & was kind of a dork. Mixed with the wrong people after graduation. She and two others lured an old man into an abandoned building, stabbed him and robbed him. He later died from his wounds."

– HereF0rTheSnacks

The Worst Afternoon

"I had a friend in grade school who was being raised by her single dad. She had a unique name and pretty face. She never talked about her mom, and she was super outgoing, so all us kids just made friends with her quickly. It was weird her dad never brought her to our birthday parties, even though she was always invited, but we didn’t think much of it. A couple times, she was allowed to ride the bus home with me after school, and we played and had fun until her dad came to pick her up. Later in the school year, she invited me to ride the bus to her house, and my mom agreed. I was 10. It was the scariest afternoon of my young life. I cannot articulate the extreme tension in her home. We weren’t allowed to make any noise, and we mostly stayed outside, me desperate for my mom to arrive."

"Her dad screamed at us for opening the door, and I was too nervous to go into the house to use the restroom. I knew she was embarrassed that there were no snacks or comforting interactions, like at my house. I didn’t really tell anyone how uncomfortable the experience was. After that day, I didn’t hang out with her a lot. We were in different classes, drifted apart, and decades later, when my own daughter asked to go to a friend’s house, I thought about that girl."

"As an adult, I figured out her dad probably worked a night shift and tried to sleep during the day…or he was an alcoholic who was really angry. Maybe both? I looked her up on social media, and thanks to her unique name and face, I recognized her immediately. She’s a perfectly well-adjusted woman with a beautiful family. She even had pictures of her kids with her dad and tributes to him as the greatest father and grandpa. Her whole page made me wonder what the hell I experienced that afternoon in the 4th grade?"

– OlderAndTired

School Is Supposed To Be Safe!

"In our school, we had something called "de halte." In English, it means "the halt" literally translated. Basically time out. BIf you had a meltdown in class or you were just a little sh*thead, you were sent there for 15 minutes or so to cool off.

The de hatle teacher got fired and jailed for breaking 4 different wrists of 4 different students by bending them the wrong way..."

– Ok_Win7358

*Skin Crawling*

​"There was this classmate a grade below me but all grades shared the same drama class. She was weird and kind of "off." I tried to befriend her at one point and was rebuffed. It later came out that she was actually an almost 30-year-old woman who would show up in a new area claiming to be a 15-year-old runaway. Kind of freaked me out."

jackfaire

It turns out it was a good thing that the friendship didn't work out!