Possibly traveled back in time?

S

sleith

Temporal Novice
Thought this was the best place to share my story, so I signed up here. I don't even know what happened myself, maybe a disturbance in the time line or something like that, but whatever happened, it wasn't normal. Its a bit creepy, definitely the weirdest thing that has happened to me. When I was 20 (I'm 21 now so just over 6 months ago) my girlfriend and I were spending the winter break with her family. Her family lives right in the heart of the Catskills in upstate New York. It was late December and me and my girlfriend decided "going exploring", since we were bored, we wanted something to do. So, at around 7 PM, we got into my truck and went exploring.

We traveled along in silence. We didn't even have the radio on, we were happy just thinking about nothing. Me being me, I picked roads at random as we were driving, assuming that I could find my way back (I always can in PA), but after driving around for a while, I was seriously lost.

My girlfriend was complaining and I started to panic a bit. I kept trying to find my way back for a while longer, and while I was looking, although I didn't think about it much at the time, the temperature suddenly felt different, although it was still darkish, but it got warmer and there was a slight change in the atmosphere. Then I looked down at the gas gauge and started to freak out. We were almost on empty.

Anyway, luckily, we saw some lights up ahead and realized it was a gas station (which had a sign saying "general store" at the back). We were relived and I pulled up to the pumps. Only these pumps weren't normal gas pumps, they looked like something out of the 40s. I just thought they were for show or something. I then noticed 2 cars, all looking brand new, but from the 1940s or so.

An old man then walked out of the station, wearing old rough looking clothes, and said to me. "Fancy truck there boy, need a fill up?" I said yeah and he proceeded to pump. I asked the man for directions back to Margretville and he gave me them. Me and my girlfriend decided to have a quick look in the store since the gas was almost done.

As I walked in, I saw a woman behind the counter of the store. It had the post office boxes up on the wall, big cut glass candy jars, etc. I looked around the place more. There was no modern food. What I mean by that is, most stores, gas station or other, have doritos etc. Not this place. They had coke and Hershey bars, but the coke was in glass bottles and the Hershey bars were in an odd wrapper. This was true for just about everything in the store. Me and my girlfriend thought this was weird.

We then walked out the store to pay for the gas. Now, normally when I pay for gas in that truck, it's around 50 or 60 dollars. The man said my total was $2.85. I looked at him thinking I had misunderstood or he was joking. Then I asked how much gas was per gallon. "10 cents per. I know it's a little high, but it's the War's fault." I felt a bit uneasy at that point so I quickly handed him the money in silence, got into the truck and drove off using the directions he gave me.

I managed to keep track of where this place was, and we found our way out. We ended up north of the town we wanted to be. Another strange thing was that while my clock said we had been gone for well over 4 hours, it was only 9 PM when we got back and we left at 7 PM, but other than that, everything appeared to be back to normal when we got back at my girlfriends parents'.

My girlfriend and I went looking for the store a couple days later, and we noticed the area we traveled through was slightly different than when we went a couple days before. It looked very similar, but the gas station was completely missing and we couldn't find it. We were certain we were in the exact same spot where the gas station was, but there was no sign of it. No one had heard of the store and we asked everyone. We were both creeped out.

So, we have no real idea of what this was. It was like we both went back in time or in another dimension for the time we went exploring. Why did this happen and how did it happen? Maybe there's some explanation, but I don't know. Has anyone ever had a similar experience like this before?
 
This type of experience comes up again and again. I don't know what to think about it, because it is impossible to verify the actuality of the occurrence.

The best known example involved two English teachers on a holiday, who gave their names in their report as Moberly and Jourdaine who experienced a trip into the past at Versailles, and saw events that happened many years before.

There are many accounts of seeing old time events, as if the experiencer walks into a bubble of the past.

But the major problem is that this a well-worn theme of science fiction stories.I recall a short story by Gore Vidal in which he experiences meeting himself as a child. I'll look up some cases and post the information. PB
 
Thanks PB.

I read through some of that on wikipedia, and yeah this “time slip” sounds very similar to what I experienced. What I'm wondering right now though, if I actually did go through a time slip, did that man I saw at the gas station see me from the future? and if so, that must mean I was at the past for a very short period, a past that took place before I was even born! Which doesn't make sense at all, though I guess things like these are hard to interpret.
 
The two school teachers at the Trianon (Petit Trianon)claimed that in entering the area of influence, the trees looked like "a wood worked in tapestry." In other words, two-dimensional. Possibly you went through a 'portal' to a place where one of our space dimensions was the time dimension, and out time dimension was a space dimension. Maybe just a slight shift in consciousness--but a little too involved to explain here.PB
 
Would be interesting to see if the event could be repeated. To travel to the location as it is now, and get the GPS co-odrinates and gather as much data about the environment when it happened as possible.

One of those moments when all the good ideas come up "afterwards". At the time, would have been interesting to leave something behind in a hidden spot to find now.

Also, it would seem to me that at some point the gas station guy would notice that the cash you gave him was different...dates and all.

Whether there is a myth of a strange visitation in the 40's might be worth the look-see or if the gas station guy has any descendents that might still have the cash.
 
That would be amazing wouldn't it, if I was actually some guy from the future in the 1940's. But, since I was born in 1988, there is just no way I could of, no way these exact same feet could have walked the earth long before I was born.

I didn't really think about what he would say about the money I gave him, then of course I wasn't completely sure I was in a past, a past where todays money wouldn't be the same. He didn't say anything was different about the money, but then I just handed it him straight away and drove off in the truck right after, since I was unsettled while I was there, I wanted to get away and find my way back because that place just had something that didn't feel right. With it being like a 1940's gas station, and having suspicions I was in the past, it wouldn't feel right.

And, I didn't think at the time to buy anything in the store. I only had enough money for what I thought the gas was going to be. I've tried more than once to find the place with my girlfriend, but I can't, and I'm not sure I want to, because it was a scary experience. It was just so far out of reality and that's what made it scary for me.

This is just an idea, but maybe, I'll go back next winter on the exact same day and month that I went last year, because maybe that particular day had some type of connection, I don't know. If I did find it again, I'd be sure to have a camera with me to take some photos as part of evidence, buy some stock, ask the man a few questions like what year it is and what his name is. I wouldn't tell him anything about me though if he asked, since if changing things in the past can change things in the future, that information I give him about myself might be bad for my well-being. I'll see who that woman was at the counter too, because I never actually spoke to her when I was in the store. I'll probably never find it again though, but oh well, I'll try to keep looking, even as scary as it is, its still fascinating that such things can happen.
 
Sleith, Oddly enough, something similar happened to me in rural South Jersey. I was driving around with my father near Fortescue, NJ. I noticed a old rundown Texaco station with a rusty sign etc. that was currently a garage.

I collect signs and such so I decided to turn around and get a better look at the stuff and see if the owner perhaps wanted to sell any of the signs. It started to get really foggy outside and colder. I did not turn off the road at all so I knew the gas station would be up the road a bit.

I was driving and I saw the station. But it looks brand new with the old school pumps and a old tow truck. I would say this all looked of the early 60's vintage. It also seemed later at night than it should have been and no other cars were on the road. I tried my radio in the car and none of the FM stations would work. Only static.

I decided to drive around a bit and explore. Nothing looked at all like I remember it. My dad started to get antsy about the whole thing so I decided we would go back to the roads and places we have been going to my whole life. As soon as I left the road the station was on, everything was back to normal. My FM stations worked. There was no fog and it felt about 10 degrees or so warmer. I decided to go check out the gas station again and it was all run down like the first time.

Odd, The we both had experiences with gas stations. I didn't get to interact with anyone though. That experience is actually what got me to seriously consider trying to travel back in time and not just a fun fantasy of mine. I also sent you a pm. Mark
 
This was really a cool oddity. I wonder if any of the people from that gas station ever wounded up in the future day?

I would wonder if the gas station attendant has much future currency?
 
What about analyzing the fuel? There must be some difference as far as additives, purity etc between WW2 era fuel and today's no? Just a thought...
 
Thought this was the best place to share my story, so I signed up here. I don't even know what happened myself, maybe a disturbance in the time line or something like that, but whatever happened, it wasn't normal. Its a bit creepy, definitely the weirdest thing that has happened to me. When I was 20 (I'm 21 now so just over 6 months ago) my girlfriend and I were spending the winter break with her family. Her family lives right in the heart of the Catskills in upstate New York. It was late December and me and my girlfriend decided "going exploring", since we were bored, we wanted something to do. So, at around 7 PM, we got into my truck and went exploring.

We traveled along in silence. We didn't even have the radio on, we were happy just thinking about nothing. Me being me, I picked roads at random as we were driving, assuming that I could find my way back (I always can in PA), but after driving around for a while, I was seriously lost.

My girlfriend was complaining and I started to panic a bit. I kept trying to find my way back for a while longer, and while I was looking, although I didn't think about it much at the time, the temperature suddenly felt different, although it was still darkish, but it got warmer and there was a slight change in the atmosphere. Then I looked down at the gas gauge and started to freak out. We were almost on empty.

Anyway, luckily, we saw some lights up ahead and realized it was a gas station (which had a sign saying "general store" at the back). We were relived and I pulled up to the pumps. Only these pumps weren't normal gas pumps, they looked like something out of the 40s. I just thought they were for show or something. I then noticed 2 cars, all looking brand new, but from the 1940s or so.

An old man then walked out of the station, wearing old rough looking clothes, and said to me. "Fancy truck there boy, need a fill up?" I said yeah and he proceeded to pump. I asked the man for directions back to Margretville and he gave me them. Me and my girlfriend decided to have a quick look in the store since the gas was almost done.

As I walked in, I saw a woman behind the counter of the store. It had the post office boxes up on the wall, big cut glass candy jars, etc. I looked around the place more. There was no modern food. What I mean by that is, most stores, gas station or other, have doritos etc. Not this place. They had coke and Hershey bars, but the coke was in glass bottles and the Hershey bars were in an odd wrapper. This was true for just about everything in the store. Me and my girlfriend thought this was weird.

We then walked out the store to pay for the gas. Now, normally when I pay for gas in that truck, it's around 50 or 60 dollars. The man said my total was $2.85. I looked at him thinking I had misunderstood or he was joking. Then I asked how much gas was per gallon. "10 cents per. I know it's a little high, but it's the War's fault." I felt a bit uneasy at that point so I quickly handed him the money in silence, got into the truck and drove off using the directions he gave me.

I managed to keep track of where this place was, and we found our way out. We ended up north of the town we wanted to be. Another strange thing was that while my clock said we had been gone for well over 4 hours, it was only 9 PM when we got back and we left at 7 PM, but other than that, everything appeared to be back to normal when we got back at my girlfriends parents'.

My girlfriend and I went looking for the store a couple days later, and we noticed the area we traveled through was slightly different than when we went a couple days before. It looked very similar, but the gas station was completely missing and we couldn't find it. We were certain we were in the exact same spot where the gas station was, but there was no sign of it. No one had heard of the store and we asked everyone. We were both creeped out.

So, we have no real idea of what this was. It was like we both went back in time or in another dimension for the time we went exploring. Why did this happen and how did it happen? Maybe there's some explanation, but I don't know. Has anyone ever had a similar experience like this before?
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I know the feeling. One time I turned on my tv it was playing really old movies. Later when I turned it on it was playing modern movies. And one time I was in this town and went in to the bank and the bank looked like it was built a hundred years ago. When I ask the clerk she said it was built a hundred years ago. I did not see in your story where you were drinking or smoking anything but it is possible there really was a old grocery store. And on the gas it could be the gas station ran out and that is all you really got. It happens but not that often. You should come to Arkansas and drive around the state you really will find some old mom and pop stores. There still around here and there.
 
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