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Truck Drivers Share The Creepiest Thing They've Experienced In The Middle Of Nowhere

Truck Drivers Share The Creepiest Thing They've Experienced In The Middle Of Nowhere
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

There's something soothing about hitting the road and driving, driving, driving, sometimes to parts unknown, the wind in your hair and the sun in your eyes. Long haul truckers know the roads best and they're used to an often solitary lifestyle. They often seem very self-assured, always knowing where they're going at any given moment. But what happens when you see something while on the road that you think you shouldn't have?

After Redditor lukasday88 asked the online community,

"Truck drivers, what's a creepy story you've got from the middle of nowhere?"

"I then hear someone..."

Trucker here. I think the best "creepy" thing that ever happened to me was I was heading from Tucson, AZ up into Saltlake City, UT. Well this was a few years ago and the main highway had been taken out in a flash flood, was under construction so I had to take a wierd detour through the mountains in lower Utah.

Well it was getting late and I was getting tired so I pulled off onto the shoulder and went to sleep in my bunk. Now this was in the middle of nowhere, closest town was like 40 miles away, so it is complelty pitch black outside once I turn the lights off. Any way around 4 am I wake up because I'm hearing something messing with my truck, like playing with the air and power cables between my cab and the trailer, which is literally 6 inches from where my head is at but on the outside of the cab. Then I feel something climb onto the landing that's on the back of my truck and it shakes my whole truck, so I'm guessing something around 2 to 3 hundred pounds was climbing around back there, I'm thinking like a mountain lion or a bear. At this point I'm wide awake and I want to get this thing away from me, so I slam my hand into my cab wall trying to scare what ever is out there, SLAM Hard enough to really make it loud.

I then hear someone, a male, scream bloody murder and I hear them fall off the back of my truck. I then hear about 15 other people all around my truck yelling. I climb up front, turn on my lights and illuminate a squad of Army Reserves doing their midnight ruck march and capture drills.

Turns out these guys were supposed to go find an "abandoned" truck and "secure" it for their midnight drills. That truck was 3 miles back down the road. They were not expecting me to be sleeping there, and thought I was part of the drill. I'm ex-military so after explaining I was not part of their test and legit was just there out of coincidence we laughed it off. They had to radio to their C.O. and tell him I was there and not have the other squads bother me.

DWL52

"I decided not to back up..."

I used to deliver hotshot freight across the great plains/Minnesota area. One night around 2am I was hauling across North Dakota trying to reach Montana by morning. I was delivering a particularly valuable tractor part that a farm desperately needed for the following day. I began to notice some highway hypnosis sneaking up on me, but it didn't really bother me because I'd been through it hundreds of times before. Anyone who has driven across North Dakota knows that it is incredibly flat. Like, really flat. There also tends to be very straight and long roads. It's somewhat easy to see things on the road that are far away, even at night.

I noticed something long on the road, spanning my entire lane, approximately half a mile in front of me. I slowed down a little and prepared to move into the opposite lane, thinking it was some re-tread off a blown tire. As I got closer I noticed it was two people, laying head to toe across the entire lane. I swerved into the other lane, successfully avoiding them and came to an almost complete stop. But they didn't move. Not an inch.

I was just about to back up and check on them when I remembered a story that an old greybeard colleague of mine told me. He told me that in certain remote areas, people will lie down in the middle of the road and wait for a car or truck to stop and see what's going on. At that point, the road-layers along with whoever else is hiding in the nearby bushes will beat the the driver and steal his vehicle, leaving him in the middle of nowhere.

I decided not to back up, and when the two people in the road saw me put my truck back in gear and drive away, they both got up and walked toward the shoulder. I called the police and explained what happened, but we were so far away from civilization that I doubt anything came of it.

Thanks to that old greybeard, I got to keep my truck, my job, and my teeth.

ArronRogersButthole

"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

"Every so often..."

Driving through a national park in the middle of the night going through a slow stretch at about 30km/h.

Every so often I think I see something out the window and beside me. Just a glimpse of movement. When I Iook though I don't catch it. Finally on about the third time I whip my head around and this time I recognize its a huge black wolf following alongside my truck just off the highway. I only saw it for a few seconds before I had to focus back on the road but it was absolutely lovely yet unsettling.

skilganon

"I was driving through eastern Washington..."

I was driving through eastern Washington on some state roads. There were no rest stops or cities but I had done the route enough to know there were these massive dirt areas every ~40 miles where you could park safely away from the road. I decided to call it a night and closed my blinds and laid down to watch something on my phone.

After roughly an hour I hear someone try to open the driver's side door. I haven't heard any vehicles on the road the whole time I'm parked but I get up to peek out the curtains. As I'm looking out into the blackness of the drivers side window I hear them try the passenger side door. I peek down from the top of the curtain but can't see anything so I start the truck and kick on the lights.

I'm fairly freaked out at this point so I'm still not opening the curtains but peeking through gaps. Nothing, nobody is standing near either of my doors or parked within sight line. I take a deep breath and close the sleeper curtains too, because for some reason that's going to make things better right?

After laying back down and convincing myself that something blew against the truck and it only sounded like the doors (it was fairly windy outside and a lot of flat ground) I hear what sounds like someone trying to pry open the vents on the sleeper. The door handles start clicking again and the truck starts shifting like someone is climbing on it. I hit the little alarm button in the sleeper hoping to spook them off but it does nothing but add to the noise of door handles, fingers tapping on windows and chassis, and the hiss of air coming out of the suspension.

Then suddenly it stops. A few moments where I can only hear myself breathing and my heart pounding before I hear another truck approach and then drive by. I spent the next few hours waiting for whatever it was to come back but it never did. In the morning I couldn't find any footprints or damage to my truck but on every window were tiny human looking handprints, like a toddler had licked their hand and stuck it to my window over and over.

ICollectTheDead

"I also experienced..."

I work for a railroad. Not necessarily "remote" but sometimes its just a conductor and engineer cruising along +/-10mph on very isolated, fairly wooded track. I've heard a few older guys mention something about a family (or a man with a suitcase, something along those lines dont really remember) walking down the track with no concerns. Constant blowing of the horn, flashing of the lights etc just kept walking down the track. Then disappearing. Near Weatherly, PA.

I also experienced a pretty intense trip myself one night coming home from New Jersey. Saw my 1st dead body laying along the rail which in itself was kinda interesting.

Then the only other part of my trip where we were required to run at a slow speed, I heard the craziest blood curdling scream I have ever heard in my entire life. One of the nights I will probably remember until I retire.

tylerk135

"So I went to sleep..."

Reno, NV.

A place on the north side of town, way off the freeway towards an old "military" road. I got there early at like 1am, they didn't open till 6am. The facility was closed so no one around and I just pulled into the lot and parked off to the side. So I went to sleep and was woken shortly after to someone knocking on the door/window, firmly to the point the truck shook. I jump out of bed thinking they are there already and want to offload me early. I get to the door and no one is there, so I step down thinking they are behind the trailer looking at the door seal or something. No one around, I look under the truck and around absolutely no one. No wind or bad weather, not another person around. I jump in the truck and pull out of there as fast as I could and went and parked in a nearby truck stop. Still can't explain it, I mean I guess I can justify I could have imagined the sound but the truck shaking was definitely real so I dont know.

Paulthekid10-4

"I had parked for the night..."

US-6 in Golden, CO. At a K-Mart parking lot.

This one isn't very long, but, it goes a long way to show just how big a target we truckers are for thieves and people looking to kill someone.

I had parked for the night and popped into the K-Mart before it closed. Presumably forever. Got the wife and I something to eat and some drinks. Got back to my truck and fired up the microwave. Got the TV and Xbox going. I'm off-duty and goddamn it, I'm hungry. I had just put disc 3 of Season 3 of Game of Thrones in. Not 5 minutes later, someone knocked on my tractor door.

First thought is "A lot lizard? At K-Mart? Bitch must be desperate."

I grab my K-Bar and get in the driver seat and roll the window down a little. Not a woman. Great...a pickler. Gross.

Me: Whatcha need man? Trying to eat dinner and catch up on my show. Him: I was wondering if you could give me a ride to Denver. My brother is a trucker too and wants me to drive with him. Me: Going the other way and I don't have a 3rd seatbelt for you to use. Him: I'm a trucker too. Me: Ok...why doesn't your brother come get you? Him: He's busy. Me: Considering it's after 23:00, if he's busy, I'm sure it isn't with driving.

He goes to reach for something.

Me: Yo, hands where I can see them. I'm now reaching for my gun in the door pouch Him: Sorry. I just wanted to show you my CDL. Me: Bud, I'm gonna be honest with ya. I'm trying to enjoy my dinner and show. I'm not taking you anywhere. Best I can suggest is call your brother and have him come get you. Him: My phone doesn't work. Me: Thems the breaks man. There's probably the last payphone on earth next to the entrance. Him: Can you just open the door for a minute? Me: No, and if you don't leave, I'm calling the police. Him: I'm just asking for some help. Me: I gave you the help I'm willing to offer. I'm rolling up the window now. Good luck getting to Denver.

I roll up the window and get in the bunk. Thought nothing more of it. When I get out to do my pre-trip in the morning, I discover that little bastard tried to cut the lock off my trailer and open the doors. He'd have been pissed if he managed to open it. I lock up even when I deadhead. That trailer was empty. Real glad I didn't get the urge to open the door. God knows what he was planning. Kill me, steal my truck, rape and kill my wife was probably on the agenda. Not the last time some s*** like that happened, but, that's for another post.

Samuraitrucker666

"In early October 2014..."

in early October 2014 I was on holiday in a remote luxury safari ranch in the Samburu region of Kenya. The ranch had about 20 guests and maybe 20 staff, and was situated in an extremely remote wilderness area. The nearest settlement was approximately 50km away, with staff living on site.

We ate meals communally outside in a central patio area with a view over the landscape. There was a large mountain to one side that could be seen from where we were sitting.

One night we were having a collective dinner with the other guests, and it was early evening, so people were pretty sober. It was dark and the night sky phenomenally clear – you could easily see the milky way and it was some of the clearest, most unpolluted skies I have ever seen.

During the meal there was a hubbub and people stopped and stared, including the staff. We looked up and hovering roughly over the mountain was a large round green black circle, that seemed to be pulsating. It was static for a few moments and seemed to swirl with green tendrils seeming to suck light in. It then began to move right to left across the mountain before suddenly fading out and disappearing. It was completely silent.

All the guests and local staff had no idea what we saw – bear in mind we're talking 20 plus people who saw this thing. Then as we walked out for our evening safari activity (a night drive), we could hear the radio network used by local lodges and the nearest settlement going bezerk with everyone saying 'what the hell was that thing' – it was seen 50km away.

The guides (local natives in their 20s) told us that they had never seen anything like it in their entire lives and were utterly spooked out by it. We all went to bed a bit spooked out to put it mildly!

I'm a military man and have served in a lot of odd places and seen a lot of odd things. I can assure you that this was not a military aviation asset, there were no navigation lights and the colour was fundamentally not normal.

I don't know what I saw, but when I got back I spoke to a colleague who was a lifelong astronomer – and he couldn't tell me either. It's the only time in my life I'm prepared to say that I saw a UFO as it genuinely was an 'unidentified flying object.'

SirHumphrey100

"This was 2008."

This was 2008. I was working security at a Casino at the time and my buddy who had recently got out the army had got a job working for Armaguard driving the armored truck for bank pick ups. After he had been working there for a while an opportunity came up to work with him and he recommended me for the job. 3 years Casino security with robbery training and former territorials (national guard) with my buddy before he joined regular forces was enough qualification apparently.

The job was based in Queenstown New Zealand but also serviced a lot of the small towns in the area as well. So we spent a lot of our time driving around the region on mountain country roads. We had been working together for a while by now and were used to the roads and enjoyed cruising around. Very low crime part of the world so was no issue about getting held up.

Anyone who knows the area will know what the Kawarau Gorge road between Queenstown and Cromwell is like. It is about an hour drive total but about half of that is through the Gorge which is a very narrow and windy stretch of road that is basically a cliff on one side of you the entire way. So it was middle of winter and some pretty bad weather was predicted. Not a big deal as it was only an hour there and back and we would get it done well before the bad weather turned up right?

Nope. By the time everyone gets organised for the timing of everything we end up doing the run a couple of hours later than we wanted. Still only early afternoon but by now it had started to snow. As we start our drive it isn't too bad but by the time we are halfway through the Gorge on the way back it had turned into a full on blizzard. My buddy is driving and I am riding shotgun. We can see about 10metres in front of us at best and are crawling through the Gorge hoping to get back before it gets really bad. My buddy is a very good driver who spent several years driving Pinzgauer APCs for the army. He knows what he is doing.

We arte pretty confident and relaxed until all of a sudden the drivers side windshield wiper just flys off into the blizzard. My buddy does the right thing and comes to a fairly safe stop but now we are stuck halfway through the Gorge with no way to see where he is driving. We jump out and have a look and can see that the arm itself has snapped. Most likely a combination of it being old and also the cold making it brittle. We think we will be sitting there a couple of hours freezing our asses off while they organise a tow truck and transport and all the s*** that goes with getting us back to base.

Then we notice that there is a basic nut hold the other end of the wiper arm on. Lucky for me I have my multi tool on me and manage to get it off with a lot of struggle before my fingers freeze too much and we manage to swap the passenger side one on to the drivers side. Great we are up and running again. Then as we go to take off I of course realise this means I as the passenger can't see a damn thing and have to spend the next 45minutes s****** my pants as we slide our way back to town hoping my buddy isn't driving us off the cliff.

Not the most fun I have ever had for sure but nothing a couple of whiskeys didn't fix later that day.

BossBaby63

Old Wives' Tales People Still Believe For Some Reason

"Reddit user the_spring_goddess asked: 'What is an old wives tale that people still believe?'"

Close up of an owl tilting their head to side, looking bewildered
Photo by Josh Mills

The old wives' tales.

They are the stories of legend.

I think we all need a big DEEP Google dive though.

Where did they originate?

WHO ARE THE OLD WIVES!

You don't hear about them as much anymore.

It's like science and logic are suddenly a thing.

But they sure are a good way to keep your kids and their behavior in line.

Redditor the_spring_goddess wanted to discuss the tall tales we've all been fed through life, so they asked:

"What is an old wives tale that people still believe?"

"Wait an hour to swim after eating."

What a crock!

So many summer hours wasted.

I want revenge for that one.

Say Nothing

Giphy

"An undercover cop has to tell you he's a cop if you ask him."

LonelyMail5115

"Pretty much most advice when it comes to cops are old wives tales. I’m not even a cop but most of the advice you hear is pretty off."

I_AM_AN_A**HOLE_AMA

Say Something

"That you have to wait 24 hours to report someone missing."

Severe_Airport1426

"I really think this one is important and should be the top regardless. As it’s a piece of advice that needs to be relearned and the only way to do that is through awareness."

crappycurtains

"This used to be true. I think they changed it after some guy named Brandon went missing back in the '80s or '70s. You used to have to wait 24 hours if the missing person was an adult because they had 'a right to be missing' and then everyone realized that was stupid and stopped doing it."

AlbinoShavedGorilla

Body Temps

"That drinking ice cold water after eating oily foods will solidify the oil and permanently remain in your body. I informed my coworker that if your body temperature ever reached that point, you’d have bigger problems than weight gain."

chriseo22

"Oh, I have a cousin who 100% believed this. One of those guys who believed every early 2000s internet rumor and old wives tale. One night I chugged a big glass of ice water after dinner and he started freaking out and saying my guts were gonna harden."

"I sarcastically told him to drive me to the hospital if that happened. Obviously, nothing happened and the next morning I said something like 'Thanks for being on standby in case my guts filled with hardened oil.' He just walked off muttering under his breath."

apocalypticradish

Arms Down

"When I was pregnant, I was told by young and old alike that I should NOT raise my arms above my head or exert myself in such a manner because it could cause cord strangulation to my unborn sons and daughters."

Fatmouse84

10 Years Actually

Unimpressed Uh Huh GIF by Brooklyn Nine-Nine Giphy

"Chewing gum stays in your stomach for 7 years."

REDDIT

"I remember accidentally swallowing a piece of gum when I was a kid in like 1995 and just accepting my fate like welp, gonna have this in my stomach til high school I guess."

Gecko-911

I was so afraid to sallow my gum when I was young.

This tale is haunting.

High/Low

Hungry Debra Messing GIF by Will & Grace Giphy

"You can tell the sex of the baby by how you carry."

LeastFormal9366

"Pregnancy certainly wins awards for the most old wives tales. So much absolute BS was repeated to us by everyone we talked to."

IllIIIlIllIlIIlIllI

The Cursed

"If you’re a woman and you wear opal jewelry but opal is not your birthstone (October), you’ll never be able to have children, or will be widowed, or just generally have bad luck or something. You can counteract this by having a diamond in the same piece of jewelry as the opal, though."

"I have a nice opal ring that my parents gave me years ago, and I’ve had other women give me this 'advice' unprompted more than once when I’ve worn it. I have absolutely no idea where it started, but I’m pretty sure this little chunk of silicate rock has no concept of what month I was born in, let alone of how my reproductive organs work."

SmoreOfBabylon

Stay In

"Going outside with wet hair will make you get pneumonia. Or an earache. Or maybe arthritis. Depends on which old wife you listen to."

"Jokes on them - I haven't blow-dried my hair in decades and usually leave the house with wet hair in the morning. On winter mornings, the tips of my hair get frozen. No ear infections or pneumonia or arthritis yet."

worldbound0514

Dreams and Facts

"You never make anyone up in your dreams you've seen everyone in your dreams somewhere else before and never make anyone up entirely."

"How would you possibly prove that to be true? My partner adamantly believes this and tells me this 'fact' whenever I have a dream about someone I've never met before."

mattshonestreddit

"My late wife used to tell me that before she met me she would have dreams of standing at an alter on her wedding day but could never see the guy's face, no matter how hard she tried. After meeting me the face was filled in with mine. Don't know if it's true but one of those things I like thinking of every now and then when I miss her."

Darthdemented

Cracked

Getting Ready Episode 2 GIF by The Office Giphy

"Some people still believe cracking knuckles causes arthritis."

Choice-Grapefruit-44

"There's a doctor (Donald Unger) that cracked his knuckles a couple of times a day for 60 years, but only on one hand, just to prove it. Both hands remained exactly the same."

MacyTmcterry

I love my knuckles.

Do you have any tall tales to add to the list? Let us know in the comments below.

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?

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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?