Your own personal mysteries.

[Outdoor Girl]

^ I think that is very typical of early childhood memories.  We don't really start making long term memories until we are about 5 so the few snippets we do remember from earlier than that end up taking on a very dream like quality.

I have a distinct memory of riding my tricycle from our house down the driveway to the little house we'd built for my grandfather.  And I remember coming back out with a fist full of red licorice and pedalling madly back to the main house.  And since we moved from that property when I was 5 and I think Gramps died a year or two before that, I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4.

[Elfmama]

My earliest memory, the one that I can definitely establish as mine rather than something I've been told about or seen in family photo albums, I am about 3.  I know this because my brother, who is 17 months younger than I am, is in a high chair.   Mom is making cookies.  Oatmeal raisin, my favorite.  We finish the cookies she gave us and we want more.  Mom leaves the room, and I help myself to the cookies that are on the cookie sheet on the counter.  But instead of being warm and golden brown and delicious, they are cold and white and sticky. They hadn't been baked!

I told this memory to my mother and she laughed.  She didn't remember it, but says that it sounds like something I would do!

[blue2000]

^ I think that is very typical of early childhood memories.  We don't really start making long term memories until we are about 5 so the few snippets we do remember from earlier than that end up taking on a very dream like quality.

I have a distinct memory of riding my tricycle from our house down the driveway to the little house we'd built for my grandfather.  And I remember coming back out with a fist full of red licorice and pedalling madly back to the main house.  And since we moved from that property when I was 5 and I think Gramps died a year or two before that, I couldn't have been more than 3 or 4.

I have quite a lot of memories from that time. We moved to a different country when I was five. I think it cemented those early memories, rather than them fading out to nothing - it is easy for me to recall what year certain things happened according to where I was.

[Pippen]

Why can I understand speak and fluent Turkish when I am drunk? After out Gulet cruise we went out in Fethiye with our crew and other some other passengers. Ok fair enough we were stupidly drunk (Broke into a yacht. Fended of a Rottweiler. The funny thing in the sky is the sun coming up) but the crew going "What is wrong with you?' How can you speak Turkish?" just capped off one of the weirdest nights of my life.

[zyrs]

Have you ever had a memory of a childhood event that your older relatives insist could not have happened as you remember it?  This is my little personal mystery:

I have a distinct memory of my parents dropping me off at a particular relative's home several hours drive away from my hometown the summer before I started kindergarten.

I'll call my host "Aunt Edwina". Aunt Edwina lived near a big city, and as I remember it, my parents left me with her for the day so they could go shopping in the big city by themselves.  Edwina and I were alone that day because her husband was away on a business trip and her teenage children were both away at church camp for the week.

I remember staying long enough to have a nap on a particularly oddly shaped couch there.   I remember Aunt Edwina fixing me a meal after I awakened, and I remember some very strange things she said to me while she was cooking. 

While Edwina was standing at her kitchen sink she launched into a strange racist monologue, pointing to the birds on the birdfeeder outside her kitchen window, and telling me that sparrows only married other sparrows, blue jays only married other blue jays, finches only married finches, etc.  She told me when I got older I needed to remember that and be careful who I married.  (I remember thinking she was odd.)

Here's the mystery:  Both my mother and Aunt Edwina's only surviving sister insist that I was never left alone with Aunt Edwina.

This came up after Aunt Edwina's death about ten years ago.  I wrote condolence letters to her grown children.  Trying to be polite, I mentioned remembering that visit and how kind Edwina had been to me when I was little.  (Of course, to be polite,  I didn't mention her odd monologue.)  Well, Edwina's sister said to me later that while Edwina's grown children appreciated my letters they (and she) were all convinced that I'd never really visited Edwina alone.

My own mother was still living at that time, so I asked her about it.  My mother, too, insisted that she and my father had never left me alone with Edwina.

OK, no big deal, but what about my distinct memory of visiting Edwina by myself?  Did I imagine it all?

A year or so ago I was visiting with one of Edwina's nieces.  I mentioned the mystery of my memory of a visit that my mom and Edwina's sister said never happened.  Well, when I talked with my mom and with Edwina's sister I had left out the part of the story about the racist monologue.  (I guess I didn't want to speak ill of the dead or something.) But when I spoke with Edwina's niece more recently, I did tell her about the monologue.

Well, as soon as I mentioned Edwina talking about birds getting married, her niece started laughing and laughing.  She said, "Snappy, that is exactly the kind of racist comment Edwina used to make.  She said the same thing to my own boys when they were little - I heard her!  And she did have an oddly shaped couch like you described. If you remember that, then I'll bet that you really did stay with Edwina when you were little.

OK, mystery solved.  (But I still wonder just a little about why my mom and Edwina's sister were so insistent that the visit never happened!)

Depending on how many years had passed from the time you were left with Aunt Edwina until she passed away, I can see how this could happen.

Your mother's experience of that day was a long drive and then shopping in the big city with her husband.  Her Aunt Edwina experience that day was very limited and her memory of that day would probably be triggered by an incident during shopping or the drive.

Your other Aunt that states that you were never left there wasn't at Edwina's house while you were there or on the shopping trip with your mother and father.  Her memories of that day have nothing to do with either event.  Unless your parents told her where you were at every moment, how would she know?


 

[Dazi]

Why can I understand speak and fluent Turkish when I am drunk? After out Gulet cruise we went out in Fethiye with our crew and other some other passengers. Ok fair enough we were stupidly drunk (Broke into a yacht. Fended of a Rottweiler. The funny thing in the sky is the sun coming up) but the crew going "What is wrong with you?' How can you speak Turkish?" just capped off one of the weirdest nights of my life.

I've done that with French, but sober. 

Someone has asked me a question in French, I've answered in French, but I have no idea I said it in French....until the person or another person points it out.

This happened at my last job with a foreign exchange student that came in to buy something.  He came in with a translator buddy.  When we were completely done with the transaction, the translator pointed it out. 

I was really confused.

[Elfmama]

Re speaking in a language you don't consciously know -- if you believe in reincarnation, perhaps the spirit that is now "you" was Turkish or French in a previous lifetime.  And an altered state of consciousness, like getting drunk, allows those memories to come through.

[Pippen]

Why can I understand speak and fluent Turkish when I am drunk? After out Gulet cruise we went out in Fethiye with our crew and other some other passengers. Ok fair enough we were stupidly drunk (Broke into a yacht. Fended of a Rottweiler. The funny thing in the sky is the sun coming up) but the crew going "What is wrong with you?' How can you speak Turkish?" just capped off one of the weirdest nights of my life.

I've done that with French, but sober. 

Someone has asked me a question in French, I've answered in French, but I have no idea I said it in French....until the person or another person points it out.

This happened at my last job with a foreign exchange student that came in to buy something.  He came in with a translator buddy.  When we were completely done with the transaction, the translator pointed it out. 

I was really confused.

Hmmm. I have had a variation of that. I had some Eastern Europeans staying. Couldn't understand a word they were saying but always seemed to know what 1 of the guys was talking about. We were in the car and he asked on of the other guys a question in their language something like why are we going to such and such I thought we were going home' and I answered it in English. They were always asking why I could understand him and no one else. Weirdness.

[ladyknight1]

I had an extremely disturbing nightmare this morning. So disturbing, it woke me up out of REM sleep. When I woke up, I was shaking and could not go back to sleep.

B/G: DH has been friends with C since before I knew him, so 19 years or so. C is married and we regularly meet for dinner, although we are closed to C than his wife J.

My dream: FIL calls to tell us that C & J were killed in a murder-suicide at a local gun range (which happens in our area quite often, unfortunately). We go to their house to help C's brother clean out the house.

It was so real, I am scared to tell anyone in my family/friends in case it comes true. I feel shaky just thinking about it again. What should I do?

[violinp]

I had an extremely disturbing nightmare this morning. So disturbing, it woke me up out of REM sleep. When I woke up, I was shaking and could not go back to sleep.

B/G: DH has been friends with C since before I knew him, so 19 years or so. C is married and we regularly meet for dinner, although we are closed to C than his wife J.

My dream: FIL calls to tell us that C & J were killed in a murder-suicide at a local gun range (which happens in our area quite often, unfortunately). We go to their house to help C's brother clean out the house.

It was so real, I am scared to tell anyone in my family/friends in case it comes true. I feel shaky just thinking about it again. What should I do?

First, try to calm down. Just because you had a death dream does not mean those people necessarily are going to die. I've had death dreams or premonitions several times, and each time, the person had a close relative die, except for one. At about noon on the day my grandmother died, I had a feeling that she might be dead. When she was found two days later, the coroner determined that she had been dead for two days. Both of my death dreams were either intensely creepy or really sad - I woke up crying after one of them - so I can sympathize with that fear and sadness.

Second, it may be best not to mention it, because people, in my experience, tend to laugh that stuff off and not take it seriously, which will just ratchet up your anxiety about it. If you want to tell someone, then share your feelings with your husband, if you think he'll take it well.

[Outdoor Girl]

I had a dream, right after I'd switched from my winter tires to my summer tires, that my driver's side front wheel came off while I was on the highway.

Needless to say, I checked the next day to make sure all the lug nuts were tight.  They were fine.  So sometimes a dream is just a dream.

[Girlie]

So... I went out to my LOCKED car this morning, got in, and looked down, and lo and behold, there was a Wii remote on the console between the seats. I don't own a Wii, haven't used one in ages, and haven't been anywhere where anyone has been using one. My DH is the only person who has been in my car, and he hasn't been around one, either. So now I have this thing, and absolutely NO clue how it suddenly just appeared between the seats of my locked vehicle. 

...Anyone lose a Wii remote...?

[Bijou]

So... I went out to my LOCKED car this morning, got in, and looked down, and lo and behold, there was a Wii remote on the console between the seats. I don't own a Wii, haven't used one in ages, and haven't been anywhere where anyone has been using one. My DH is the only person who has been in my car, and he hasn't been around one, either. So now I have this thing, and absolutely NO clue how it suddenly just appeared between the seats of my locked vehicle. 

...Anyone lose a Wii remote...?

That is a mystery.  Have you had any work done on your car where someone may have left it in there?

[Outdoor Girl]

And an out there suggestion...  Are you sure it is your car?

A few years back, a guy came out of the shopping mall shortly before Christmas to find his car stolen.  He called the cops, who sent out an APB, but suggested he hang around until after closing to see if his car just wasn't where he thought it was parked.  Sure enough, there was his car quite a ways away.  Except when he looked in it, he could tell by what was inside that it wasn't his car.  A woman was pulled over a couple days later, driving his car.  Her key had worked on his car; in the frazzle of getting everything ready for Christmas, she hadn't realized it wasn't her car.

[Girlie]

Definitely my car. My junk is all still in there. I even checked to make sure nothing was missing - everything is fine.
And no - no one has been in or had access to my car, and it has been locked. It's like the thing just appeared out of thin air.