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Hi Aouroborous, nice story.
That shed and pump sound just like an abandoned place that used to be at the end of the road I lived in as a kid during the late 60s - it must have been empty since the war. If you worked the handle of the solitary pump it would even bring up some fuel!
If your 'shed' had flourescent lights that would put it post 1948/49 as European production of flourescents began then. Turtle wax I think is mid 50s onwards - I've no idea when it was imported into sweden.
I often like to get deliberately lost while on my bike, I fill up the tank then head off with no plan. Its a great way to see things and places that you would normally bypass. I often try to go back to sights and fail to find them. But its down to poor memory for me!
Was that the only tarmac surface through the woods? Could there have been another?
That shed and pump sound just like an abandoned place that used to be at the end of the road I lived in as a kid during the late 60s - it must have been empty since the war. If you worked the handle of the solitary pump it would even bring up some fuel!
If your 'shed' had flourescent lights that would put it post 1948/49 as European production of flourescents began then. Turtle wax I think is mid 50s onwards - I've no idea when it was imported into sweden.
I often like to get deliberately lost while on my bike, I fill up the tank then head off with no plan. Its a great way to see things and places that you would normally bypass. I often try to go back to sights and fail to find them. But its down to poor memory for me!
Was that the only tarmac surface through the woods? Could there have been another?
rynner said:
There are also Guardian Angel stories who save people in much more dire situations than just 'running out of gas'!
The problem with all these stories is why do some get lucky and have a Handy Helper behind them, while millions of others suffer all kinds of horrible tribulations? To say that some are helped or saved from death because they have an important destiny to fulfill seems too much like tinkering with history to me. Perhaps the original destiny was not too well planned, and the HHs are just trouble-shooters sent in to tidy up the loose ends? (Like programmers trying to debug a program or website...
)
On the whole, timeslip seems almost simpler.
Or, all of the above!
The problem with all these stories is why do some get lucky and have a Handy Helper behind them, while millions of others suffer all kinds of horrible tribulations? To say that some are helped or saved from death because they have an important destiny to fulfill seems too much like tinkering with history to me. Perhaps the original destiny was not too well planned, and the HHs are just trouble-shooters sent in to tidy up the loose ends? (Like programmers trying to debug a program or website...
)On the whole, timeslip seems almost simpler.
Or, all of the above!
A
The fluorescent lamp looked slightly more modern, as I recall, around 70`s, I´d say. The Eternit facade of the adjacent (sp?) farm house, however, could date back as far as 40´s or 50´s, but there was an environmental regulation passed in mid-70´s that prohibited any more from being produced (on account of being a PCB-source). There´s still plenty of houses (esp in rural areas) that have these facade plates, though. They never wear out, hence the name.
No, as far as I´m concerned (and I´ve recently taken a few days driving around the area with that possibilityin mind) we couldn´t have taken the wrong turn somewhere.
Please note, however, that this area is real strange and have many unusual features. Like, on the other end of the township, there´s a road without beginning or end. It´s just a 3-km stretch of tarmac that´s been left over when the roads were redrawn in the 80´s. It just lies there in the fields, unconnected to any other road on both ends. As far as I kan see from a map, it´s the straightest path from A to B, but the new road has been built in a curve around it.......strange, no? I need to check this, as well.
/D.
No, as far as I´m concerned (and I´ve recently taken a few days driving around the area with that possibilityin mind) we couldn´t have taken the wrong turn somewhere.
Please note, however, that this area is real strange and have many unusual features. Like, on the other end of the township, there´s a road without beginning or end. It´s just a 3-km stretch of tarmac that´s been left over when the roads were redrawn in the 80´s. It just lies there in the fields, unconnected to any other road on both ends. As far as I kan see from a map, it´s the straightest path from A to B, but the new road has been built in a curve around it.......strange, no? I need to check this, as well.
/D.
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Off topic I know but that would make a great dragstrip 
Could it have been left for the Swedish Airforce? I know they do (did?) use roads as airstrips.
Anyway reading your experience makes you wonder - perhaps this happens to people more often than we think. If the phantom station had given you good fuel you would probably not found out it wasn't there.
Could it have been left for the Swedish Airforce? I know they do (did?) use roads as airstrips.Anyway reading your experience makes you wonder - perhaps this happens to people more often than we think. If the phantom station had given you good fuel you would probably not found out it wasn't there.
Well, that's certainly food for thought, though it wasn't the point I was actually trying to make with my rather vague post. What I meant to say was that Amphiaruas was probably right to suggest that if the gas station had served you normal fuel, you wouldn't have thought any further about the incident. It was only the fact that your car reacted badly to the fuel that kept the incident in your mind, and led to you taking it into the repair shop - only to discover that there actually was no gas station.
So, did the gas station actually want you to know that it was a phantom? And if so - to what end? To broaden your mind? Or simply for the pleasure of baffling you?
So, did the gas station actually want you to know that it was a phantom? And if so - to what end? To broaden your mind? Or simply for the pleasure of baffling you?
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If Sweden's like the countries that I've done research in, the Kommun's Land Registry should have a map showing all the lot numbers along that road - the registry should have files that tell you who was there going back years - it may not have any listing for a gas station, since what you are describing sounds like just a personal pump - probably no one remembers it as a gas station, just as a pump next to a shed - you don't mention any signs like "Shell" and the man didn't even have a cash register, just a receipt book - if there was a VAT number on the receipt you could trace him with this.
It's easy to forget where a small thing like the shed was, since you didn't have any reason to remember its location until the stale gas started fouling your engine - and if the pump was chained up and there was only stale gas in it, that says the owner had stopped selling gas years ago.
One possibilty is that little man in the cap, let's call him Uncle Ole, had Alzheimer's and didn't remember how old the gas was and just sold you what he had left - let's say his nephew Sven was working in the barn when you came and decided to take down the sign and remove the pump from the base because he didn't want Ole pumping any more stale gas into unsuspecting passersby's tanks.
Best,
Mark
It's easy to forget where a small thing like the shed was, since you didn't have any reason to remember its location until the stale gas started fouling your engine - and if the pump was chained up and there was only stale gas in it, that says the owner had stopped selling gas years ago.
One possibilty is that little man in the cap, let's call him Uncle Ole, had Alzheimer's and didn't remember how old the gas was and just sold you what he had left - let's say his nephew Sven was working in the barn when you came and decided to take down the sign and remove the pump from the base because he didn't want Ole pumping any more stale gas into unsuspecting passersby's tanks.
Best,
Mark
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rynner said:
I think I might steal that for my next sig...!
On the other hand, being gnarly is so me! 8)
On the other hand, being gnarly is so me! 8)
Couldn't imagine you being anything other than gnarly!! :smokin:
Auro - this was a great story and since I read it, I've been mulling it over for the past few days. I can't think of an explanation not already discussed here, but am def coming down on the side of a time slip. However, if that is so - why would tbe fuel be stale? I mean that if you had slipped back in time/dimension, surely the fuel in that time would be fresh and you would have brought back 'fresh' stuff with you. The only explanation to me is that the fuel was ok for THEM, but not compatlible with OUR technology. N'est pas?
ok, maybe this is just me, cause i'm a bit dysmetric (clumsy-awkward, in other words), but...
there's a beautiful place in liguria, 3 hours from milan where i live. it's a valley, some 20 kilometres inland, where not many people live anymore (they all sailed to america eighty years ago...). at a certain point there is a beautiful 18th century bridge (said to have been built by the devil, like all long bridges).
well. i know exactly where it is, i could tell you by heart what roads to take to get there, and every 3 or 5 years i want to go there and see it again - and every time i drive past it and have to stop and go back until i find it. i also remember having to park and ask somebody where the bridge was.
all this to say that sometimes it is not so easy to find places, even if you've just been there and you think you remember exactly where those places were.
or is it just me?
there's a beautiful place in liguria, 3 hours from milan where i live. it's a valley, some 20 kilometres inland, where not many people live anymore (they all sailed to america eighty years ago...). at a certain point there is a beautiful 18th century bridge (said to have been built by the devil, like all long bridges).
well. i know exactly where it is, i could tell you by heart what roads to take to get there, and every 3 or 5 years i want to go there and see it again - and every time i drive past it and have to stop and go back until i find it. i also remember having to park and ask somebody where the bridge was.
all this to say that sometimes it is not so easy to find places, even if you've just been there and you think you remember exactly where those places were.
or is it just me?
A
A
I´m not so sure the gas WAS stale (although it sure seemed that way from the link I got from a poster on here). The explanation we got at the time was that we´d pumped "war-time" petrol, which was a bit like diesel, in that a petrol engine could run on it, but not very smoothly.
Myself, I have this half-baked idea of areas where the membrane between dimensions are thinner than usual and where separate realities can coexist for limited periods of time, during the right sort of conditions.
I would really like to know what factors could influence this "permeability" and if it could be artificially induced somehow. That´s the 10000$ question, isn´t it? Imagine what could be done with that knowledge...!
Cheers!
/David
Myself, I have this half-baked idea of areas where the membrane between dimensions are thinner than usual and where separate realities can coexist for limited periods of time, during the right sort of conditions.
I would really like to know what factors could influence this "permeability" and if it could be artificially induced somehow. That´s the 10000$ question, isn´t it? Imagine what could be done with that knowledge...!
Cheers!
/David
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Oh, the memories this board dredges up !!!
I used to have a pint now and then with a yank musician who was a jazz drummer way back when, and would tell what it was like to watch Buddy Rich onstage. He had lived some wonderful adventures, but was quite honest about things. (He admired Buddy's playing, but thought he was a dreadful person.) So one time, early 1960's, he's driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a 'gig'. He stops in a small town out in the desert to buy some petrol, and walks behind the filling station for a smoke. There's a car under a canvas behind the station, which looks to have been there for quita awhile. He pays the attendant and asks about the car. "Oh that" replies the attendant, "that's an old car some hollywood types abandoned here years ago." Intrigued, he walked back to the canvas, pulled back and sure enough, it was a Cord !! One of those front wheel drive with the engine mounted backwards things. The attendant says "Yeah, these folks from hollywood were driving up to Las Vegas, revved the engine too high and put one of the rods through the block. We've had it sitting here for ages, and for a coupla hundred bucks it's yours." He was astonished !!! Sure, he'd but it, but had to get to Las Vegas for his 'gig'. When he got back home he told his wife, and had a terrific row. She was adamant he wasn't bringing home some rubbish like that. About a year later he had the same 'gig' and went looking for the station, determined to buy the car, even if it meant divorce. He couldn't find the station. He never found the station, or anyone in those parts that had ever heard about the car behind the station. He told me this not as a Fortean event, but as an opportunity missed. But now, years later, it strikes me as very odd that he never found anyone who knew about this station, or the attendant, or the car from Hollywood.l
I used to have a pint now and then with a yank musician who was a jazz drummer way back when, and would tell what it was like to watch Buddy Rich onstage. He had lived some wonderful adventures, but was quite honest about things. (He admired Buddy's playing, but thought he was a dreadful person.) So one time, early 1960's, he's driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas for a 'gig'. He stops in a small town out in the desert to buy some petrol, and walks behind the filling station for a smoke. There's a car under a canvas behind the station, which looks to have been there for quita awhile. He pays the attendant and asks about the car. "Oh that" replies the attendant, "that's an old car some hollywood types abandoned here years ago." Intrigued, he walked back to the canvas, pulled back and sure enough, it was a Cord !! One of those front wheel drive with the engine mounted backwards things. The attendant says "Yeah, these folks from hollywood were driving up to Las Vegas, revved the engine too high and put one of the rods through the block. We've had it sitting here for ages, and for a coupla hundred bucks it's yours." He was astonished !!! Sure, he'd but it, but had to get to Las Vegas for his 'gig'. When he got back home he told his wife, and had a terrific row. She was adamant he wasn't bringing home some rubbish like that. About a year later he had the same 'gig' and went looking for the station, determined to buy the car, even if it meant divorce. He couldn't find the station. He never found the station, or anyone in those parts that had ever heard about the car behind the station. He told me this not as a Fortean event, but as an opportunity missed. But now, years later, it strikes me as very odd that he never found anyone who knew about this station, or the attendant, or the car from Hollywood.l
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Thanks for the props everyone!
Now I can confirm that Buddy Rich was hard to work with - I saw him in 1984 at a small club in the Florida Keys - the musicians in his orchestra came out with a stack of sheet music about 3 inches thick - Rich would not tell them what they were going to be playing that night, just drum the first few bars, grinning at them evilly and they'd have to guess the tune and then dive into their stack of music and come in with him after about 15 seconds or so!
Strangely enough, the club was not there when I went back two years later - however, there was a sign up announcing it had closed.....
I'd imagine the wartime petrol in Sweden was made from Coal like the ersatz gasoline the Germans used: http://www.fe.doe.gov/aboutus/history/s ... story.html
The Germans only used it because they didn't have access to much crude oil - it was and even now is a lot more expensive to make than petroleum based gasoline. I think it's unlikely that there'd be a alternate reality where they'd still be using it in Sweden, given that the war didn't appear to still be on, and the huge crude oil fields that have been developed off the coast of Norway, but still have all the other products you saw, like ball points, plastic signs and turtle wax which probably use petroleum derived ingrediants.
Now I can confirm that Buddy Rich was hard to work with - I saw him in 1984 at a small club in the Florida Keys - the musicians in his orchestra came out with a stack of sheet music about 3 inches thick - Rich would not tell them what they were going to be playing that night, just drum the first few bars, grinning at them evilly and they'd have to guess the tune and then dive into their stack of music and come in with him after about 15 seconds or so!
Strangely enough, the club was not there when I went back two years later - however, there was a sign up announcing it had closed.....
I'd imagine the wartime petrol in Sweden was made from Coal like the ersatz gasoline the Germans used: http://www.fe.doe.gov/aboutus/history/s ... story.html
The Germans only used it because they didn't have access to much crude oil - it was and even now is a lot more expensive to make than petroleum based gasoline. I think it's unlikely that there'd be a alternate reality where they'd still be using it in Sweden, given that the war didn't appear to still be on, and the huge crude oil fields that have been developed off the coast of Norway, but still have all the other products you saw, like ball points, plastic signs and turtle wax which probably use petroleum derived ingrediants.
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I like the idea that when you really need something it can appear. This is always happening to a friend of mine. Just last week he was short money for rent. So he went to his mother to borrow the money but she didn't have it. Then while walking around on a country road he found a lottery scratch card and won the exact amount of money he needed for the rent. What bothered him and me too was the road he was walking is a dirt road mainly used by animals. Very few people use this road as it can be muddy and dangerous to walk on. It doesn't really go anywhere just runs at the back of a medow. I think he has someone watching over him. :?: