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People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced

People Describe The Absolute Creepiest Thing They've Ever Experienced
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Creepy experiences? This writer has one. I used to get terrible nightmares. Not sure why, probably reading too many mystery and horror novels. This also didn't help my vivid imagination. My dreams were often extremely real, like being trapped in a movie.

One night in my young adult years I stayed the night over to my moms house. She liked Victorian style items and dolls especially. Well this one creepy porcelain-faced doll she usually had sitting on the top of the couch. Not a big deal. Except I slept on the couch that night…



I had a horrible vivid nightmare that night where some "The Ring" style creepy young lady was holding me underwater with her face against mine saying "I'm going to eat your soul". I must have thrashed hard in my sleep because I woke up and the HECKIN DEMON DOLL had fallen onto my face eye to eye with me.

When I say freaked out! To this day I do not want to be in the same room as that doll.

One Redditor asked a serious question wanting to know real-life instances where people were uneasy.

OnlyAnAverageUser asked:

"What's the creepiest thing that you've witnessed or experienced?

The accounts shared might just keep you up at night…

“A couple years ago I was on a ferry leaving a small island off the coast of RI, about an hour long ride in total. It was a cloudy day with some fog but as soon as the ferry departed to take us back the the fog intensified to where we could only see about 50 - 75 yards in front of us."

“I went down to the stern with my dad, we had got some cigars on our trip and the only area where smoking was allowed was down around by the propellers. So we're standing around smoking our cigars, drinkin a beer when we see a guy riding a jet ski in the wake of the ferry."

“Me and my dad both looked at each other in disbelief - why someone would EVER ride a jet ski through open ocean on a day with heavy fog is beyond me. We're watching him dodge through our wake, hitting waves and catching some air, weave in between some of the heavier swells…then all of a sudden he hits a wake at an awkward angle and immediately the jet ski goes one way and he goes another, both disappearing almost instantly into the fog."

“We ran up to go get someone from the crew but apparently they had been watching the guy as well, so as soon as he lost control the crew alerted the captain. The ferry laid on its horn and did a complete 180 turn in order to look for this missing jet skier."

“The fog was still thick but the boat turned around about 1 minute after he fell…we searched for about a half an hour with no sign of either the jet ski or the unfortunate man who was riding it. Eventually the captain announced that we had to go back and the coast guard would continue the search.”

“We made it back to shore and for the next few days/weeks I was constantly checking the local news for anything related to this story however there was nothing…it still keeps me up wondering about the man on the jet ski.”

“Just imaging the horror of being 5 miles from either shore, the panic of trying to look for the jet ski while you're in 3 foot swells, knowing that if you do not find it immediately the current will take it and you are stranded in the middle of the open ocean.”

“But even if you did get lucky and find that jet ski the fog is so thick how would you even know that you're heading in the right direction? You could get back on a ride off into the Atlantic until the jet ski ran out of gas…the open ocean is beautiful but unforgiving and I just hope this guy didn't experience anything like the scenarios I can't stop imagining." odfr

Thank God for their diligent Grandpa…

“When I was about 6 years old, I was at my grandparents house for the weekend. They had a massive garden that I would play in for hours at a time. One day I was out there, out of view of my grandparents and a man climbed over the fence and crouched down behind some planters and was staring at me.”

“I was frozen; because he could see me and he knew I could see him and he just stared at me whilst crouching. He looked scruffy and unhinged and he was scratching his arms. He kissed towards me a few times too and was mumbling to himself.”

“My Grandpa happened to come over, saw me stood there like a statue and then saw the man. He jumped cos it caught him off guard but to my amazement he just sprinted towards the man and tackled him down to the ground. I screamed and my grandma ran outside, and ran back in to call the police.”

“The whole time he was looking at me, literally wouldn't stop staring at me to the point where my grandpa was getting very angry and looked like he was close to choking him or something. The police came super quick and that was that. I'm 30 and it still creeps me the f**k outkicksjoysharkness

A different type of Spidey-sense…

Spider-Man Movie GIF by Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse Giphy

“I worked with woman, who was severely frightened of dogs. She could tell if a dog was around before she could see them. It wasn't super obvious, but once you looked for it you could see it. She would turn around, and stare. A second, or three, a dog would appear.”

“This was all the time. I would see here do that looking, then a dog would be there. Funny dogs didn't like her either. They would be walking along, then freeze when when they seen her. She was twenty two at the time. The dogs always left.” Jmonroe_tenn

​We would have done the same.

“Went hiking up the woods on a highly trafficked trail, but due to being end of winter there was still some snow towards the end that didn't get used much. Being a strong hiker and having my husky, I figured we'd plow through anyways to reach the peak overlook and head down after that."

“As we were approaching the big bend to the view point, my dog started to stop and trying to turn around. I kept going a little bit, but she kept resisting and her hackles when up."

“ As soon as that happened my heart dropped and I started to get freaked out and as soon as I turned around to walk the other way my dog growled and started to run the way we came, and you bet I followed. Not sure what was out there, or if she,(being the weirdo she is), just wanted to turn around, but I haven't been that scared in a long time, and I hike with my pistol." mrdrjrl

A midnight intruder or a ghostly surprise?

“Mine is actually super funny but at the time it scared the sh*t out of me. I was working as a live-in companion for an elderly woman, helping with her errands and some medical needs. Mostly she just shouldn't be living alone but she refused to go into a nursing home so her kids paid me to spend a few hours with her at night keeping her company and then sleeping in the guest bedroom and being there when she woke."

“Easy job. Hurricane Matthew hits us and the power goes out. I get up to pee, the hallway is pitch-black, lightening is flashing, I'm trying not to let my irrational mind flare up. I'm about halfway down the hallway when I hear a female voice talking very fast just down the hall at the darkest end."

“I scream and run into the bathroom and lock the door. I don't know what I was thinking because a lock isn't going to keep a ghost out and if it were an intruder then they'd know I was awake and where I was and that I knew they were there. Either way, I was convinced locking myself in the bathroom was the smartest thing to do."

“First thing I do after I lock the door is pee because I practically wet myself when the voice started. And then I called the name of the old lady but she didn't answer because she's hard of hearing. So, I was basically all alone with either a ghost or a fast-talking lady robber and locked in the damn bathroom."

“I must have stayed in the bathroom for half an hour waiting for something to happen, hearing nothing outside but the sound of wind and thunder and rain. I was convinced there was something or someone standing on the other side of the door waiting to strike. I was also so sleepy and just wanted to go back to bed."

The spooky saga continued…

The old lady never had guests because her kids all lived within a few miles of her house so the bathroom didn't have anything decorative, just a ceramic soap dispenser so I picked it up and braced it as a bludgeon and opened the door. I ran as fast as I could back to my room and shut myself in, clutching the soap dispenser and waiting for whoever had been talking to come and get me."

Ten minutes later I hear the creak of a door down the hall and the sound of shuffling footsteps getting closer and I just prepared myself to hurtle that damn soap dispenser at whatever dared come into my room. The knob turns, the door starts to creep open, a strange yellow light flooding in. I screamed like the little b*tch I was and started begging not to die."

“It was the old lady with a flash light. She'd woken up to pee and noticed the power was off so she wanted to check on me and make sure I was okay. We both just collapsed on the bed laughing our @sses off. When we'd calmed down I told her I'd been terrified for the last hour because I heard a woman talking somewhere near her bedroom right after the power went off."

“The old lady started laughing again and told me that was her LifeAlert Home Security System letting her know the power had gone off and if she needed assistance to use her Alert necklace to summon police, fire, or medical. And, I was going to kill it with a soap dispenser in the shape of a f**king fish." carmelacorleone

These Actors Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The Role | George Takei’s Oh Myyy

The Actors Who Seemed Miscast But Absolutely Nailed The RoleFew people bought into the idea of Bryan Cranston in the role of Walter White before Breaking Bad...

Laughter from the dead…

“2am very distinctly could hear my grandad (86) and mum (48) who have both passed away in 2019 laughing happily from the front room and talking, I couldn't afford to have them buried so their urns are both in the front room. I am not the only one to feel activity since I brought urns home."

“Don't get me wrong it is nice to think of them pain-free together again and happy and hearing them was nice but at 2am in the dark going to the toilet it did make me jump." CursedFamilyTree

Grandmother came to them in a dream…

“Sleepwalking - sort of. One night I had a very vivid dream about my grandmother. I cannot remember all the details (I was 10), but the lasting image I have is of her sitting in ‘her’ chair in our living room, with her favourite cup of tea and a digestive biscuit.”

“She only spoke to say ‘Don't worry George. All is well’. I woke up crying and was found by mum standing in the living room, alone, having sleepwalked there I guess.”

“Needless to say, next morning during breakfast mum received the obvious phone call and whilst talking on the phone I just blurted out ‘It's okay mum, Grandma's happy’. She had died in the night of course.”

“You hear stories like this a lot, so they've become a bit of a tired old cliché - but I experienced it personally and it makes me wonder just how such cliché's come about in the first place!” VorlonKing

The creepiest part is that any point someone could have said something!

“Former hotel maid here. Worked at kind of mid nice place in the northeast. In summertime, all tourists and families on vacation, kids playing in pool, happy fun times. In winter, mostly business men on conferences, and women who um, provide them companionship. Sometimes a sex worker would have her own room rented and would work out of it.. we always put them at the end of a hall near exits so we didn't have to see their clients come through the lobby."

“As long as they were discreet and stripped their own sheets none of us staff had a problem with it. One winter there is a girl working out of the floor above me. I see her a few times. She's petite and quiet, probably 30ish, sad looking thing really. A few days into her stay I hear her in the stairwell crying and blubbering something like 'I don't have it, he never gave it to me, no I don't have it!'"

“So I popped my head over the stairwell and say 'hon are you okay, do you need to be let into your room?' She says no and she's sorry, goes outside through the exit. I continue on my cleaning. There was a family staying on my floor, mom and three teenagers, and I was refreshing the linens for them a day or so later."

“The mom is sobbing and wiping her face when I come in. 'I can't stop thinking about that poor girl up there! They worked her over so bad..' apparently she saw the girl that morning and her face was all beaten up and swollen. Broke this sweet momma's heart. I hugged her and I promised to try to leave that girl some numbers for DV resources or something and encourage her to call the cops."

“I didn't see her again though. Few days after that I finished up my floor early and went up to make a few beds for the maid on upper floor. The girls room was a check out, the maid had already been through and gathered the trash and pulled the sheets. But holy f**k, the whole room smiled strongly of bleach. We didn't use bleach, wasn't on our carts at all. But I see three gallons of off-brand bleach sitting with the trash collection."

"The bathroom is streaky with the stuff, and the mattress is wet. The whole mattress. That's sketchy as sh*t and I said as much to the maid I was helping, who just shrugged. She was kinda sketchy herself and definitely wouldn't report anything that would have her talking to management or the police. But I couldn't let it go."

"I asked the front desk when the girl left and they looked up the time. It was super easy to access the security video from the computers so we looked at the lobby video. A woman in a hoodie, sunglasses, and a big rolling suit case. Just judging her height from the counter she stood at, I don't think it was the sex worker. Too tall, and body too wide even in a hoodie. I have no proof of this but I'm literally convinced they chopped that girl up in the room, cleaned with bleach, and put her in that ridiculously huge suitcase." - user deleted

We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."

“A couple years ago when my wife and I had just started dating, I got her a vinyl album of one of her favorite artists for her birthday and we listened to it on her record player that used to belong to her grandmother that passed away a few years prior to us meeting."

“A couple nights later my at the time girlfriend(now wife) woke up and said that she could hear music. I couldn't hear anything but just brushed it off and said it's probably just somebody out in their car playing their music really loud or something like that, but she said that it was coming from the living room and it sounded like country music. I tried as hard as I could but I couldn't hear any music and I started to feel like I was in a horror movie where the wife always hears and sees stuff but the husband doesn't."

“We walked out to the living room and she said that now it sounded like the music is coming from the bedroom and I was really starting to get scared at this point. We go back in the bedroom and then I could faintly hear music playing and I told her I could hear it too and we both we were so scared about wtf was going on. We both said a quiet prayer on our own and it stopped."

“Sometime after this we looked at the record player that belonged to her grandmother, it was a multifunctional one that played records; cd's; radio; and auxiliary, and we opened the CD player and there was a country music CD in there, I can't remember what singer it was though. The weird thing is, is that the record player was off and we had it on the record player mode so it wouldn't have been playing the CD anyway. We're still not sure what exactly happened but we think maybe it was her grandmother trying to say hello. Either way we have not used the record player since then." BlueShoe15

Nothing to see here…

“I know this is late and will get buried but when I was 8 my parents rented a cabin in the woods. On one of the days, I and my brother are playing a game or something in the rain. At one point in the game, my brother points towards what appears to be a figure dragging a bag through the woods. As we're watching this, he turns and looks. We don't break eye contact for a good 30 seconds. He continues dragging the bag."

“After we can't see him anymore, we both ran back into the cabin. We were both too young to understand. I realized what it was a couple of years later. This was 11 years ago. I asked my brother when I was writing this and he doesn't even remember. I try not to think about it cause it creeps me the f**k out and I wish I realized what was happening back then" Wild-Ad-3471

Creepy but also funny. Thought it might make you all laugh. My BF at the time (now husband) and I had not long moved in together and been burgled we were staying in the rented house still till we could move back in with my folks (stayed one night, as the landlord said they'd fix the door that day but didn't and we ended up with a piece of ply over the door screwed into a post )."

“He wakes me up in the middle of the night ashen faceted telling me I was "writhing on the bed yelling that someone was in the house". He goes on to explain "you didn't sound like you". I have no recollection, shrug it off as him having a bad dream. Move back into my folks house with my OH and I wake up to the bath taps running and a pillow in the bath about a month later - Weird but I shrug it off as some sort of drunken thing as my OH had been to a stag do that night and returned home after I fell asleep."

“A few months after that my mum wakes up to the gas hob on and a pan of water boiling on it. (She didn't tell me this till later).She starts locking the doors at night again, something she didn't do for a while - "just in case". Nothing else happens for about four years.​“

​“We buy our own place and move in. OH wakes up to me kneeling by the side of the bed shaking from side to side with my hands clasped in front of me on the bed as if I am praying. He asks me what I'm doing. In a deep gravelly voice I reply "spinning". So he tells me to "Go back to sleep spinning is finished"."

“I climb back into bed and start talking gibberish. He grabs his phone a tries to record me as he knows I won't believe him. My eyes snap open and snap at him "Don't record me!" He stops, rolls over and tries to sleep all with me still staring until I star snoring about 5 mins later."

Here's the thing, up until the last one I never recalled even dreaming and so never believed him. He tells me what happened and shows me the brief video and my mum who's round for tea wets herself laughing. Apparently I used to sleep walk when I was little but it stopped when I was about 10."

I've always talked in my sleep and it's "always been a little demonic sounding, which is why the kids at school stopped inviting me to sleep overs" - cheers. The thing is, I remember my dream from that night, I dreamt I was at the gym doing a spin class and that had to leave to do the round ball balance things (you can tell I'm not a guy goer) as in my dream the press were following me!"

“After that I told some.old friends, who laughed and said "we thought you knew, you slept walked a couple of times at uni". So yeah, creepy demonic style sleep walking is my thing." cpb21

No one wants to be next to the haunted room…

“I used to live in a house that I am 100% sure was haunted. All the creepy things that happened in that house were centered around the guest bedroom. Can you guess who's room it was right next to?"

“One night (I think I was 13 or 14 when this happened), I was awoken in the middle of the night to a sound I couldn't entirely discern the origin of. It took me a moment of waking up to realize it was the sound of a small child crying. And it was coming from the guest bedroom."

“It went on for a few minutes before I just couldn't stay awake any longer and just passed out. Nobody believes me when I say that this house was haunted, but I knew what I heard. And this wasn't the only incident either."Faulty_Cyanide

Not an ok choice…

​“When I was in first grade (I'm 27 now), for some reason the teacher put on… like a documentary or something. I don't know why she would have done this, but I distinctly remember it was about some tribe of people, I can't remember where."

“All I can remember is the scene that really haunted me. A woman in the tribe had cheated on her husband, and was sentenced her to death for it. I can specifically remember they wrapped a rope around her neck & pulled on both sides until she died, and then lowered her body into the ground in a sh*tty wooden box."

Every time I bring it up I'm told that "there's no way a teacher in the first grade would've shown something like that to you" and that I'm "probably misremembering things." And maybe they're right, I mean, why would a first grade teacher show her students something like that? But… I remember it so clearly. So vividly. They choked that poor woman to death on camera." PineappleLubricant

​Who’s voice was it?

“While I was in the shower talking to myself, I said something along the lines of "who would even break into my house?". Then I heard a voice saying "hello". And that made me freak out. Once I was out of the shower I went to every room were I thought I heard the voice from. But I found nothing, I didn't think of the voice I heard the voice. So that is my creepy experience with a voice."​MainStaffMan

​A barn poltergeist perhaps?

“Was helping my grandpa throw some small square bales as a 10 year old the stack shifted and it fell with me I fell between the bale spikes on the bed of the truck and was pinned for about 5 minutes while he dug me out it fell perfect where I wasn't crushed suffocated or impelled. That was the first time I ever actually saw my grandpa in a sheer panic it was creepy it was like the barn pushed the bales I always had an eerie feeling in that barn after that few years later it burned to the ground we never could figure out how it fell in the way it did." j-twoxd

How about you? What's the creepiest thing you've ever experienced. Let us know in the comments.

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People Who Wouldn't Quit Their Job If They Won The Lottery Explain What They Do

Reddit user BITE_AU_CHOCOLAT asked: 'People who wouldn't quit their job even if you won the lottery, what's your job?'

lottery tickets
Erik Mclean on Unsplash

A lot of workers daydream about some day winning the lottery and being able to say goodbye to their job.

Far too many workers are unhappy with their job duties, workplace dynamics or company culture.

But with a taste for luxuries like housing and food, they keep plugging away, year after year.

However not everyone feels that way about their job.

So what are these compelling careers?

Keep reading... Show less
Therapist talking during session
Photo by Mark Williams on Unsplash

Some people stand firmly stand behind their beliefs that everyone would benefit from therapy and that therapy is life-changing.

It's because of the totally life-changing truth bombs their therapist had dropped during their sessions.

Curious, Redditor anonymiss0018 asked:

"What is a little bombshell your therapist dropped in one of your sessions that completely changed your outlook?"

Communication Issues

"'If you don’t have these problems with any other person in your life, why do you think you’re the problematic person in this one?'"

- maggiebear

"I love this. I have a 'friend' who I always seem to run into misunderstandings with. Every time we had a conversation, it somehow turned into a debate even if it was me talking about my day. The conversations were never easy."

"I always evaluate myself first and take into consideration his critiques. He was very good at convincing me that I was contradicting myself or wasn't good at communicating my thoughts."

"I NEVER had this issue with ANYONE else in my life. I kept trying to figure out where the miscommunication was coming from. In the end, I just minimized contact and now I don't run into this issue."

- chobani_yo

"I read this quote somewhere once (and probably have it a bit wrong): 'It's a waste of time arguing with someone who is determined to misunderstand you.'"

- Reddit

Emotional Regulation

"'You can’t control your emotions, but you can control what you do with them.'"

"At the time, I was a young adult who had learned zero healthy emotional regulation skills (only suppression and shaming) growing up, so this blew my mind."

- lil_mermaid

Tough Relationships

"'It sounds to me like you are trying to convince yourself to stay with your girlfriend. I'm not so sure it should be so difficult.'"

"At the time he said this, I remember it was like he said, 'The earth is flat.' I thought he was crazy when he suggested relationships don't need to be difficult. But eventually, I started to realize I was trying to change myself to stay with this person rather than just being who I am."

"It took me three more months to finally break up with her but from that day on, I vowed to never again abandon myself just to be with someone I had convinced myself was better than me."

- metric88

High-Stress Situation

"I was at a high-stress time, and I asked her how people live like this."

"She replied, 'Oftentimes they have cardiac events.' She said it as an urging to care for myself as much as possible."

- KittenGr8r

The End of Alcohol

"I was struggling with my alcoholism, and we were discussing how I had been cutting back."

"She asked what I would consider success, with regard to my drinking."

"I said I wanted to get to a point where it wasn't interfering with my daily life. I wanted to just be able to have a glass of wine at holiday dinners or family gatherings."

"She simply asked me why. Why was it important for me to drink at those times?"

"It was as if she'd turned on a light. Alcohol had always been a key ingredient in every family function, for my entire life. When I smell bourbon, I think of my uncle. When I smell vermouth, I think of my dad. Alcohol ran through almost every happy childhood memory."

"But, even more than that, I was very afraid of the explanation I'd have to give when family and friends asked why I wasn't having a drink. I had tried to quit before but failed. What if I admitted my problem, only to fall off the wagon?"

"When she asked why I didn't want to completely quit, it was the first time I saw that last part of the big picture. I'd be willing to drink myself to death in order to avoid being scrutinized, or judged for possible future failures."

"That was the day I quit. I've been sober since May 6th, 2017. 2,407 days."

- sophies_wish

Acceptance vs. Enjoyment

"'Accepting something doesn’t mean you have to like it.'"

"That took away a lot of my inner conflicts about situations because I could accept a situation without expending energy internally fighting against the injustice of it."

- alibelloc

Emotionally Immature Parents

"You are not responsible for your parents' emotional wellbeing. They are independent adults who have been on this earth for many more years than you."

- SmokedPears

Not So Lazy

"'Why do you think you're lazy?' Then she listed off all the things she knows I'm doing for my family, my job, and my life."

"It kind of blew my mind when I struggled to come up with an example."

"She also described family dysfunction as water. Some families are messed up in a way that everyone can see the huge waves across the surface. Others are better at hiding it, but there's still a riptide that you can't see unless you're also in the water."

"It made me realize that trying to keep the surface from ever rippling doesn't erase what is happening underneath."

- flybyknight665

The Harm in People-Pleasing

"'Why do you make people more comfortable when you are uncomfortable?' when talking about people pleasing and fawning."

- ERsandwich

Agree to Disagree

"'Stop trying to get everyone to agree. When you need everyone to agree, the least agreeable person has all the power.'"

This really changed my outlook on planning family events."

- freef

Grieve and Start Anew

"For context, I had a major TBI (traumatic brain injury), seizures, strokes, and all around not a fun brain time when I was 28."

"They said, 'You have to grieve the loss of yourself.'"

"Most people wanted me to go back to how I was. The f**ked up truth is that part of my brain is dead. The person everyone (including myself) knew died. I needed to grieve the loss of myself."

- squeaktoy_la

Multifaceted Identity

"They told me that my job and career is just a way to make money; it's not my life or identity. That took a lot of pressure off me."

- unfairpegasus

Breaking the Cycle

"They validated me."

"'You always talk about not wanting to do to your daughters what your mom did to you. You worry about it so much in every interaction you have ever had with them."

"But your children are 19 and 21 now. They are happy and healthy and they trust you because you’ve never abused them in any way. So I just want to validate for you that you really have broken that cycle of violence."

"You did that. And you should be proud of it. I’m proud of you for it.'"

- puppsmcgee74

The Grieving Process

"I was constantly bringing up how I felt like a completely different person after my mom died... like there was a marked difference between before and after her death."

"But once, she was asking about my hobbies, I got really into describing all the things I loved to do or at least used to do before I got into a deep depression."

"She was like, 'Wow, you seem very passionate.'"

"And I just sat there like, 'Well, I mean, I can't change what I like to do, they're still fun to do.'"

"And it's like she knew when to take a step back, because it was like, wow, I may be super depressed about my mom passing, but I'm still me. I'm still my passions and those don't go away."

"I don't know, maybe it only makes sense to be, but it really started getting me back on track."

- Hannibal680

Sharing the Load

"I've never really had friends. I've had colleagues and classmates and housemates and people who have hung out with me, but I never really felt close to any of them."

"And I did that thing you see on here sometimes; I stopped reaching out to see if I would be reached out to, and I wasn't, which I took as confirmation that they didn't really want me around, or at the very least, that they wouldn't mind my absence."

"I was talking to my therapist about people I'd been close to in college, and she told me to pick one and talk about him. So I did. After I shared some basic stuff like his name and his major etc., and a couple of anecdotes, she asked me what else I knew about him."

"And I couldn't answer. It wasn't really a broadly applicable bombshell, but she said, 'What else?' and I started crying because I realized that for as simple as the question was, my inability to answer spoke volumes."

"I've never had good friends because I've never been a good friend. I'm withdrawn and reserved and I always made others do the work to drag me out, without ever extending my own friendship in a meaningful way in return. If I wanted to have meaningful relationships with other people, I would have to build them."

"I'm still working on this, but I'm trying to make more offers and extend more friendliness to others in my daily life."

- Backupusername

The discoveries in this thread were incredibly touching and profound; it's no wonder these were lasting concepts for these Redditors.

It's important to keep ourselves open to inspiration and insights from others, as we have no idea how their experiences could help us, or how we could help them.

Aerial view of a church in a small town
Sander Weeteling/Unsplash

There's something comforting about living in a small town.

It's characterized by close communities where neighbors know each other by name and there is an abundance of kindness extended to others.

Gift-giving is a commonality, as is the sharing of recipes, and people going out of their way to help each other in a time of need.

The pace of living in small towns is also a striking contradiction to city life, where crowds of people go about their busy lives without much interaction.

Curious to hear more examples of what small town living is like, Redditor official_biz asked:

"What's the most 'small town' thing you've witnessed?"

These are positive examples of a tight-knit community.

Live Updates

"We have a village Facebook page. Every time the ice cream man drives into the village, the entire page goes ballistic. People send live updates of where the van is and which direction he's heading. The ice cream man has started accepting DMs so he knows which streets to go down."

– PyrrhuraMolinae

Brush With The Law

"I’m from a town of less than 2,000 people. When I worked at the grocery store there people would often drop off stuff for my family members because they didn’t want to drive all the way down to our house. I no longer live there but recently got a call from my daughter. She had been stopped for speeding and handed over her license and insurance which happens to be in my mother’s name. The officer goes 'Hey, you’re Donnie’s granddaughter! I ain’t gonna write you a ticket but I’m telling Donnie when I see him tomorrow cause we’re going fishing.' She replied 'I think I’d rather have the ticket.'”

- Reddit

Roadside Catchup

"The traffic on the 'main street' of my town is so sparse, two drivers going opposite directions can stop and talk to each other for a few minutes without causing any problem."

– anon

When things go wrong, people take notice without incident.

Bank Robbery

"A guy robbed a bank and everyone knew immediately who he was and the teller got mad at him."

– AlexRyang

"A local bank was robbed and one of the tellers told the police to bring her a yearbook from about ten years earlier and she would be able to point the robber out. He had been in the grade before hers in school."

– Strict_Condition_632

Wise Woman

"When I worked at the bank in town there was an older lady that had worked there through 5 mergers."

"She knew everyone, there was a young guy yelling at me one day. She walked out of the back and he immediately quieted. She went off about telling his grandmother that he was treating young women like sh*t. She also said that if he didn’t straighten up not one girl in town would ever marry him she would make sure of it."

– ilurvekittens

Intoxicated Local

"Town drunk was paralyzed and used a motorized wheelchair to get around. I was driving home one Saturday night and said town drunk was passed out in his wheelchair doing circles almost directly in the town square. Had to call his brother who came and picked him up on a rollback truck. Strapped him down and drove off into the cold dark night."

– DoodooExplosion

Grazing Over To The Bar

"In my former small town, there was an older guy who'd lost his license after getting a few DUIs. Every day, he would ride his John Deere lawnmower to the corner bar around 3PM and sit around watching TV and sipping his beer well into the night. Then he'd head the couple miles back home on his mower. He even had a little canvass shell he put on when it rained or got too cold."

– brown_pleated_slacks

It's not surprising how small town people behave differently than those who are from metropolitan areas.

Welcoming Committee

"I lived in a small town. When I moved there, people would ask, 'Whose house did you buy?'"

–MoonieNine

"Move to a small town. 30 years later, you are still the new guy."

– impiousdrifter

"I lived in a small town for most of my childhood but I wasn't "from there" because my grandparents weren't from there."

– raisinghellwithtrees

"Worked with an older guy, relative of the owner of the business, he was 73. I asked him if he was a local, he said 'no his parents moved here when he was two.'"

– realneil

A Busy Day

"Lived in a town of about 5,000: A woman walked into the DMV on a Friday, saw that there were 3 people ahead of her and left to come back another time when they weren't so busy."

– KenmoreToast

Who Let The Dogs Out?

"My dogs got out while i was working. the police called my niece's elementary school (she was a 5th grader) to get her to round them up and take them back home."

– mediocrelpn

"There was a small kennel behind the police station for runaways. They called us saying they had our dog, and moments later our dog showed up home. He broke out of jail."

– Worried_Place_917

While life in a small town sounds appealing, I don't know if I can ever live in one.

I'm so used to life in big cities, I think it would be quite unnerving to adjust in a neighborhood where everyone literally knows your business.

I would be paranoid.

And I'm sure the same could be said of life in the big city.

Would you consider making the switch to life in a different setting?

Two women laughing
Photo by Dave George on Unsplash

Every now and then, a friend of ours might say something, or we might overhear a complete stranger say something that makes us stop in our tracks.

More often than not, what we can't believe we just heard is something so ridiculous, we can't help but put the person who said it in their place.

Other times, however, what we just heard might have stunned us silent because of how shockingly clever it was.

Resulting in our not wanting to scold or yell at someone, but rather give them a handshake.

Redditor SubmergingOriginal was curious to hear the sharpest and wittiest things they've ever heard, from friends and strangers alike, leading them to ask:

"Enough with the dumbest; what is the wittiest thing you've ever heard someone say?"

Don't Give Me So Much Credit...

'I was on a team at work that was on a project working insane overtime."

"One night after an 80-90 hour week, we were all sitting around the table trying to finish up so we could go home."

"Around 11, my buddy's wife called, dubious about the hours he'd been keeping."

"We heard her through the line - 'are you cheating on me?'"

"Exasperated, he looked at our boss, then replied 'honey, if I was cheating on you, I would have been home by now'."- lionbatcher

Eternal Optimism...

"Asked a blind guy if he'd been blind his whole life."

"He said 'Not yet'."- Feeling_Mode_6465

Free time Isn't The Only Thing He Has On His Hands...

"My brother got a vasectomy and when the doctor was releasing him and giving him instructions (with the nurse listening in), one of the orders was to 'come back and have a follow-up appointment after you’ve ejaculated 30 times'.”

"Without missing a beat my brother asked 'what time do you open tomorrow?'”

"The nurse couldn’t keep it together after hearing that."- UtahUtopia

Awkward Season 8 GIF by The Office Giphy

Double Whammy!

"My pal uses the phrase 'he doesn’t look strong enough to carry information' and it cracks me up every time."

"Calling someone stupid and weak in one fell swoop."- JennyW93

Can't Hide Your DNA...

'Whenever I jokingly insult my mum, she says 'that must be where you get it from'."

"She cracked the code."

"I can never offend her without offending myself."- JennyW93

Self-Sufficient!

"My brother was a line cook at a New Orleans restaurant."

"My mom was in town, staying at a fancy hotel, and he stopped by after work, still wearing his kitchen whites."

"He was reading a newspaper in the lobby waiting for her to come down when the shocked lobby manager sputtered at him, 'MAY I HELP YOU!?!?'

"He answered, 'thanks, but I know how to read',” and went back to his paper."- jobrody

Morph Current Affairs GIF by Aardman Animations Giphy

A Miracle!

"My brother-in-law’s comment."

"The entire family went out for my mother’s 80th birthday and after the meal we all went to a local park, largely occupied by the elderly, to rest."

"My mother needed crutches at this point, and they were resting against her bench."

"My 10-year-old niece, who looked like every starving waif image from Dickens, grabbed the crutches and started hobbling round the park."

"All the OAPs were following her progress with looks of pity until my brother ran up behind her, and kicked away the crutches."

"There was an audible gasp from round the park and then my niece picked the crutches back up and started chasing my brother, clearly intending to hit him."

"In the confused silence my brother-in-law’s voice rang out 'Praise be! She can walk again!'"

"We still think this was the highlight of the birthday celebrations."- DdraigGwyn

Still Legal, Whichever Way You Cut It...

"I picked up my pleasantly tipsy boyfriend from a nightclub."

"We were stopped by the Police for a random breath test."

"They asked me my age, and I said, 33."

"My bf blurted out '33? You told me you were 22'."

"Police just laughed and let me go."- Aggravating-Corgi379

Music Video Police GIF by Andrew W. K. Giphy

A Bit Too On The Nose?

"Business law class in college years ago, talking about the issues that black Americans had before the Civil Rights."

"Amendment, trying to travel through the south with the discrimination so rampant, trying to find restaurants to serve them and decent lodgings."

"My instructor was posing a hypothetical: 'So you pull up out front of this place, you're exhausted from driving for hours, and you see the sign out front says 'Ku Klux Klan Motel'."

"'What would you expect to find there?'"

"Without missing a beat, from the back of the room came this gem: "'Extra sheets in every room?'"- NedsAtomicDB

Not Yet, Anyway...

"I was working with my friend and his dad."

"My friend (26) heard an ice cream truck near where we were working."

"He asked his dad if he could have a couple dollars."

"His dad asked, 'what for?'"

"My friend told his dad that there was an ice cream truck in the neighborhood, and that they were playing music."

"My friends dad told him "'They don't charge anything to listen to the music'."- tatersalad1234567890

Words Escape You In The Literal "Heat" Of The Moment...

"A friend of mine is a teacher and her husband is known for his wit."

"She told this story to him:"

"One day at school a kid took the hall pass and returned reeking like smoke."

"She asked the kid if he’d been smoking and he denied it over and over."

"She was about to send him to the office when she noticed smoke coming from somewhere."

"She told the kid and he realized that he didn’t put his cig out completely and it was burning in his pants pocket."

"The kid noticed and frantically tried to put it out and someone finally poured water on it."

"Her husband sat listening to this with a weird look on his face."

"She asked him what was wrong."

“'What’s wrong???'"

"'This was probably the only chance you’ll have in your life to say literally, ‘liar,liar, pants on fire’ and you missed your chance'."- Luder714

On Fire No GIF by PEEKASSO Giphy

Amazing What You Might Say A Few Drinks In...

"When I went to a renaissance faire once, I went to a beer tent and ordered a Newcastle Brown Ale (seemed the most fitting for the surroundings)."

"The beer wench, without skipping a beat, said, 'Everyone wants a Newcastle - no one wants to remodel!'"- jayhof52

Read The Room People!

"My dad wiped out when skiing down a mountain and lost a ski."

"After a few minutes of hunting for it, he gives up, slings the one remaining ski over a shoulder and starts walking down the mountain in his ski boots."

"About half-way down, another skier stops and goes 'Gee! Did you lose a ski?'"

"My dad instantly replied 'No, I was out for a walk and found one!'"- PeterJoAl

There's a reason your mother always told you to "use your words".

As clever remarks can have a much more lasting effect on people than a push or shove.