fact
In 1926 a U.S. Marine was crowned King of the Haitian island of Gonâve, the first and only American to become a ruling monarch. His reign ended when the Marines transferred him to his next duty station.
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Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss immigrant in America, co-founded the famous car company and later sold off his stake in his company. After failed business ventures and the 1929 crash, the impoverished Chevrolet then got work as a simple mechanic at his own namesake company and died penniless.
The post Louis Chevrolet, a Swiss immigrant… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
During the Golden Age of Piracy, many pirates set up social safety net programs such as disability payments for injuries sustained while at sea, as well as life insurance to be paid to a pirate’s family if they died.
The post During the Golden Age of Piracy, many… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
In 2013 the Vatican had to pull 6000 papal medals from sale because the inscription said “Lesus“ instead of “Jesus”.
The post In 2013 the Vatican had to pull… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Dr. Werner Forssmann fed a catheter into an artery in his arm and on into his heart without knowing what the consequences would be. He then made an X-ray as proof. This procedure eventually revolutionised heart surgery. In 1956 he was awarded with the Nobel Price for Physiology or Medicine.
The post Dr. Werner Forssmann fed a catheter… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
During WWII, the US provided training and equipment for a Vietnamese group called the Viet Minh that was resisting Japanese occupation. The Viet Minh became the foundation of the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong that the US fought during the Vietnam War.
The post During WWII, the US provided training… appeared first on Crazy Facts.
Social missteps are quite common. Often, we are supposed to follow a set of social rules but no one seems to talk about what they are openly.
We’re just kind of expected to pick up the cues.
For some of us, those social missteps have lasting effects.
Anxiety effects 40 million U.S. adults making it the most common mental health issue. Around 15 million adults struggle with social anxiety.
Since it really is so common to lay awake at night thinking about all the ways you’ve caused an awkward situation, we went to Reddit to see exactly what those social faux pas were.
“When you’re lying in bed at night, do you ever randomly remember some relatively minor social missteps or poorly chosen words you did/said years earlier?”
“And then beat yourself up over it even though it really wasn’t a big deal?”
“If so, what happened?”
Hopefully this doesn’t bring up any bad memories for you.
“In 7th grade, a cute girl asked me to sit next to her. I said my mom won’t let me sit next to girls. My mom said no such thing.” – Risklotrman
“If you said CUTE girls you’d have been a total baller. So close.” – AccidentallyInterest
“When I was in 8th grade one of the hottest girls in our class, who had never spoken to me before, stopped in the hallway near where I was rummaging around in my locker, walked up to me, and said ‘Hey…your cologne smells good’.”
“I replied with a forceful, ‘I…I’m not wearing cologne!’”
“She said, ‘Oh, ok.’ and walked away.”
“I was wearing cologne.” – VaultBoy9
“I accidentally mixed up an inside joke with the wrong friend group with disastrous results.”
“Friend group #1: The ‘joke’ was when someone calls and asks who’s all there we would add Darrell to the list of names. Darrell wasn’t a real person. The joke wasn’t really funny, and made no sense out of context, but I guess that’s why it was an inside joke.”
“Friend group #2: I was hanging out playing some drinking games with a bunch of people that I hadn’t hung out with in a while. It was a kind of get together to remember a friend that they had who had recently died in a car accident. I didn’t know him that well, but I was always down to party.”
“Anyway the phone rings, and the person who answered started listing off names. Sorting my cards for another round of Presidents and A**holes I offhandedly said, ‘Heh and Darrell!’”
“It was the typical record scratch moment where everyone stopped and looked at me. Darrell was the name of the friend who had just died.”
“This happened in 2002 and I still think about it all the time.” – Redditor
“Oh man, I have a mixed up inside joke scenario. It wasn’t me, it was my neighbor.”
“My neighbor is morbidly obese and my mom is Korean, and they joke with each other about it. My neighbor makes racist commits to my mom, she makes fun of my neighbor’s weight.”
“It’s just part of their friendship. They often did it in public too, but it was always obvious when they were standing next to each other that it was inside joke.”
“At one point my neighbor was out with her husband (they’re both white). She was at a check out counter when she blithely remarked about all the damn Koreans taking over the region.”
“The check out lady just stares at her. Then the husband leaned over and said ‘It’s not as funny when [Dragonmeme’s mom] isn’t standing next to you’.”
“Cue my horrified neighbor desperately trying to explain that she wasn’t a racist, that it’s an inside joke. ‘My friend is Korean!’ which of course just made her look worse.”
“My mom lost it when she heard the story.” – DragonMeme
“When I was in fifth grade, our teacher said a joke in front of the class and everyone laughed including myself. After the laughter died down, a girl looked up at me and said. ‘You have a really damn disgusting laugh, ew’.”
“I became so self conscious about laughter since that specific, day, and after years I have trouble actually laughing. My brain kinda made it a habit to just smile or slightly chuckle at something, even if it is really funny.” – precious3tears
“Omg This! When I was in 7th grade I had such a hard time in school. No self esteem at all. I was suicidal, no friends, etc…”
“The one friend I had was a very pretty girl (I’m a girl too) and she was so nice. Well we’re sitting in class and we’re laughing, like genuinely. I would always cover my mouth when I laughed but I didn’t that time because I was genuinely happily laughing.”
“The guy next to her turned to me and looked at me with such disgust I can’t forget it 10+ years later and he said. ‘You look like a man’.”
“I think of that to this day and it hurts like no other. I have never been comfortable with my smile, and always feel like I do look manly. It sucks.” – Hopefulwitch
“Junior prom I blurted out during dinner to my date ‘I’m so bored’ and I have NO idea why it came out of my mouth. I’m pretty well-mannered and quiet. I forget how I tried to play it off, but I felt so bad.” – georgeangela
“I was sitting in a small group of friends in school, and my crush (literally the love of my life at that point) admitted she liked me. It was the happiest moment of my entire life. So naturally I said ‘Ew’. In front of everyone.”
“This was 2nd grade and I still think about it weekly.” – sweetcuppingcakes
“I went through a phase where I scolded people for reading harry potter because my parents told me it was evil. Lots of awkward situations because of that.” – Redditor
“The crazy thing is there is actually a lot of Christ mythology to the story. There’s a chosen one, prophecies of the death of the chosen one, and he dies in sacrifice of everyone else. Then comes back to life.”
“Nothing evil about it, just religious people being afraid of something they don’t understand. My mom remarried and became Pentecostal, it was a rough childhood to say the least.” – moonsnakejane
“For most of my education, I went to public school and like most kids, I was socially awkward. For High School, I received an academic scholarship to a private Catholic school.”
“It was a really big deal for my family. I didn’t know anyone at the new school. Between an odd combination of academics, sports and the tail end of puberty, I became very popular in this new school.”
“I wasn’t used to the attention and it definitely got to my teenage head. Nearly all of my social circles became around the new school and not with my old local friends.”
“I’m in my junior year, I head to a McDonalds for lunch with a few friends from the new school. Working the counter, I see a girl who I used to go to public school with that I used to have a crush on.”
“She just lit up when she saw me, she was so excited, and I … I was a sh*tty teenager and I just ignored her. I pretended I didn’t recognize her. She looked so deflated when I didn’t acknowledge her.”
“Note this was the 90’s. My family moved a few times after that. I settled down in a different part of the country after University. I never made it back to that town.”
“I’ve relived that a**hole moment for years now. Fast forward to one of those nights when I relive that moment, and I decide to look her up on Facebook to apologize.”
“I find out she died 10 years ago in an auto accident. Since I found out her fate, I feel even more awful about that moment.” – Redditor
“I’m one of the people who have been ignored by old friends many times (when younger for similar reasons I assume), and I will just say that I’m sure she had no hard feelings towards that moment.”
“If anything, it was a passing, small feeling of loneliness. Don’t beat yourself up over it, the fact you even looked her up to apologize—that gesture—is kind enough to cancel out the action (times 10).”
“All we can do in life is to move on and learn from our mistakes, especially those we make when we’re younger.” – indeciciveop
“When I was 11, it was my first day at a new school and all the other students were also new. The Maths teacher started our first class by asking each of us about our education background (what school we came from, what they taught in our last year’s Maths class etc.), just trying to get a general idea of what kind of students he was dealing with.”
“Thing is, I was so nervous that I spaced out for a bit and got lost in my overthinking mind, so I didn’t hear the teacher’s questions to my classmates. When it got to my turn, the teacher just said ‘Now tell me about you’, assuming I understood what kind of information he was expecting.
“I just went straight into a monologue that started with ‘So I was born in the South Zone of the city, but my mom decided to move to our current neighborhood a few months after divorcing my dad…’.”
“And went on and on giving some very specific details about my short life. Everyone had a really confused look on their faces and as soon as I realized the teacher was also completely lost I stopped talking and went instantly red.”
“The teacher then said ‘that’s all really great, but I was only interested in what happened last year, not the last 10…’ and everyone started laughing.”
“Next day nobody remembered it anymore, but 12 years later it still comes to mind in pretty random moments.” – alexgvincent
“Freshman year of high school. It was one of those days before school starts and you meet your teacher and your parents are there.”
“My teacher was handing me a piece of paper and I didn’t see the paper so I shook his hand. He said ‘oh’ and my mom said ‘Ummm?’ and I panicked and said ‘I just wanted to be polite!’”
“So I still want to die when I think of that…..” – spaztasticnerd
“That’s actually a good recovery.” – AggressiveSpud
“Same happened to me at the AirPort. She held her hand out for my boarding pass, I shook it instead.” – bleachyanus
“Bruh I can’t even begin to pinpoint one event.”
“I guess one thing is when I was 11, I asked my teacher if I could go to the bathroom three times during class and told me no. And well, sure enough, I couldn’t hold it any longer and there’s bullying for the next six months. Literally shakes me in bed about how I have never felt that low before.”
“SOMEHOW I managed to live through it though lol. We all got flaws. Mine is a bladder that urinates prematurely.” – RealisticYogurt6
“I was visiting Portland for a wedding that lined up with my birthday as well. We went out to celebrate and finished the night at a karaoke bar.”
“Realizing I’m too drunk to sing I pick ‘My Name Is’ by Eminem as my song to perform. There’s two versions of that song. One is the original release, the other tamed down (which you most commonly hear today).”
“The woman controlling the music put on the original, and off I went. One of the lines at the end is ‘running over lesbians in a spaceship while they screamin at me lets just be friends’.”
“I finish the song and I’m met by applause from my friends and one other table. The rest of the place is silent.”
“The DJ goes ‘nice job! Don’t know if it was the best choice for gay women’s night though’. And at that moment I wanted to leave my skin.” – johngannon8
This AskReddit post had over 96 thousand likes, so trust us when we say you’re not alone.
“I think that is the key takeaway from these stories. No one remembers them but you.”
Let the memory fade knowing you’re the only one holding onto it.
We all have our favorite lines of dialogue memorized.
Great dialogue is the heart of film, tv and theatre.
How many films can you quote?
Do you have a film quote for your tombstone?
Mine is from the movie ‘Clue.’ I’m gonna make you guess…
So Redditor No_Housing_4819 wanted to hear what lines no one has forgotten from their favorite films…
“What’s your favorite movie quote?”
Let’s talk cinema…
“Sir, you are a cowardly son of a *itch! You just shot an unarmed man!”
“He should’ve armed himself if he’s gonna decorate his saloon with my friend!” ~ Axenroth187
“You’d be William Munny, outta Missouri. Killer of women and children.”
“That’s right. I’ve killed women and children. Killed just about everything that walks or crawled at one time or another.”
“And I’m here to kill you li’l Bill. For what you did to Ned.” ~ jrf_1973
“I like:”
“ t’s a hell of a thing, killin’ a man. You take all he’s got… and all he’s ever gonna have.”
“Well, I guess they had it comin’”
“We all have it comin’, Kid.” ~ bolerobell
“Gentlemen you can’t fight in here, this is the war room!” ~ AlternativeRip4728
“When I did speech and debate in college those of us who qualified for the national championship took a retreat to a cabin in the mountains for a weekend to work on our craft.”
“My head coach brought this movie along and oh man, what a great film. I highly encourage people to watch this film. Peter Sellers is brilliant.” ~ Pawn_captures_Queen
“I can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.” ~ _stuntnuts_
“I think I got it. But just in case… tell me the whole thing again I wasn’t listening.” ~ WTFrickFrackCadillac
“And Octan, they make great stuff! […] Surveillance systems, all history books, voting machines… wait a second.” ~ StarKnight697
“The fact that I’m seeing so many memorized quotes from the lego movie is making me so happy right now.”
“I was 12 when it was released and I’m gonna be 20 in two months. I miss those days. I’m getting so nostalgic now.” ~ WTFrickFrackCadillac
“He starts monologuing! He starts this prepared speech about how feeble I am to him, how my defeat is inevitable, and the world will soon be his, yada yada yada, he’s yammering!”
“I mean the guy has me on a platter, and he won’t shut up!” ~ Dazzling_Realties
“You sly dog! You got me monologuing!!” ~ burningfirelily
“A hero would sacrifice you for the world but a villain would sacrifice the world for you.” ~ I_Love_Small_Breasts
“If I remember correctly, Weathering with You.” ~ protein_bars
“His selfish desire to be with an ACTUAL GODDESS.”
“I love how complex and big but also intimate and sad the romance in this movie was.”
“He was a villain for sure, but also my heart was breaking for them the whole movie.”
“I wouldn’t have been any happier if he was a hero; everyone would have lost.” ~ WinsomeWombat
“They say the villain is selfish, but have anyone thought about this?”
“And what about the hero? What if they sacrifice you just for glory? What if they were the true villain to begin with?” ~ BasicallyBlu123
“I need your clothes, your boots, and your motorcycle.” ~ 11B-1P-CIB
“Me and my brothers watched T2 almost every night for a month (we couldn’t sleep without tv on and each month was a new movie).”
“We’ve always said ‘ need your clothes, your boots, and your underwear.’”
“And you reminded me of what he actually says lol.” ~ stoicambience
“My friend quotes this all the time, but he remembers it wrong and just says ‘GIMME YA CLOTHES’ in a terrible Arnold accent lol!!” ~ NutSockMushroom
“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” ~ UpperUnderstanding77
“One of the criticisms of Chayefsky’s screenplay was that it was too cynical and unrealistic. In hindsight it almost seems quaint.” ~ DaBake
“YOU HAVE MEDDLED WITH THE PRIMAL FORCES OF NATURE MR. BEALE, AND I WON’T HAVE IT!!!!” ~ Wagglebagga
“Who are you? And how’d you get in here?” “I’m the locksmith, and I’m a locksmith.” ~ parallel_jay
“We’re so sorry about your loss, Wilma. We would have come earlier, but your husband wasn’t dead then. -Police Squad”
“Also in the same vein…”
“Trust me, whatever scum did this to your husband, no man on the force will rest until he’s behind bars! Now let’s grab a bite to eat.”
“I wish they could make parodies like they did back then.”
“There seemed to be a legitimate love for the source material they were spoofing, maybe that’s the key ingredient to make them work?” ~ redfoot62
“My all-time favourite joke. I love it so much.”
“The wording, the delivery, the very existence of this joke are just utterly delicious to me.”
“It’s so clever in its language. I had to think twice when I first heard it, cracked up laughing, and still laugh at it.”
“I read a quote somewhere, I don’t remember where, that ‘the essence of humour is the unexpected’.”
“This joke just hits so perfectly.” ~ cmdrqfortescue
“All the time you spend tryin’ to get back what’s been took from you there’s more goin’ out the door. After a while you just try and get a tourniquet on it.” ~ Cells_Interlinked_77
“I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.”
“Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.”
“All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.” ~f**kitillbeanunicorn
“When you’re ugly and someone loves you, you know they love you for who you are. Beautiful people never know who to trust.” ~ Future_Rooster_3909
“I guess it might seem weird for a comic book movie to dole out some big life lessons, but GotG 2 is chock full of that stuff.”
“Hell, the whole storyline with Peter, Yondu, and Ego is genuinely one of the most touching things I can remember seeing in a movie in a pretty long time.”
“‘He may have been your father, boy, but he wasn’t your daddy.’”
“As someone who grew up without a father, that line bored a hole straight through my soul.” ~ DextrosKnight
Movies are an essential part of life.
We often get lost in the political Hollywood nonsense of it all, but when we look deeper, we realize, film saves us.
Because when film is at its best, it reflects us.
Keep speaking those lines.
Going to therapy is the first big step you should take if you feel like your mental health needs assistance.
If you need it, do it. Don’t be ashamed.
That being said, there is a lot therapists have to deal with on a daily basis, not all of it good. Sometimes they can’t help but judge the people they’re trying to help.
It’s not explicitly said, and from the sounds of it they maintain their professionalism, but sometimes that’s what the internet is best used for—venting your frustrations about what awful people your clients are.
Reddit user, homowithoutsapiens, wanted to know what happens when the hour starts.
“Therapists of reddit, what was your biggest “I know I’m not supposed to judge you but holy sh*t” moment?”
“I work with youth and adolescents who have anxiety, trauma, and/or depression. Some of the kids I worked with had some pretty severe attachment issues. Regardless of this, I never thought I’d have to seriously explain:”
“You can’t just buy a straitjacket for your kid.”
“Feeding your kid ultra Spicy Ramen each night instead of the meal everyone else is eating isn’t specifically defined as abuse, but you have to understand the emotional abuse that this causes.”
“Your kid isn’t trying to kill you because they stand in your doorway at night crying. Thats likely because they’re scared of their traumatic nightmares, but feel like you will just yell at them if they wake you up.” ~ Shozo_Nishi
“Here’s my most recent one: As the pandemic worsened here in the US and more lock downs are on their way, one of my most extroverted clients and I brainstormed ways to meet her social needs while remaining safe.”
“The following week she canceled her session and told me that she’s positive for COVID after attending an orgy, which definitely wasn’t one of our ideas. I let out the deepest most defeated sigh after I hung up the phone.” ~ gyakutai
“Not a judgment – you kind of train your brain not to judge, because you are seeking to understand and help. When you do those things, you can’t simultaneously judge. We could all use a little more of that in real life, I suppose.”
“I’ll share this though. I do feel concerned about this recent phenomenon of young people I worked with self-diagnosing, sharing, and identifying very closely with mental illness; as if the pendulum quickly swung from ‘never, ever share your feelings’ to ‘OMG, you’re depressed? All of us are too!’”
“Life’s challenges can be tough and they don’t need a scientific-sounding label to be valid and real. You are not your diagnosis. We can find validation and support in healthier ways.” ~ Reddit
“Clinical psychologist working primarily in forensics here. This means my clients are usually involves in legal proceedings (family court, juvenile court, criminal court, etc…)”
“My job is usually to evaluate or provide treatment. I’m not there to judge, that’s the judges job, but of course I have my thoughts.”
“I am usually impressed by the justifications people make for sh-tty behavior. The one that irks me the most is when parents manipulate their child against the other parent.”
“I’ve had to do therapy for a 5yo who said she doesn’t want to see a parent because they haven’t paid child support. Excuse me? What 5yo knows, understand, or needs to be worried about child support.” ~ FriktionalTales
“Once had a patient whose wife shook their baby to death. He wanted help reconnecting with his wife.”
“At the time I was a young father of a newborn myself, and he triggered a lot of fear in me for my own child, a deep loathing of his spouse, and pity (the ‘how pathetic’ kind) for the patient.”
“I tried for 3 sessions, met his spouse and everything before handing the case over to my supervisor (who knew about my initial reactions, and tried to help me through it).”
“Unfortunately, it ended up being more about my feelings than his, and I was new to the profession at the time. These things are expected to crop up from time to time, but I was still taken aback by my own reactions.” ~ PrimeGuard
“I work in mental health and have worked in acute and crisis settings for the majority of my career. The most notable event I experienced was when a young person had presented with significant ongoing suicidal ideation who was dealing with a lot of sh*t.”
“I spent a lot of time with them mostly deescalation and working out what the plan should be moving forward.”
“One of their parents came in a little while later and I had the opportunity to speak to them about where their child was and what had been going on, with their consent of course.”
“Midway through me trying to explain some of the psychological constructs and ways the parent could help they said to me, ‘is this going to take much longer I have a show to go and watch’.”
“All I can say is, I never judge my patients, I have never walked their path or viewed the world through their eyes. But the people around them who perpetuate the suffering of the people I work with through ignorance, malice and selfishness, I judge them.” ~ Tedkin
“Therapist here,”
“To piggy back on what others have said, it is highly unlikely for me to have moments where I judge my clients. It happens sometimes, but I’m able to shut down those thoughts quickly in my head and return to being present for the people I see.”
“People are so incredibly complex that my judgment wouldn’t have any meaning anyway and it doesn’t have a place in our work together.”
“I will admit though, something that does get me feeling a little salty is when I have a client’s parent that attempts to sabotage the therapeutic relationship I have with their child, or pulling them out of therapy entirely when some of the things we talk about challenges some potentially unhealthy family dynamics. I don’t feel anger toward the parents, mostly I feel bad for the kid.” ~ dirtyberti
“Lots of people discussing pedophilia as an example of the toughest stuff to not judge despite our training. I haven’t yet treated a pedophile thankfully. At least not an identified one.”
“I did run a men’s anger management group though, and some of those men had done some terrible things to women. Most of them I found ways to like and admire for their positive aspects, but there were two guys in that group I just could never find ‘unconditional positive regard’ for.”
“One guy basically never spoke in group. He would give one word answers and occasionally just discuss how unfair the ‘system’ was to him. I worked really hard to open him up and find things to connect over but he never opened up to me or the group.”
“He left the group after he strangled his girlfriend and went to jail. She survived thankfully.”
“The other left group early routinely, showed up late, participated minimally and similarly never wanted to open up honestly. He left early one group after we had discussed him staying to the end and threatened me when I told him he wasn’t going to get credit for attendance (something the court required).”
“Oddly, I eventually moved into the apartment below him (completely without knowledge) and listened to him scream at his girlfriend and break sh*t while I called the cops.”
“I judge these men. They’re sh-tty. Maybe they’re redeemable, but redemption requires self-exploration and they both refused to do so.”
“It’s worth noting how differently I felt about them than so many others in the group; men I found ways to help and admire and respect even in spite of their awful behavior in the past.” ~ MyFianceMadeMeJoin
“Okay, real therapist here. I got one.”
“Some of my clients are SHOCKINGLY BAD at giving themselves credit, holy sh*t!!
“Like they might get a nearly straight A GPA in a brutal major while battling depression, or overcome years of phobia and get behind the wheel again, or write a literal novel, or raise a kid as a single parent with low income, or build new relationships after being burned, or cope with OCD well enough to hold down a job.”
“And they’ll talk about themselves as if everyone on earth is better than them, as if their accomplishments are worthless. And I know it’s because of depression or anxiety or another condition, but I’m often stunned by how differently I see them compared to how they see themselves.” ~ Reddit
Don’t be afraid to share with your doctor.
That’s what they are there for.
Get the help you need.
Families are full of all kinds of secrets and surprising moments, and it’s important that we keep them in the family.
But sometimes, in the anonymity of a Reddit thread, some of the truth comes out.
“What are some weird or interesting facts about your families?”
“I placed my newborn for adoption (open adoption, chose the family myself). A few years later my sister got pregnant and placed her newborn with the same family.”
“So the children are growing up as siblings and are cousins by blood. (This was over 20 years ago.)” – ihateknickknacks
“Not that unheard of but my husband likes to tell people about when he first met my family. He went with me to visit one side (my Mother’s family) for Thanksgiving and met many of my Uncles, Aunts, and cousins.”
“The next day, we were going to have Thanksgiving on my other side (my Father’s family). When we walked in the door that next day, he stopped and his eyes got really wide, and he loudly whispered, “These are the same people,’ and I went, ‘Yeah, I know… surprise!’”
“My mother’s brother married my father’s sister and my mother’s other sister married my father’s first cousin.”
“And then if that isn’t confusing enough, my Grandmother and Grandfather were first cousins when they got married. (legal as he was adopted as a teenager).”
“My Grandmother said she did this so she never had to change her last name and she was the only girl short enough for him. My Grandfather was only 5 ft 2 inches and my Grandmother was 5 ft. Both came from Canada. Out of their 8 children, including two sons, the tallest is one of my aunts at 5 ft. 4 in. Luckily my mother (5 ft) married my dad who was 6ft 2 inch so we at least have some height in our family.” – Tbjkbe
“We recently found out that I have at least 5 half-siblings because my parents decided it would be nice (and financially beneficial) for my dad to make some donations around the time I was born.” – BananaMantis
“My great grandfather got in a fight with his sister when he was 12, said ‘F**k this,’ asked for work on a boat as a cabin boy, got on a ship, and left England.”
“He never went back. We have no idea if that side of the family even knows he survived, but I kind of want to go to the English town and tell my distantly extended family, ‘So you know that little kid in your family history who just sort of disappeared? Well, he lived! Surprise!’”
“Another great grandfather stole a cannon from China (which my grandfather blew up accidentally with my dad nearby), then left his future descendants a letter, telling us, ‘If you still have this last name and go to this part of China, don’t mention your name. They might still be pretty p**sed off that I stole their cannon.’”
“A few generations back, a dude got kicked out of Norway for getting his maid and his sister pregnant. When he got to the US, he then befriended another guy from Scandinavia and stole his wife.”
“It’s funny because part of the family laughs about this, and part refuses to admit it ever happened even though we have proof it did.” – Vonozar
“My great grandmothers maiden name was Messerschmidt. rumor has it that a relative designed the Messerschmidt planes in Germany during the first world war. There’s no way to prove it though.”
“And on the other side of the family, My great-great grandfather’s name was James Potter.” – shroomie19
“My great uncle was in the car with JFK when he was assassinated.” – Sterling_-_Archer
“My grandfather was the first Black aerospace engineer in the United States.” – cycloneju51
“My great grandparents both worked for Thomas Edison, which is how they met. That great-grandmother is super bada**, too… she came to the States when she was 15 and didn’t speak English, just as the German Depression was getting bad.”
“She had to teach herself English and raise enough money to bring her starving family over from Germany to join her here. She lost all her savings in the US stock market crash and had to start all over, but she did it!”
“Okay, I talked to my mom and I was mistaken. Only my great-grandmother worked for him originally, and she met my great-grandfather while in NYC with Edison and his second wife.”
“She went out with a friend who was also German, who brought her out with a group of German friends, which is where she met my great-grandfather. After they were married, he too went to work for Edison, and that’s where I got the story mixed up. I’m sorry for the error!”
“Also, a commenter asked how they thought of him, since Edison was known as kind of a jerk. I copied my reply from another comment here:”
“So I asked my mom, and she said that her grandmother never felt he liked her very much. She was maid to him and his second wife toward the end of his life.”
“When she brought him meals or came in to tidy up, he wouldn’t speak to her and wouldn’t even make eye contact.”
“He was able to be up and walking around the grounds and conversing with others though, and he always wondered if it was because of her station, or because she was German.” – joey1115
“We only die in March. Dogs, grandparents, uncles, we all die in March.” – AnarchyBea
“I had an ancestor who lied about his age to join up with the Union Army in the American Civil War in 1861. He fought in most of its bloodiest battles: Antietam, Shiloh, and Gettysburg to name a few.”
“He survived all of those to come home to the family farm at the end of the war, where he promptly died of a fever he had picked up in camp.” – captainthomas
“My grandad was poisoning my nan’s tea with rat poison for ages. She was documenting it and told the police, they did a huge bust on him and arrested him in front of all their kids (inc. my mum).”
“In court, he admitted to it, he agreed to all the charges, he did the deed. Eventually, the judge, flummoxed, asked ‘… But why?’”
“And his answer was, ‘Because we agreed to it.’”
“Apparently, they had made an agreement to use rat poison to home-treat her deep vein thrombosis (this brand was basically a blood thinner so the rats couldn’t clot when they got injured, and they both distrust doctors). This woman is crazy and I fully believe my grandad’s side.”
“The case got thrown out of court.” – Howlingz
While some secrets are hard for us to accept, especially when they relate to our families, many of the truths in our families are what helped form our families into what they are, from the family tree itself to important involvement in history.