Every town, anywhere in the world, has a long and complicated history.
All the souls who have lived there and the ones there now leave an imprint on the legacy of those pieces of geography.
Generations upon generations have stories, some of them twisted and and often dark.
Not that home isn't a happy place, but we can't deny the bad.
Redditor Noahs_25 wanted to know what dark histories people can share about thei? ?, !, r h ometowns by asking:
"Redditor's who live in secluded towns, what is the darkest thing that happened in your town but is kept secret?"
Family Drama.
"My grandpa's father was murdered by the wealthiest man in town a long time ago. Not 100% sure of the exact year. Money exchanged hands with law enforcement, and nothing ever came of it. Until one day my grandpa's anger about the situation boiled over, and he threatened to kill the man in retribution. Law enforcement caught wind of it, and in order to save the coverup, forced him to leave town or be arrested."
"He moved from that small town bordering two southern states (hint, it's a mashup name of the two states into one), up to Ohio. He met my grandma, and now I exist. So at least I can blame a murderer for every bad thing that happens to me, since I wouldn't have existed without his crime."
OmnomOrNah
There was a sheriff....
"There was a sheriff in my town in rural Louisiana and he was sheriff for about 40 years. Well our parish at the time when he was sheriff had the highest rate for meth production and weed production in the state. There was this one particular meth dealer that was never arrested but somehow someone on the other side of the parish would get raided and a bunch of people go to jail but never him as it turns out is the relative of the sheriff."
Giphy"That sheriff let meth and the money it generated control our parish for decades while he slowly got rich bought a big house new cars and always got re elected. Even though all the locals new about this no one cares cause he was a 'good man' or 'his family has been here since all the old families founded this town' or better is 'he just a good ole sheriff who keeps the drugs out of our parish.'"
"What's really sad is some corrupt public officials will use a persons meth addict family members as voter suppression or leverage in elections."
justtuna
In the Midwest....
"Small Town of about 2000-2500 in the Midwest, when suddenly about 1/4th of the population just up and left. No word, no nothing. None of them had kids or extended family and none of the papers said anything about it. This was back in maybe the late 80's."
"This happened when I was pretty young but I just remember one day one of my teachers wasn't there and I found out from my parents a ton of people had just left overnight. Most personal belongings were taken with them but mattresses and furniture was still in their houses."
"I still have no clue what that was about and when I've asked my parents more recently they said the rumor around town was that all those people worked for the CIA or FBI and were re-assigned all of a sudden."
WackyInflatableAnon
Not so Sweet Home....
"My hometown had a 'home of the KKK' sign on it's welcome to town sign until 2000 (ish? Maybe a year or two off). Smithfield NC. Idk if that was 'the' home of it, but still creepy."
informallory
The Evil CEO.
"The CEO of our towns electric company beats his wife regularly. He ended up getting arrested for domestic violence and his beatings were pretty horrific. Everyone knows what a crap head he is. In the end he got a good lawyer and the police let him off the hook. No jail time, no fines, nothing. Forget him."
lolno-
Where to Begin....
"Coal mine country PA. Lots of stuff happens. Guy was assaulting his daughter and her friend. Went to jail for a few years. When he came back, his house mysteriously burnt to the ground with him in it. Another guy got caught selling crack to a couple of local kids (yes I'm that old). He was found in the middle of the street having been run over by a large vehicle repeatedly. A woman stole some jewelry from her elderly neighbor."
Giphy"She lost her hand in an unknown accident. Guy beat his wife. He left town with 2 hands that were destroyed by a ball peen hammer. Teenage girl killed another girl's dog over a boyfriend. Now she sports a nasty scar across her face and is missing an eye. That and lots of smaller stuff. Justice is handled locally."
TrapperJon
Over the summer......
"Over the summer there was a guy found hanging from a tree on the sheriffs property. The sheriff disliked this young man and treated him poorly during his incarceration at the county jail. Many witnesses said that the day he got released from jail, the sheriff invited him to his secluded property and told him he could help him get back on his feet."
"2 days later, a couple of teenage boys fishing in a creek discovered the guy hanging in a tree. Authorities was notified, no investigation was done, and it was immediately ruled a suicide. This boy was a known drug addict with no family or friends, so there was really no one to press the issue."
"The local news wrote a small article on 'man found dead from apparent suicide' and then it was hush hush after that... It's just one of those things we will never know."
xPoisonGirlx
Total Stephen King Character.
"The 'doctor' who tried all these wacky treatments to save his young patient from tuberculosis and became infatuated with her. After she died he eventually robbed her grave, mummified her and lived with her body for seven years before being found out. Did not go to jail and lived his years out in town I believe."
HighOnGoofballs
GiphyThe Ghost Town.
"Every one knows about the 'fun' part of Centralia PA. The spooky mine fire. The ghost town. Etc. What most don't know about was how divided the town became and how they ganged up on The kid who fell in, Todd. How they harassed him and accused him of lying for political gains. He was just a little kid who suffered a near death experience and his own neighbors started a smear campaign against him.
Angsty_Potatos
Bombs Away...
"Not so much a dark secret but my town houses a bombing range that is still in use. No one has ever met anyone who works on it, no kids at school ever parents who work there. We never see planes or anything but there is a guard at the gate. What was truly odd is that if you ask a resident about it we all say the same thing, 'oh the bombing range, there's nothing out there.'"
allaboutthatpuc
The Chicken Plant.
"In the early 1990s, a town in my small county in the southern US had a fire in a chicken processing plant. When workers tried to escape, it became apparent that the fire exits and other exits had been locked. Dozens of people died around the exits in desperation in a town of around 2000. Our state suppressed the investigation, due to lobbies, and families received almost none of the compensation funds. Pretty sure there's a song about it."
Irarhet
GiphyThe Slumber.
"My mom told me this story once that back when she was growing up in a small farming community in Ohio, there was some kind of neighborhood party attended by a bunch of families with kids all around the same age. All the kids (including herself) had this like big slumber party in the basement."
"They wake up the next morning and one of the kids is found in the middle of the road, having been hit with a truck, but with his whole body zipped all the way up in his sleeping bag. None of the kids owned up to doing and it the adults could never figure it out either. After a while people just started moving on with their lives and everyone pretty much forgot about it."
"I didn't mean for this get attention and I can't reply to all of you, so I'll just say: this would be in Celina, Ohio around 1972, if anyone can find sources on it, go for it. I did some Googling and couldn't really come up with anything. And some of you I think are right - my mom said she probably thinks it was a prank that went terribly wrong."
classictom
The Missing.
"Several young boys (age 9-11) went missing in the village and it was suspected that a group of boys from the same school were responsible. They were heard talking about it on two occasions, about how they kill whoever they don't like. However, their parents apparently attested that they never let them out of sight outside of school hours."
"This group of kids was known for skipping school to sniff glue and and drink alcohol btw, but their parents obviously denied it. Only one of the 6 missing kids was ever found, in a creek, with injuries like he was stoned to death. Police said he fell down the creek accidentally, though. This was about 20 years ago in Europe btw."
DoodieDialogueDeputy
Allenstown.
"Nothing with me but when my mom was a kid she lived near a state park in New Hampshire. It's called bear brook. In the 80s multiple dismembered body parts were found in a blue barrel. An investigation happened but the killer was never found. In the early 00s another barrel was found, dating back to the time of the first barrel. The killer was recently found. His name was Robert Evans. The park is in Allenstown if you want to look it up."
taavicarbone
Family Men.
"A father held his wife at gunpoint and threatened to shoot her in the head in front of their ~7 year old daughter. Went on a wild police-chase. He still lives in the town. There also was another dad who abused his wife and their children. Still lives here as well."
please_call_me_Steve
"My uncle was in a standoff with the cops for something like 18 hours with a shotgun pointed at his stepson and wife. He was threatening to kill them and himself. He just stayed a night or two in jail to 'cool off.'"
thaaaaatlady
The Teacher.
"When my mom was growing up, a teacher and his wife were killed by an axe murderer. Someone broke into their house and killed them in the middle of the night. They found the husband in the house and the wife in the woods behind it, indicating that she tried to escape and was chased down. Really gruesome stuff."
"The attack was seemingly random, and they never caught the person responsible. My elementary school was named after the teacher, which wouldn't necessarily be morbid except for the fact that there was a dedication plaque that mentioned his murder. In an elementary school. The 90's were wild."
HicSunctLeones
Copland.
"In the 80's and early 90's my town was run completely by dirty cops. Drugs were run by the cops and people who didn't do as they were told would go mysteriously missing and eventually, most of them, wind up dead. It took the Feds to clean the place up and install a new set of clean cops."
"Edit: I've been getting a lot of questions about the Copland movie. I've never seen it, but I googled it and no, it's not there. I'm not gonna say the town name of where I'm from because it's an "everyone knows everyone" one of town, but I'm from a small town in California and still live there. This all happened before my time and I was told about it by people who lived through it. My best friend's dad being one of them."
xTGI_CommanderX
Any town USA.
"It's still happening in my town. This specific event happened directly in my gated neighborhood. A member of a Russian gang got his house shot up before they went inside to finish the job. My wife saw them drag out the body. Organized crime bosses live in my town and the 2 neighboring towns. I live in NJ."
"Edit: gettin' asked a lot about where exactly. Millburn, Westfield, Shorthills, Springfield. I live in one of those towns. That's all I feel comfortable saying lol."
GiphyLosing your Head.
"So there is this building that used to be a hotel and one day this guy shows up and he takes multiple trips going in and out with a bunch of equipment. They found him a little while later in his room. He had assembled an entire guillotine and cut his head off."
Dark_Helmet78
Super Drunk.
"A family friend was super drunk, he was walking home and fell unconscious on the road at the bottom of a hill. Another family friend (small town so we all knew each other) was driving home late, he heard a thump and a crunch when he went over a hill."
"He got out of the car thinking he hit a wallaby or something, he instead found his friend dead. Everyone decided to forget what he did, because it really wasn't his fault, there was no way he could have seen him asleep at the bottom on the hill in the middle of the road, it was at such an angle that the headlights didn't spot him."
"It's a bit weird this has come up because I drove past a super drunk dude just a few hours ago on my way home from work, he was drunk and stumbling on the road, he fell over and lost a thong (flip flop to you Americans). I called the police and told them, they said they'd pick him up and take him home where he would be safe, didn't want a repeat of what happened back in my hometown to happen to that random drunk guy."
The-Goat-Lord
Doctor Who?
"I was delivered by a serial killer doctor. I don't remember all the details but he was killing patients in Canada."
mitternacht_d
"Yeaaah, there are actually quite a few of them. Nurses, too!"
Deceasedtuna
Giphy'boys being boys'
"Was in a teeny town in the middle of Nebraska and the chief of polices son beat the f**k out of my little brother with the local high school wrestling team. we tried to report it and the cops basically intimidated my mom to back off because it was 'boys being boys' instead of assault."
Literallyagoblin
"Mafia"
"Small northern English town. We have a local 'Mafia' who collude and control all the property in the town centre. They are an estate agent, a retired estate agent and a publican who buys up every small property to add to his 'empire' of tourist accommodation."
Diplodocus114
Bad Neighbor
"My childhood town was very small. About 1000 people maybe. Our neighbor had kids, and then was arrested for the discovery of a meth lab in their basement. Parents went to jail, kids went to foster care. Still don't know how they are doing to this day."
fall-fall-away
Heidi Klum Wow GIF by LifetimeGiphySmall towns have their secrets.
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Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.