The Dog That Turned Into Green Mist, Cows Standing On Hind Legs & Other Cases Of Gibbering Insanity

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Originally-posted link is dead, and the blog / site is gone. Here's the text:

Retrieved from the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20040606074000/http://thomasslemen.tripod.com:80/huyton.html

Thanks for posting all those updated links, much appreciated

This one I had to reply to (sorry for all my replies, :sorry: just so many wonderful stories on this thread) - specifically this part of the story:

a boy who lived near Mrs Street had found a sparkling golfball-sized metal globe in his garden that had allegedly fallen from the sky. The boy’s mother later threw the globe out with other rubbish. Was this curious globe the thing that the Huyton Spaceman was searching for?

... this struck a chord because I've heard of a phenomenon of metallic spheres (of varying sizes, I believe) being discovered all over the world.



EDIT: And now I'm finally up to date on this thread!

 

[Min Bannister]

And now, as I'm typing this, I suddenly don't understand why I would jump to the conclusion of someone upside-down being a hanging victim - because they are upright, aren't they, when that happens? Yet it was such a clear thought that entered my head?

Perhaps you are thinking of the tarot card The Hanged Man?

 

[Krepostnoi]

Kids haven't learned that certain things aren't possible / don't exist so they take them at face value. I certainly did with something that happened when I was little. It didn't bother me, it just... was.

Well, if no-one else is going to ask, I will. What just was?

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Perhaps you are thinking of the tarot card The Hanged Man?

Hmm.. interesting but I'm not sure, as I don't know much about tarot cards (other than seeing them here and there on telly programmes). Looking at the picture on the link, it isn't familiar to me and doesn't look like what came to my mind (I think I was just picturing a vague image of a man, upside down (dark hair and possibly a reddish shirt, bizarrely).

But then again, could be I've seen that tarot card subconsciously, and maybe my brain picked up on that without telling me

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Well, if no-one else is going to ask, I will. What just was?

A telephone box. I would walk with my parents every week into town when they went to the supermarket. We always walked the same route, a route I still know in my head to this day. And on the route was a corner with a wide pavement where a telephone box stood.

Except... well, sometimes the telephone box was there, and other times it wasn't. I called it "the disappearing phone box". And the thing is, it never bothered me, it was just something that... well, just was.

 

[Mythopoeika]

A telephone box. I would walk with my parents every week into town when they went to the supermarket. We always walked the same route, a route I still know in my head to this day. And on the route was a corner with a wide pavement where a telephone box stood.

Except... well, sometimes the telephone box was there, and other times it wasn't. I called it "the disappearing phone box". And the thing is, it never bothered me, it was just something that... well, just was.

When it wasn't there, was a trace of it left behind? Like a base?

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

When it wasn't there, was a trace of it left behind? Like a base?

No, just normal tarmac on the pavement, as far as I can remember. There wasn't anything in it's place, either. Just an empty bit of pavement.

I see your train of thought, that maybe it was being removed and put back? I have considered that, in later years... but ruled it out for two reasons:
- It was one of the old, heavy red phone boxes, you know the nice traditional ones, so would have been difficult to move
-This happened so frequently that it wouldn't have made sense for British Telecom or whoever is in charge of such things, to keep doing that.



Oh and, my dad sometimes made phone calls from it (we didn't have a phone in our house) and I was always fascinated watching him make the phone calls (it had a dial as well, this was pre-push button ) so it was definitely a working telephone box.

 

[Mythopoeika]

That's mighty odd.

 

[escargot]

A telephone box. I would walk with my parents every week into town when they went to the supermarket. We always walked the same route, a route I still know in my head to this day. And on the route was a corner with a wide pavement where a telephone box stood.

Except... well, sometimes the telephone box was there, and other times it wasn't. I called it "the disappearing phone box". And the thing is, it never bothered me, it was just something that... well, just was.

Is it possible that you sometimes took a different but very similar-looking route, so that the spot where you'd expect to see the box was vacant while the actual box was hiding a couple of streets away?

I ask because a few years ago when we used to visit another town I used to be confused by the shopping centre, which looked different outside but the same inside. Turned out you could approach from either side after taking just one turn, which I hadn't noticed as I didn't know the area well.

 

[Mythopoeika]

No, just normal tarmac on the pavement, as far as I can remember. There wasn't anything in it's place, either. Just an empty bit of pavement.

I see your train of thought, that maybe it was being removed and put back? I have considered that, in later years... but ruled it out for two reasons:
- It was one of the old, heavy red phone boxes, you know the nice traditional ones, so would have been difficult to move
-This happened so frequently that it wouldn't have made sense for British Telecom or whoever is in charge of such things, to keep doing that.



Oh and, my dad sometimes made phone calls from it (we didn't have a phone in our house) and I was always fascinated watching him make the phone calls (it had a dial as well, this was pre-push button ) so it was definitely a working telephone box.

Wait a minute, a telephone box that can teleport itself between times and dimensions?
I bet nobody's thought of THAT before.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Is it possible that you sometimes took a different but very similar-looking route, so that the spot where you'd expect to see the box was vacant while the actual box was hiding a couple of streets away?

Ah, another good question. This is also something I have previously considered; when I first told Mr Zebra about it, it was when I was showing him where I'd grown up, as you do, and we spent a bit of time driving around the area and when I showed him the corner, he was the one to bring up the same question you've just asked.

So we had a look around and there wasn't another similar-looking corner that would have been in the right direction between my old house and the shops, so that didn't seem to account for it, certainly not at the time when we were having our look around. To the best of my recall, whenever this happened, the corner was exactly the same just sans telephone box.

Oh, and the telephone box was there that time, but it was now a modern monstrosity.

I ask because a few years ago when we used to visit another town I used to be confused by the shopping centre, which looked different outside but the same inside. Turned out you could approach from either side after taking just one turn, which I hadn't noticed as I didn't know the area well.

I know the feeling! Some places seem oddly confusing. There's a place we occasionally visit by train which I'm convinced we approach from the East as we're approaching the train station, but Mr Zebra assures me that we're approaching from the West, and he's showed me a map and he's right, and besides, logically I know we live to the West of the place, but yet every single time we go there I have this overwhelming feeling that my compass is backwards and I just can't convince myself that it's actually the other way around.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Wait a minute, a telephone box that can teleport itself between times and dimensions?
I bet nobody's thought of THAT before.

I was about to say that maybe I discovered the concept before the Dr Who people did... and then I realised that would make me sound older than I am, and then I thought hang on, how long ago did Dr Who start? What if am older..?

But I've just checked the Internet and it's all good. Dr Who is older than me*. As you were.

*By quite a bit, actually.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Bit of a coincidence just this minute happened in the episode of Spicks and Specks I'm currently watching - they were playing the 'guess the song' round, (this time with well-known songs played on a didgeree-do) and one of the songs was...

... the Dr Who theme!

 

[escargot]

Oh, and the telephone box was there that time

Years ago there was a Guardian article about trees that appeared and disappeared. They'd be in a historical record, then there'd be a newspaper report about them being cut down, then they'd be back. Your telephone box probably belongs to the same class of street furniture!

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Years ago there was a Guardian article about trees that appeared and disappeared. They'd be in a historical record, then there'd be a newspaper report about them being cut down, then they'd be back. Your telephone box probably belongs to the same class of street furniture!

It sounds like it!

I don't suppose you have a link do you, or if you know what keywords might help me track it down? I'd be awfully interested in reading it

 

[escargot]

It sounds like it!

I don't suppose you have a link do you, or if you know what keywords might help me track it down? I'd be awfully interested in reading it

One of my greatest regrets is that I didn't cut out this article. It's one of the finest things I've ever read. It will be available on the Guardian site via a library or university connection. One day I'll find it.
The illustrator was Sharon Finmark but that doesn't help.

 

[humanoidlord]

I was about to say that maybe I discovered the concept before the Dr Who people did... and then I realised that would make me sound older than I am, and then I thought hang on, how long ago did Dr Who start? What if am older..?

But I've just checked the Internet and it's all good. Dr Who is older than me*. As you were.

*By quite a bit, actually.

and who is to say it dint happen that way?
if menber @Carl Grove is to be believed, the space-time fabric in the british islands is as pliable as cotton, so i can imagine such an incident being the inspiration for the show

 

[Carl Grove]

A telephone box. I would walk with my parents every week into town when they went to the supermarket. We always walked the same route, a route I still know in my head to this day. And on the route was a corner with a wide pavement where a telephone box stood.

Except... well, sometimes the telephone box was there, and other times it wasn't. I called it "the disappearing phone box". And the thing is, it never bothered me, it was just something that... well, just was.

Is it possible that you were so young that you hadn't yet learned that solid objects aren't supposed to appear and reappear -- hence you could see something that older eyes had been trained not to see?

 

[amarok2005]

When I first got on the Internet I copied and pasted into my PC various tales that looked interesting. One site I frequented was called "Bill Beaty's Weird Science." Here's one little oddment from that site, "The Thing Under the Sofa":


I had an unexplained event yesterday morning. Never before in my 40 some years has anything like this ever happened, and I feel "odd" asking about it; however, I'm just spooked.

It was 5:40ish in the am, I had been awake since 4:30...very unusual for me to awake so early. I didn't get up until 5:44 last I looked at the clock. The point is I was very much awake...not half-asleep. I put coffee on, went into my den to pick up a few things. I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand." My brain recognized two things: 1)the feel of this thing was sort of rubbery to gel-like in consistancy,an unrecognized touch to me, and 2) what in the world could pull that thing right out of my hands in an instant? Believe-you-me, I was apprehensive to look under the sofa, but still felt there was a logical explanation. I increased the lighting in the room, got down on my hands and knees and peered under. No thing was there like this object I had attempted to pick up. A 2" thick phone book was to the left of the area, and a magazine was to the far right and back. The magazine was not of the same color. It wasn't that. (The object I had touched was approximately 1/4" thick). Behind the sofa is a wall. I do not have any animal that could have snapped this thing away from me, nor could a person be under there...besides the other 3 family members were still asleep. After this happened I was so absolutely dumbfounded I kept checking all around the sofa, the room, I smelled my fingers to see if an odor was left from the object, nothing... I feel like a nutcase, but I saw what I saw, and I felt what I felt. I want so much to have a logical explanation, but there simply isn't one.
Pam <ParisByEve @ aol.com>
Cincinnati, OH USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 at 10:08:10 (PDT)

 

[amarok2005]

I've been fascinated by David Paulides' Missing 411 series for the past three years, to the point that I've been gathering stories that remind me of it, however peripherally. I recently posted two weird reports in my blog that might have some bearing on the subject of strange disappearances, one of which I only discovered a week or so ago. They are both, for my money, incredibly creepy: "If You Go Down to the Woods Today":

https://wondrousportal.blogspot.com/2018/05/

 

[Min Bannister]

I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand."

Argh, that is super creepy! :cskull: What was it?

 

[Carl Grove]

When I first got on the Internet I copied and pasted into my PC various tales that looked interesting. One site I frequented was called "Bill Beaty's Weird Science." Here's one little oddment from that site, "The Thing Under the Sofa":


I had an unexplained event yesterday morning. Never before in my 40 some years has anything like this ever happened, and I feel "odd" asking about it; however, I'm just spooked.

It was 5:40ish in the am, I had been awake since 4:30...very unusual for me to awake so early. I didn't get up until 5:44 last I looked at the clock. The point is I was very much awake...not half-asleep. I put coffee on, went into my den to pick up a few things. I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand." My brain recognized two things: 1)the feel of this thing was sort of rubbery to gel-like in consistancy,an unrecognized touch to me, and 2) what in the world could pull that thing right out of my hands in an instant? Believe-you-me, I was apprehensive to look under the sofa, but still felt there was a logical explanation. I increased the lighting in the room, got down on my hands and knees and peered under. No thing was there like this object I had attempted to pick up. A 2" thick phone book was to the left of the area, and a magazine was to the far right and back. The magazine was not of the same color. It wasn't that. (The object I had touched was approximately 1/4" thick). Behind the sofa is a wall. I do not have any animal that could have snapped this thing away from me, nor could a person be under there...besides the other 3 family members were still asleep. After this happened I was so absolutely dumbfounded I kept checking all around the sofa, the room, I smelled my fingers to see if an odor was left from the object, nothing... I feel like a nutcase, but I saw what I saw, and I felt what I felt. I want so much to have a logical explanation, but there simply isn't one.
Pam <ParisByEve @ aol.com>
Cincinnati, OH USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 at 10:08:10 (PDT)

Lovely example of weirdness in a totally "normal" environment. I recall a case that was presented by a caller to a Radio London programme (Brian Hayes?) sometime in the 80s. Can't recall any details (didn't think to make notes at the time) but the basic story was this: The witness got home one night very late and tired. He quickly undressed and tossed his shoes under the bed before laying down and soon going to sleep. Next morning when he reached under the bed for his shoes -- they had vanished. Frantic searches all over the room failed to locate them. Years later, by which time the room had been completely emptied and redecorated, the shoes reappeared, under the bed, looking as they would have been had they just been carelessly tossed there.
Another case that I had directly from a work colleague, which I may have mentioned in passing on other threads here, involved a lady called Alison. Alison presented herself as a total sceptic, but on one occasion, admitted emotionally that her house was haunted. Most of the things she mentioned seemed fairly unremarkable by haunting standards, but one stood out. Alone in the house with her daughter, who was upstairs in her room, she heard a loud bang. Her daughter called down that her light bulb had suddenly exploded. Alison hurried up and found fragments of glass across the floor, which she carefully picked up and put in the waste paper bin. They went downstairs, and Alison grabbed a new bulb which she took up to plug in. Afterwards, glancing in the waste paper bin she saw -- the original light bulb, sitting there quite whole and undamaged.

 

[humanoidlord]

When I first got on the Internet I copied and pasted into my PC various tales that looked interesting. One site I frequented was called "Bill Beaty's Weird Science." Here's one little oddment from that site, "The Thing Under the Sofa":


I had an unexplained event yesterday morning. Never before in my 40 some years has anything like this ever happened, and I feel "odd" asking about it; however, I'm just spooked.

It was 5:40ish in the am, I had been awake since 4:30...very unusual for me to awake so early. I didn't get up until 5:44 last I looked at the clock. The point is I was very much awake...not half-asleep. I put coffee on, went into my den to pick up a few things. I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand." My brain recognized two things: 1)the feel of this thing was sort of rubbery to gel-like in consistancy,an unrecognized touch to me, and 2) what in the world could pull that thing right out of my hands in an instant? Believe-you-me, I was apprehensive to look under the sofa, but still felt there was a logical explanation. I increased the lighting in the room, got down on my hands and knees and peered under. No thing was there like this object I had attempted to pick up. A 2" thick phone book was to the left of the area, and a magazine was to the far right and back. The magazine was not of the same color. It wasn't that. (The object I had touched was approximately 1/4" thick). Behind the sofa is a wall. I do not have any animal that could have snapped this thing away from me, nor could a person be under there...besides the other 3 family members were still asleep. After this happened I was so absolutely dumbfounded I kept checking all around the sofa, the room, I smelled my fingers to see if an odor was left from the object, nothing... I feel like a nutcase, but I saw what I saw, and I felt what I felt. I want so much to have a logical explanation, but there simply isn't one.
Pam <ParisByEve @ aol.com>
Cincinnati, OH USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 at 10:08:10 (PDT)

that site still exists if i aint wrong

 

[humanoidlord]

When I first got on the Internet I copied and pasted into my PC various tales that looked interesting. One site I frequented was called "Bill Beaty's Weird Science." Here's one little oddment from that site, "The Thing Under the Sofa":


I had an unexplained event yesterday morning. Never before in my 40 some years has anything like this ever happened, and I feel "odd" asking about it; however, I'm just spooked.

It was 5:40ish in the am, I had been awake since 4:30...very unusual for me to awake so early. I didn't get up until 5:44 last I looked at the clock. The point is I was very much awake...not half-asleep. I put coffee on, went into my den to pick up a few things. I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand." My brain recognized two things: 1)the feel of this thing was sort of rubbery to gel-like in consistancy,an unrecognized touch to me, and 2) what in the world could pull that thing right out of my hands in an instant? Believe-you-me, I was apprehensive to look under the sofa, but still felt there was a logical explanation. I increased the lighting in the room, got down on my hands and knees and peered under. No thing was there like this object I had attempted to pick up. A 2" thick phone book was to the left of the area, and a magazine was to the far right and back. The magazine was not of the same color. It wasn't that. (The object I had touched was approximately 1/4" thick). Behind the sofa is a wall. I do not have any animal that could have snapped this thing away from me, nor could a person be under there...besides the other 3 family members were still asleep. After this happened I was so absolutely dumbfounded I kept checking all around the sofa, the room, I smelled my fingers to see if an odor was left from the object, nothing... I feel like a nutcase, but I saw what I saw, and I felt what I felt. I want so much to have a logical explanation, but there simply isn't one.
Pam <ParisByEve @ aol.com>
Cincinnati, OH USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 at 10:08:10 (PDT)

yep: http://amasci.com/weird/unusual/unusual.html

 

[hunck]

Didn't this thread used to have 'that' instead of 'what' in the title or have I experienced a mandela effect?

It has always been what. One of my favourite thread titles this. Although I believe it was originally " I need the dog what turned into green mist" and the gibbering insanity was added later to generalise the thread.

I think I may have had a precognitive mandela/timeslip/alternate reality/ incident.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Is it possible that you were so young that you hadn't yet learned that solid objects aren't supposed to appear and reappear -- hence you could see something that older eyes had been trained not to see?

Yes, I think that's kind of it, because it really did not bother me in one bit, in fact it almost felt normal. Well perhaps normal isn't quite the right word, but - it didn't bother me or worry me or even frighten me. I think the way I first described it on here is the best way I can explain it - "it just was."

And I think it is one of the reasons why time slips / objects appearing/disappearing are one of my favourite paranormal subjects.

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

When I first got on the Internet I copied and pasted into my PC various tales that looked interesting. One site I frequented was called "Bill Beaty's Weird Science." Here's one little oddment from that site, "The Thing Under the Sofa":


I had an unexplained event yesterday morning. Never before in my 40 some years has anything like this ever happened, and I feel "odd" asking about it; however, I'm just spooked.

It was 5:40ish in the am, I had been awake since 4:30...very unusual for me to awake so early. I didn't get up until 5:44 last I looked at the clock. The point is I was very much awake...not half-asleep. I put coffee on, went into my den to pick up a few things. I folded up a blanket that was on the small sofa, put some pillows into place...bent down to pick up what I thought was a manila folder sticking out from under my sofa approximately 6". As I pinched the edge to pick it up, it instantly went straight back under the sofa...as though someone were under there who "ripped it out of my hand." My brain recognized two things: 1)the feel of this thing was sort of rubbery to gel-like in consistancy,an unrecognized touch to me, and 2) what in the world could pull that thing right out of my hands in an instant? Believe-you-me, I was apprehensive to look under the sofa, but still felt there was a logical explanation. I increased the lighting in the room, got down on my hands and knees and peered under. No thing was there like this object I had attempted to pick up. A 2" thick phone book was to the left of the area, and a magazine was to the far right and back. The magazine was not of the same color. It wasn't that. (The object I had touched was approximately 1/4" thick). Behind the sofa is a wall. I do not have any animal that could have snapped this thing away from me, nor could a person be under there...besides the other 3 family members were still asleep. After this happened I was so absolutely dumbfounded I kept checking all around the sofa, the room, I smelled my fingers to see if an odor was left from the object, nothing... I feel like a nutcase, but I saw what I saw, and I felt what I felt. I want so much to have a logical explanation, but there simply isn't one.
Pam <ParisByEve @ aol.com>
Cincinnati, OH USA - Tuesday, April 18, 2000 at 10:08:10 (PDT)

Wow... how bizarre. I wonder if it could have been an object/artefact from elsewhere (aka another dimension, etc) which wasn't supposed to be in this person's reality, and when they laid eyes on it, someone from wherever it came from suddenly realised it was visible but shouldn't be, so promptly snatched it back?

Obligatory prosaic explanation (just to show that I don't automatically leap to paranormal conclusions):
In the time it took the person to switch on the lights, could it have been moved by something more mundane (mouse/rat) possibly to another room and then away without the person being any the wiser? (Doesn't explain what the object was, though - rubbery/gel-like doesn't spring to mind as anything obvious).

 

[Schrodinger's Zebra]

Lovely example of weirdness in a totally "normal" environment. I recall a case that was presented by a caller to a Radio London programme (Brian Hayes?) sometime in the 80s. Can't recall any details (didn't think to make notes at the time) but the basic story was this: The witness got home one night very late and tired. He quickly undressed and tossed his shoes under the bed before laying down and soon going to sleep. Next morning when he reached under the bed for his shoes -- they had vanished. Frantic searches all over the room failed to locate them. Years later, by which time the room had been completely emptied and redecorated, the shoes reappeared, under the bed, looking as they would have been had they just been carelessly tossed there.

It's the fairly mundane ones that are so fun to read This reminded me of a story I've read (online somewhere, but sorry can't remember where now) about someone who had a set of keys or car key - in the pocket of their coat but one day they went missing; no holes in coat pocket, no idea where it went, etc. It never turned up. Then sometime later, when wearing a new coat, the key reappeared in the pocket it should have been in, but in the newer coat

 

[Min Bannister]

I think I may have had a precognitive mandela/timeslip/alternate reality/ incident.

Awesome! I think you might have just won the thread!

 

[Iris]

Carl Grove, Maybe there's something about shoes.
Years ago when my eldest was young one of her school shoes disappeared from her bedroom and we couldn't find it anywhere so we had to buy a new pair.
Awhile later she decided to share a room with one of her sisters so everything was cleared from that room.
Quite some time later I happened to open the door to that room and the shoe was there lying in the middle of the room, but by that time the remaining shoe had been thrown away.