Life can be pretty frightening sometimes.
And anything can happen: Accidents. Deaths. Other traumatizing experiences.
Believe it or not, everyone has a story. It's worth remembering that when you deal with total strangers.
But it's difficult for some people to open up compared to others. We get it though—why would you want to remember some horrible memory?
Nevertheless, people were kind enough to share with us after Redditor relaxito asked the online community:
"What is the scariest thing you have witnessed with your own eyes?"
"I woke up..."
"I woke up and saw a shadow man run then jump at me while I was in bed. I was so struck with fear I was unable to move but he disappeared right before he landed. The memory was so terrifying I still remember it nearly 30 years later."
BW_Bird
Wow!
The things we see as kids, real or imagined, can really traumatize us.
"One night I woke up..."
"One night I woke up to yelling and crashing and walked into the living room to see my dad fistfighting a complete stranger. He beat the absolute sh*t out of him and threw him down the stairs into our unfinished basement and locked the door since that was the only way in or out of there and called the police."
"Guy thought nobody was home and decided to try to burglarize the place and walked around the corner and bumped right into my dad in the dark who was half asleep on his way to the bathroom."
Victor117
Thankfully you all survived!
Having an intruder walk in is scary.
"I was trying to nap..."
"I was in a bus that crashed into a house. I was trying to nap after a late-night flight when suddenly the bus shook, so I opened my eyes and saw us going off the road, knocking down a small tree and then colliding with a house."
"There was a strong smell of gas, so we thought the bus was going to explode. We all had to get out through the fire escape window, and I cut my hand on broken glass when I landed. Thankfully the bus did not explode and everyone got out with only minor injuries."
"Nobody was home in the house either."
Lewa263
It's good to hear that no one was seriously injured or killed!
"Forty years ago..."
"Forty years ago I got home very drunk late at night. The police had my house staked out waiting for me and tackled me in the driveway and took me to jail for burglary that they accused me of."
"Spent three days in jail before they figured out that I was innocent and just cut me loose about an hour from my home without my wallet which they still had at the county jail that I was originally booked into. Didn't have a cent on me but I was sure happy to be out."
This is terrifying.
The feeling of powerlessness must have been immense.
"It took me years..."
"When I was around 9 years old, I was on vacation with my mom. The hotel gave our room key, in the middle of the night, to some random man claiming it was his room. Luckily the chain was drawn, but the man was very drunk and stood there yelling into the room."
"It took me years before I would stay in a hotel again."
ChocoboToes
This must have been so scary to experience as a child and I can't say anyone would blame you.
"Arrived at an accident..."
"Arrived at an accident about 30 seconds after it occurred. A friend of mine was driving and rolled the car, she was thrown clear (no seatbelt - wear them FFS!) and hit a tree."
"I found her, did first aid and helped the paramedics lift her onto the stretcher and into the ambulance. Her body stopped functioning about a week later but it's pretty obvious she died there (massive brain trauma), it just took a while for the end."
Flight19Navigator
Sorry for your loss.
Thankfully you were able to be there for your friend.
Wearing a seatbelt saves lives.
"Was so strange."
"Saw the aftermath of a teenager who fell at a skate rink and hit her head on a concrete step that surrounded the skating surface. Dead right there. Ambulance came, carted her off. Then everyone started skating again. Was so strange."
9600_PONIES
Surreal!
I think I would have left after seeing something like that.
"Within 15 minutes..."
"Saw an old man slip and die at a bus stop in Portland early in the morning when I was a teenager. That was sad, but what really shook me was the way he was picked up by an ambulance, the sidewalk was washed off, and they left. Within 15 minutes people were occupying that space waiting for a bus, and it was like it had never happened."
Oozie_Nahs
Life goes on.
It's wild to think about.
It's a bit unnerving to know that something terrible could happen and life would continue with most people being none the wiser.
"At a job I used to work at..."
"At a job I used to work at, my boss had a heart attack in his office and died in the middle of the shift. The office lights were motion activated so we thought he left to go something as it was dark. I went into the office to get a new radio and there he was, leaned back in his chair with his eyes wide open. Scariest thing I've ever seen."
PunchlineHappy
That must have been so horrifying to witness, especially once the lights turned on.
"I was living..."
"I was living in Naples, Italy and got off a train to see someone shoot a man feet away from me. I’ll never forget the woman who was with them screaming."
Itsconosciuto
Horrifying.
I can only imagine and admit I am curious about the aftermath.
Everyone around you?
They have a story.
They've SEEN some stuff. Remember that next time you're out in public. You never know what others have experienced.
Have some stories of your own? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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You've probably heard intuition described in a number of different ways.
It can be likened to a "gut feeling" or "a little voice in your head" and you've likely been told to listen to it when it speaks.
Why?
Because it can get you out of trouble, most likely.
Intuition has been defined as the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning, and it's saved people more than once.
People shared their most impactful experiences with their intuition after Redditor throwawaystheway asked the online community:
"What has been your most spine-tingling, bone-chilling, 'I have a bad feeling about this' experience? What happened?"
"I was walking to get groceries..."
"I was walking to get groceries and expecting a message from my gf with a shopping list. Felt a phantom vibration from my phone, stopped for a second to check it and right then a chunk of ice the size of a grapefruit smashed into the street directly in front of me, where my head would have been."
ToxicosisJones
Ice is terrifying – I narrowly missed getting clobbered on the head by a piece of ice once myself.
It freaks you out!
"One week later..."
"Me and my friends were waiting for a bus when a group of guys came along. One asked us for a dollar (which we gave him) and then they just stayed to chat."
"They were perfectly nice, but all 3 of us had a really bad feeling. They asked us if we wanted to come to a party with them, we said oh no thanks, gotta get home."
"One week later, one of the guys was on the front page of the newspaper. He had just been released from prison for stabbing someone, and had done it again that night."
lorealashblonde
Thankfully you listened to your intuition and got out of there!
Terrifying.
"The one that was the most impactful..."
"The one that was the most impactful was the time everything in my body was telling me to go see a sick friend. They’d been diagnosed with cancer, and it wasn’t looking great, but last time we spoke they were getting by. I sat at my desk, gritting my teeth, and then went ‘f*ck it,' and bolted from work."
"In a house full of people, I was the only one with them when they passed."
Teacher_too
Hopefully the fact that you were able to be with them gave you some closure.
"I was solo backpacking..."
"I was solo backpacking within Inyo National Forest, I had just set up camp and was walking beyond this lake and up above the tree line. After walking about a quarter mile up this meadow the hairs on my neck began to stick straight up, instant chills."
"Didn’t know what reason but the gut reaction was enough for me to return to camp. Next morning on the way back to the car a Ranger asks me to be careful, mountain lion sightings in the area. I think I found out why my internal alarm went off."
Trav_Nasty
Mountain lions are terrifying and it's not likely you would have made it out of there alive or without, at the very least, serious injury.
Good thing you listened to your intuition!
"A few years ago..."
"A few years ago a group or friends and I went out clubbing. We went into this one bar, and the moment I stepped in the door I felt a sense of dread. Every cell in my body was telling me, 'Get the hell out of there!' so after about 20 minutes, I convinced my friends that something felt really wrong, so we left and went home.
"The next day there was a news story about the club. There had been a shooting on the street in front of it and the people who had committed the shooting had been inside the club while we were there."
100aliens
Assuming you are in the United States and considering how many mass shootings there are, it's a good thing you got out of there.
"I work in a bar..."
"I work in a bar in Southern California and while I was pouring a beer during the day shift I had this very weird feeling about an earthquake happening. Nothing was shaking or anything... I just got this weird image of everything coming down briefly."
"Seven hours later the shift is over and I'm at home on the couch watching TV (completely forgot about earlier) and WHAM massive earthquake hits and knocks a ton of stuff down in my apartment."
"Creepy to me!"
Grahf88
Earthquakes do not last long but they can be really unsettling!
"When I was 17..."
"When I was 17, I was hanging out with a friend and a decent looking college guy started talking to us."
"We both had this weird fantasy of wanting to date one of the guys from the local college (a decently well known college that caters to music/movie/animation/game design type stuff ---- I eventually married one, its not THAT cool, but I digress...)."
"Anyways, he invited us up to his apartment to watch one of his film projects and we agreed (like idiots). First off, he had NO furniture in his apartment. Just a couple pillows on the floor, and a TV and DVD player... also on the floor."
"The film was really REALLY uncomfortable to watch and I got really sketched out so I told my friend we needed to leave."
"A few days later she told me she hung out with him again. In a very serious tone, he asked her if he could film himself killing her and having sex with her corpse for a project."
"Maybe he wasnt actually serious, but who the f*ck asks that??? She managed to leave and we never did see this guy again. I wish I knew his name to see what he got up to."
StreberinLiebe
This is pretty terrifying and let's just say I'm glad your friend did not end up on an episode of Forensic Files or Dateline.
"He ended up being suspended..."
"I was always uncomfortable around a mutual friend at university. Nothing specific but whenever he was around, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck. He was friendly enough, but always felt off. When there was only a seat left next to him at lunch, I would go eat by myself."
"He gave me a hug once and it was like touching a dead spider, I felt disgusting afterwards. He ended up being suspended from campus due to sexual assault allegations."
manlikerealities
Some people can't help but give off a creepy vibe and if you do get that, run.
"On a random day..."
"On a random day, I don't even remember what I was doing, I suddenly had a very horrible feeling. I immediately thought of my grandfather, but I brushed it off because I sometimes have random bad thoughts for no reason."
"I kid you not, an hour later, my father calls me. He never does that. He goes 'I have bad news' and I just new it was my grandfather. It sounds mean when I say it, but I was relieved to hear he was just in the hospital and not worse. He had an emergency surgery and made it."
"He's still with us today, but that was quite the experience for me, especially considering I wasn't with him and I just knew."
MEsyas
Glad to hear your grandfather survived!
What a relief though this was certainly an unsettling experience.
I guess the moral of the story is always trust your gut.
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I am very much a night owl. I quite like being up at night.
For one thing, it's quiet.
There's no one to bother me. If I want to watch television and vegetate, I can just do that.
If I want to do some work, I can get my work done without interruptions. It's pretty sweet.
Nothing particularly scary has ever happened either... yet. My fingers are crossed.
But others haven't exactly been so lucky.
They told us their stories after Redditor citric_acid asked the online community:
"What is the scariest thing you’ve witnessed in the middle of the night?"
"Driving through an abandoned section..."
"Driving through an abandoned section of Baltimore at 3 in the morning, my CB radio turned itself on and crackled for a bit. Out of nowhere some voice over the radio said in a deep southern drawl, 'I ain't got no panties on.'"
"I could see up and down the interstate for miles and saw not one set of headlights..."
THREEkoalas
What in the world?
No, thank you.
"It was a bright moonlit night..."
"I stepped in and fell over a cow carcass on a night hike. It was a bright moonlit night but I didn't see it in the shadows. Thankfully it was mostly dry."
Phantomtastic
I would not want to stumble into that late at night!
No thanks.
"Turns out..."
"When I was around 8 I woke up to hear my parents whisper yelling. Turns out someone was beating on the back sliding glass door with a baseball bat. Turns out he was drunk and mistook our place for his ex's."
cigarmanga
Imagine something like this happening to you because you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
"I cut down a tree..."
"I cut down a tree in my backyard one afternoon. The tree was in front of my backyard slider so at night there was a lot more light coming in from the neighbors lights and street lights."
"I get up the next morning before sunrise to make my coffee and I saw a shadowy figure down the hall. I yelled what the f**k?!"
"At the moment I didn't realize that now more light was being let in by the lack of tree it cast my shadow on the wall. So basically I was a 37 year old dude that was scared of my own shadow."
lookssharp
It happens to the best of us.
Fear of the unknown still gets us, no matter how old we are!
"Don't know who it was..."
"When I was in high school I was out late (around 2-3am) with a friend chilling in a park. We are just chatting on a bench and after about an hour there I noticed a silhouette in the distance move slightly."
"To my horror I realized there had been a person staring at us from the same spot for almost half an hour or more. As I told my friend and we started to run back to their place, they started chasing us."
"Don’t know who it was or what they were planning but probably the most freaked out I’ve been in my life."
Skytorn7
This is horrifying.
Thankfully you got away!
"Last week..."
"Last week I saw a shooting in the middle of the street while having a pint outside a bar, probably that."
Much_Committee_9355
That is terrifying.
Hopefully you've been able to see someone after seeing something so horrific.
"She had her own nightmare..."
"I once woke up from a nightmare about a demonic little girl to my little sister hovering above my bed. I freaked out and punched her in the nose."
"My sister had her own nightmare and was standing over me because she was debating whether or not to wake me up. I have a history of waking violently so she was weighing whether it was worth it or not. We spent the rest of the night watching Disney movies."
lizzyote
You must have been sleeping very deeply!
But Disney cures all ills.
"Remind you of a movie?"
"My daughter, 4 years old, black hair, pale skin, came into our bedroom in the middle of the night. Hair in her face. Middle of the bed by our feet. And started climbing up towards me and my spouse. Remind you of a movie?"
mutalisken
I've definitely seen this movie before.
Has your daughter ever emerged from a television?
"The police banging my door..."
"The police banging my door at 3am looking for a missing teenage girl... even though I knew my daughter was safe in her room. It still freaked me out."
Wshrig
Terrifying!
Thankfully she was okay and hopefully you were able to rest easy.
"Thought he was drunk..."
"My downstairs neighbour walked into my apartment at 1:30 a,m. I was only dressed in underwear and didn’t have my glasses on. Thought he was drunk and managed to convince him he was in the wrong apartment. He backed his way out, closed the door and went down the hall carrying something."
"A week later I run into him downstairs and laugh about how drunk he must’ve been. Turned out he’d been away. That wasn’t my neighbour who’d walked in."
tangcameo
This would creep me the hell out.
The last thing I want is anyone uninvited in my space.
I think I'm just going to lock my doors and never leave the house after reading these.
Or maybe not stay up so late. Not be a night owl.
What I don't know won't hurt me.
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People Share The Most Fun They Had As A Kid That Didn't Involve TV, Movies Or Video Games
We didn't have video games available to us until much later when we were kids so my brother and I watched a bunch of television and movies.
However, our mother was very firm in her belief that we couldn't sit and stare at a screen all the time so he and I had to make our own fun.
We'd make blanket forts, for example. We'd play tag. We used to play on top of parked cars... yeah, that got us in trouble before.
But those memories are some of the sweetest I have. We had a knack for making our own fun.
And so did many others who shared their stories with us after Redditor goodluckcanuck asked the online community:
"What is the most fun you had as a kid that did NOT involve a screen of any kind?"
"For my 15th birthday..."
"For my 15th birthday, about 30 of my friends and I bought cheap toy swords, bows and arrows, and made armor and shields out of cardboard, went to the local park and had an all out play-war."
"Ended with a one-on-one duel against my best friend on one of those rickety chain bridges you sometimes see in old playgrounds. Till this day, I fondly remember it as one of the best days of my life."
ThePotatoWastrol
Sounds wonderful! That's the sort of play that can last for hours.
"I bought a metal shield..."
"I bought a metal shield from a website and wooden swords. We went in my backyard and choreographed a fight sequence. It was fun. Broke the wooden swords eventually though."
Thavinil
Sounds like it was a rather violent war. But if you broke the swords, what did you end up using to defend yourself?!
"I still find..."
"I still find bike riding to the the highlight of just about everything. It was freedom as a kid, and it is still freedom as an adult."
country-contrarian
Bike riding can indeed feel like freedom to a child! There's a reason why just about every kid in suburbia has a bike!
"When the street lights came on..."
"When the street lights came on and all the neighborhood kids would come out for Hide and Seek or Kick the Can."
capjack88
I have fond memories of both of these games. Hours and hours of endless fun.
"My childhood friends..."
"My childhood friends and I used to have Nerf wars around the neighborhood. It didn't happen super often, but when it did, we'd gather up as many of the kids in the neighborhood as possible and have a giant Nerf war. I had the time of my life."
_MashedPotatoes_
We bet you did! Memories that will last a lifetime.
"I used to play..."
"I spent awhile living with my grandparents on their farm. I used to play 'bushrangers' with the neighbour’s kids. A bit like Cops and Robbers, only on horseback with air rifles."
"If you were the bushranger, you’d start on foot and had a 30 minute head start to get as far into the bush and away from the other kids as possible. Then the other kids (the troopers) would set out to hunt you down on horseback."
FormalMango
This is very creative and sounds like one hell of a good time. Perfect environment for it.
"I lived in the woods..."
"Hours and hours spent outside. Didn't matter if it was alone or with my friends. I lived in the woods and those few acres might as well been the universe. The possibilities were only limited by our imagination."
hp640us
There's something about being in the woods that can feel like magic to a child.
"Finding..."
"Finding a REALLY cool stick. A staff/wand, whatever you wanted it to be. That fun could last all summer."
slukbunwalia
Isn't it funny how the littlest things–like a stick, for instance–could muster up so much fun? So many possibilities!
"Sledding..."
"Sledding and riding down the big hill in front of my house, or walking through the creek."
AggressiveGreen4592
Sounds picturesque. There better be a Christmas card of you sledding or something.
"Digging outside..."
"Digging outside in random places. There wasn't a lot of stone where I used to live, other than houses or sidewalks. So I always found a shovel or used a stick to dig down."
"I always thought I would dig down to the sea or find some treasure, or find fossil fuel and get rich or something."
LinkyCakes
Turns out all the old dudes found that fossil fuel instead!
We need to bring all of these games back.
But who's to say kids aren't playing them? Kids will always find a way to have fun, with or without a screen.
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There's nothing quite like enjoying some food you like. It's one of life's pleasures.
It'll always be there for you, right?
Plot twist: Nope! Foods get discontinued all the time. And the heartbreak this leaves behind is real.
People told us all about the foods they miss after Redditor Artistic_Flood asked the online community,
"What's the BEST discontinued food you miss?"
"Remember those?"
"HOSTESS PIES! Remember those? They came in lemon, apple, cherry, and (my personal favorite) blackberry. I've begun craving that sweet packet of nostalgia since I became pregnant only to learn they no longer exist."
I remember them, especially why I didn't eat them, hahaha!
"Remember the old version of the apple pie at Mcdonald's? It was like the hostess pie but deep-fried. It was awesome. "
"Then they changed the recipe to make the crust flaky -- blech. Then I realized the apple empanada at Taco Bell was pretty similar. Then they discontinued them!"
I remember these. They were pretty good, but then again... I was young.
I'm an adult now, with different taste buds. I don't think trying one today would end well.
"Those different types..."
"Those different types of cereal straws. Those things were amazing."
"They changed the recipe..."
"They changed the recipe for Cadbury creme eggs a few years ago. They still exist as a brand, but the new ones are garbage."
This doesn't surprise me. This is why we can't have nice things.
"The stuff..."
"Dunkaroos. The stuff they brought back into the stores is NOT the same as it was."
"The green apple ones..."
"Lime green Skittles. The green apple ones just overpower the rest and don't mesh at all."
"The square pizza..."
"Old Totino's pizza. Like when they were circular? The square pizza they have now is awful compared to the old version."
Probably a change in the quality of ingredients that came with that change. A shame.
"I still think about..."
"I still think about my favorite (now discontinued) Ben & Jerry's flavor, oatmeal cookie chunk. Apparently, it is one of the company's most missed flavors. They discontinued it because the supplier that made the cookies went out of business."
I've never had this, and now I am sad that I haven't! Sounds so, so good.
"Not the ones..."
"Burger King's Italian chicken sandwich. Not the ones they keep experimenting with the last few years but the original one from the '90s."
"Those really crunchy..."
"Those really crunchy potato chips cooked in pure peanut oil were the best. Peanut allergies ruined that. I blame the victims for this one."
Are any of these suggestions sending your taste buds on a trip down memory lane? If you're feeling a little sad and wistful, then we're sorry.
Nothing, certainly not the products we've enjoyed, lasts forever.
Thinking of some food you miss that hasn't been mentioned? Feel free to tell us more in the comments below!
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