Schrodinger's Zebra
And a dandelion dies in the wind
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2018
- Messages
- 2,998
I know Tom Sleman of the 'Haunted Liverpool' books has been mentioned a few times in this thread, but I don't think this particular case he documented has come up before.
Obviously, a 50 year-old story, told second hand, is lacking somewhat in acceptable provenance. Thought it was worth posting here though. It's an interesting case because, unlike most timeslip accounts that are alleged glimpses of times gone by, this one is suggestive of a hi-tech and militaristic future.
It does contain two common feature of timeslips, namely the "Oz Factor" (sudden unnatural silence) and unusual meteorological conditions - in this case an exceptionally heavy fog.
"In 2005, a woman visited me at Radio Merseyside to tell me how her late husband Jim, had been haunted by a very strange incident which had taken place at Charing Cross, Birkenhead in the 1950s when he was a policeman.
There had already been a terrible accident involving a police motorcyclist which had left Jim traumatised, and now, on this particular night, a dense fog had invaded Wirral and yet some idiotic motorists were still speeding towards the busy roundabout at Charing Cross where five roads converge.
A lorry had ‘conked out’ with the cold and Jim directed traffic in the thick fog around it, and visibility was that bad, he could hardly see anything beyond twelve feet.
A man on a bicycle ran into him at one point, and it was now the rush hour with dusk gathering.
All of a sudden, everything went as silent as the grave, and Jim could hardly see his gloved hand in front of his face because of the fog.
He could see no headlamps nor hear any engines – and then the policeman heard a low rumbling which shook the road and made Jim’s teeth chatter.
Whatever the thing was, it was coming his way – and then he saw its ghostly outline as it came from the direction of Grange Road West.
It resembled a military tank – but it was like no tank he had ever seen before.
It was enormous – as big as a house - and beams of red light shone from a dome on top of the weird vehicle and dazzled the shocked policeman.
He bolted to the left just in time, or he would have been crushed to pulp under the gargantuan caterpillar tracks of the unknown armoured vehicle, and then he saw something even more terrifying and inexplicable – a towering robotic figure about 20 feet in height – was marching towards him.
It was a grey silhouette, but as it approached, it slowed down and stooped – and a massive metallic hand made a grabbing motion towards Jim.
He ran off, and saw other similar giant robotic figures in the distance, but Jim then heard an explosion of traffic sound, and as the fog thinned, he found himself near the familiar Martins Bank building.
There was no sign of any gigantic tank or that mechanical Goliath.
Jim told no one about his frightening experience, and only told his wife about the incident many years later. I believe Jim entered some timeslip at Charing Cross and glimpsed a future war of some sort – hopefully a very long way off..."
(from https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/15643275.haunted-wirral-a-weird-wirral-timeslip/ )
View attachment 22115
Ooh excellent story, and in the Wirral to boot.
I did wonder whether the trauma of the motorcycle accident had caused him to mis-see this tank thing, but that's just the rational side of me brain wanting to offer an explanation. It could very well have been something from the future because if time-slips can happen backwards, they can jolly well happen forwards as well.