My town is stranger than your town

[Error_404]

My town is kinda boring, we have one of the more prominent UFO sightings, I think, so every year in May there's a big ufo festival, nothing too big besides maybe being the home of the world's largest wooden airplane

There are supposedly some decommissioned tunnels that run under the main road downtown that might be haunted according to some people, though I can't really find any info about it online

 

[Mizeris Lutz Ether Lanai]

Do you live in Sherwood Forest?

 

[Bakercat]

Go on...

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Was a bunch of teenagers from my high school. They spent nights in the graveyards drinking each other's blood and doing rituals. They also stole animals from the humane society where they sacrificed them and drank their blood. The leader went on to murder his girlfriend's parents and is currently serving a life sentence. My mom actually worked with him at Walmart back then when she worked in the Bakery. He has turned his life around in prison last I heard. Our town was also known as one of the most friendliest towns in America once, which I find ironic given this case.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Ferrell

 

[TestMonkey]

We have a church that used to be a strip club.

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San Diego?

 

[Busaiku]

Weirdest thing I'd seen was a horse dead on an island on the road.

 

[Fatoy]

I live in one of a small conglomeration of villages between Manchester and Huddersfield. We're home to what I believe is the world's biggest brass band contest every year, and brass bands come from as far afield as Sweden, in big tour buses, to play before a hidden panel of judges in each village. Basically the whole area is shut down for a full weekend, and everyone sits outside and watches people march around with trombones.

We're also home to a rushcart race and an associated museum. And the Richard Gere World War 2 movie Yanks was filmed in one of the villages, so every year people get into old tanks and Jeeps they keep meticulously maintained, and other people dress in era-appropriate costumes, and the biggest village has a parade where everyone gets drunk and pretends it's World War 2.

Just down the road from me is a coffee roaster who does great private business supplying hotels etc. with exciting coffee ground on-site, but he also runs a drop-in cafe where he'll serve you if he feels like it, or he might give you some free wellington boots with your coffee, or he might just shout at you and kick you out if you're inconveniencing him. I've stopped trying to go there for coffee.

My brother lives just into the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the last time I drove home from his house, I had to get out of the car twice to slap a sheep on the ass and convince it to get out of the road.

I used to live in the centre of Manchester (England's second-biggest city) before this, so it's been quite a change of pace the last few years. I wouldn't change it for anything, though; there are three local breweries, great schools, and really imposing scenery a few minutes' walk from my front door. And I actually live in a modern house with decent fibre internet, so it's kind of like the best of both worlds.

 

[Coricus]

My odd rural-city hybrid area isn't quite that colorful, but I did see someone bring their blind opossum to the pet store last week.

And I had to stop for a woodchuck on a city street once.

The strangeness in my area is kind of subdued really, to fit the overall mediocrity of everything else around here. So you get things like Amish buggy parking at Wal-Mart and the county desperately putting up bizarre art pieces every few years like flower gardens in the shape of quilts and statues of elks each painted in some different way like parts of a figurine collection. Which needless to say literally no one gives a crap about, except in the literal sense of the occasional horse crap.

You have the restaurant partially built out of a diner car that was apparently featured on a TV show to their pride, but the seats are ripped up and the food is eh. The little quaint town square area full of shops, except most of the shops are either empty or useless to people that actually want to go shopping. The largest county fair in the state to the point that it's almost like a cheap theme park with the number of rides and side shows and pseudo-celebrities blaring concerts every night, which is actually pretty OK except it's searing hot out during that time of year. But the entire rest of the year we basically don't have much to offer and the societal culture as a whole around here is really self-conscious and in denial about that.

But hey the area does all the bad stuff only halfway just like the good, so it averages out pretty OK. Kinda.

 

[Deleted member 13859]

You think that's strange? England?
I guess if stange means quaint.

You have no ideas the real dystopias that are out there.

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Dartford, Thamesmead

I present to you Catford and it's legendary citizen
Fritz
https://www.google.com/search?q=fri...j1j7&hl=en-GB&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8

Also with a name like catford
https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1........5..41j0i67j0j46j46i275j46i10.KMREpTzWEnw

On mobile so cannot shortern links.

The catford mess indoor markets was some strange ass place selling random jumble sale stuff.

 

[Deleted member 13859]

In my home town, a guy stripped naked, got a shotgun, and drove to the only store in town and aggressively proposed to the young cashier. Then, he drove down main with all the truck doors open with the gun across his lap to a barn. The SWAT team finally arrived from a few towns over and listened to him play piano all night before he surrendered.

Edit: as for animals, I once had to chase down and subdue five emus that had escaped and were running around town. You ain't lived until you've snatched the neck of an angry emu from the window of a moving pickup to stuff a pillow case on it.

Context: this is a town of 500 people in the deserts of New Mexico, not Australia

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Wow sometimes real life can be stranger than ..... Fiction
https://youtu.be/6YMPAH67f4o

 

[Imthenothusband]

My town is just known for hanging a monkey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-40801937

 

[1upsuper]

https://www.reddit.com/r/marton/

This town's subreddit is weird, you have to go down the rabbit hole a bit, but some of the posts are creepy.

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What's the deal with this? I can't figure out if this is some weird role-playing subreddit or what.

 

[Deleted member 40631]

oegjevsfvf

 

[CognitiveAtrophy]

Well, my town is much like yours with the notable exception that David Icke lives here. I guess that means I win.

 

[malus]

I live in one of a small conglomeration of villages between Manchester and Huddersfield. We're home to what I believe is the world's biggest brass band contest every year, and brass bands come from as far afield as Sweden, in big tour buses, to play before a hidden panel of judges in each village. Basically the whole area is shut down for a full weekend, and everyone sits outside and watches people march around with trombones.

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I've been to the Whit Friday Contest multiple times with my band (I'm from Switzerland) and it was always great to play in front of so many people. We are actually trying to establish a contest in our hometown inspired by it.

Otherwise my hometown is quite boring. The most exciting thing was probably the "Tour de Suisse" bicycle race crossing through it.

 

[Revolsin]

Read 'stronger' and was heavily intrigued by the concept​

 

[Deleted member 23850]

Oh you sweet summer child, have you heard of New Orleans...

 

[rein]

I wish my town was strange. It's just boring with nothing to do...

 

[Agent 47]

We have a museum dedicated to the old salt mines under our town. You guys would love it!

 

[Phoenix944]

Strangest thing that happen to me in my town (Paris) is a homeless dude asking if I have toilet paper. I said no, he said it was ok. Then he took a shit in the subway station.
I didn't not stay to see with what he wiped his ass.

 

[Katten]

In my town it is legal to hit swedish people with clubs if they cross the frozen seas in the winter.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Will get to page 2 in a bit!

It's my avatar!

There aren't a lot of available details about it, but you can find some of them here: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/the-vampire-rabbit-of-newcastle-newcastle-upon-tyne-england

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Hmmm...I dunno. Seems they just painted it to look sinister. :D

There's also a mall not too far from here that was the mall that Doc Brown got shot in front of and a highschool that was the Reaver home planet from Serenity

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Ha! I've seen that one. I've seen all of them if I'm honest. Cool about the movie stuff. Must make it more entertaining to go shopping.

Unfortunately no!

I was in the car with my brother waiting to pick up a friend who works at said Starbucks, which is attached to a larger strip mall. He saw the cat first across the parking lot. But I'm so short, that by the time I was able to sit up and find the guy, he'd already picked up the stubborn animal and carried it to an outdoor cafe. At the angle we were at, behind cars and things, it would've been impossible to get a good picture without just approaching the owner like a weirdo. I just didn't want to be that person.

But hey, I've got two other witnesses to corroborate my story!


Haha, did you make like a gesture of solidarity? Like a fist bump or something? You had to complete the moment.

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We actually all kind of just looked at each other awkwardly and had a nervous laugh. People who walk cats are weirdos, after all.

The real Hannibal Lecter is from my city.

Honestly my city is a bit infamous lol

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Oooo, I like gruesome ones.

You think that's strange? England?
I guess if stange means quaint.

You have no ideas the real dystopias that are out there.

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I've been all over, so I do know plenty, actually. I've just never lived in such a wonderfully strange place as this.

Some people say that our area is very rich of satanic cults, but i don't know.
Lots of friends say they saw the most weird stuff.

Friends of my friends used to hang out in a very old house, called "Mansion of the Seven Cypresses", and one afternoon they got in and saw a naked lady in a bed with 5 people in a black robe around her. They ran away fast, veeery fast.

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Tried looking this one up, but tons of things come up for it. Is it the plantation one?

My town is pretty dull.

But my Dad comes from a little town in the mountains of Colorado. It was settled by Mormon pioneers, and every year on July 24th, (the anniversary of the day the Mormon pioneers arrived in UTAH, not the day these people arrived in Colorado,) they have a big celebration of pioneer heritage.

This includes a parade.
Oh, god, the parade.

The parade happens on, I think, the closest Friday to the 24th of July. It's a huge deal. Every church, every business, every sub-group witihin every church has a float in this parade. And the whole town turns out to watch it.
This is not the dumb part.
Everyone goes out, the floats go by, they all clap appreciatively. Some of the floats have people throwing candy. It's neat. And after the parade goes by, they all keep sitting there. Why, you ask? Because the parade is going to turn around when it reaches the end of the route, and then come back, and they are all going to watch the other side of the parade as it goes back the other direction.
This is still not the dumb part.
The dumb part is that on Saturday, the next day, they go out and do it all over again. People sit and watch the parade, then they wait, and then they watch it go back the other way.
I have seen family members go to watch the same stupid parade four times.
Now, disclaimer, I have not been there in several years. Maybe they don't do that anymore. And in fairness, they have a pretty great carnival and cookout associated with the whole thing. But... yeah, the parade is a running joke in my family.

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That sounds...special...

Ha, I know where that is.

Hot Fuzz is basically a documentary about the village that I grew up in near the Peak District. They had an annual village fete since 1845 where the local well was "dressed" with flowers and a "Well Dressing Queen" (a young girl) was crowned.

There's maypole dancing, arts and craft marquees, children's entertainment, a pet show, Morris dancers, vintage car and tractor displays, Songs of Praise and more. It's all very Wicker Man/Midsommar.

Peak white people.

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Yesssssssss! The Hot Fuzz town! This is exactly what I was thinking, and yup, we're neighbors. Something about that was posted on the FB page, actually. Does seem a bit Wickerman-esque, eh? 'Peak' white people, indeed. :D

My town has:

- A water tower that looks like a birthday cake
- Someone who keeps a clothed, ATV/motorcycle-riding alligator named Rambo
- A group of swans descended from a pair that once belonged to Queen Elizabeth II who serve as the city's mascots

Actually I guess my town isn't that strange at all.

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C'mon, you can't just drop that without a picture.

In my home town, a guy stripped naked, got a shotgun, and drove to the only store in town and aggressively proposed to the young cashier. Then, he drove down main with all the truck doors open with the gun across his lap to a barn. The SWAT team finally arrived from a few towns over and listened to him play piano all night before he surrendered.

Edit: as for animals, I once had to chase down and subdue five emus that had escaped and were running around town. You ain't lived until you've snatched the neck of an angry emu from the window of a moving pickup to stuff a pillow case on it.

Context: this is a town of 500 people in the deserts of New Mexico, not Australia

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I think they could use you in Australia, TBH. You ever heard about the Emu War?

Anyone else have a guy set fire to a packet of peanuts in a phone box then try to have sex with an ambulance? Just me? Oh.

https://metro.co.uk/2013/02/15/drun...and-tried-to-have-sex-with-ambulance-3480219/

Jim'll Paint It covered it

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That's...something special, all right.

Did the birds get free drinks or did they have to pay up?

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I think all cute birds drink free there, but I could be wrong. :)

 

[Xagarath]

Hmmm...I dunno. Seems they just painted it to look sinister. :D

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That's the likely explanation, but the popular view around here is Vampire Rabbit!

 

[mclem]

Oxford has:

Occasional monks.
Eccentric academics.
Busking string quartets.

A main road in the centre of town is shut down for a couple of days at the end of August for a full-on fair. This fair has run since medieval times.

Thousands of people congregate at the crack of dawn - and we're talking students here, the times I did it I only managed it from staying up all night - on the first of May to hear one song from the top of a cathedral tower. This has been going for over 500 years. And people often jump into the river from the nearby bridge. This all closes down the other major road into town.

There's probably more Oxfordy things, but it's been a while since I lived in the city centre to witness it first hand!

 

[DIE BART DIE]

Yesssssssss! The Hot Fuzz town! This is exactly what I was thinking, and yup, we're neighbors. Something about that was posted on the FB page, actually. Does seem a bit Wickerman-esque, eh? 'Peak' white people, indeed. :D

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I've spent so much time here I unintentionally make quaint pastoral puns apparently. I think I remember you from the old forum, you used to live in the US yeah? Wild to think someone could travel all that way and end up in my neck of the woods!

 

[Conkersbadfurday]

My town used to be the apple capital of the world! Then they mayor had a bunch of the orchards turned into real estate because he's a dicknugget. Now we're the apple capital of Minnesota which is a lot less impressive.

not much happens here

 

[Chimpzy]

So, there's no one on Era from Florida? That's disappointing, tho I guess it would be kind of unfair to everyone else.

Anyway, my town is boring. The most remarkable things about it are a few mentally handicapped dudes. One walks around town dressed as a wild west sheriff with a plastic toy revolver and smoking a pipe, the other drives around in a go-kart all day and slowy tries to chase cats and other animals around. Oh and that group of statues on one of the main town squares that is supposed to represent city workers, but unfortunately looks like it's made out of shit.

 

[Rassilon]

My home town is one of the Northern towns that inspired 'Royston Vasey' in the League of Gentlemen.

 

[Glasgow Mega-Snake]

In the next somewhat bigger town there's a schizophrenic guy who call's himself Jesus and writes bible quotes on every advertisement he can get his hands on.

I once saw someone walking a ferret on a leash

The usual?

Oh, and closeby there's a museum for mechanical musical intruments. They have some pretty cool stuff

 

[KentP]

I've seen ferrets being walked on leads a couple of times now

We also 'weigh our mayor in' at the start of their term, and 'weigh them out' at the end with a giant pair of scales to see if they've put on weight at the taxpayers expense - if they have, custom has it that they are booed, jeered and have rotten fruit and veg thrown at them (the fruit and veg no longer features in festivities though)

 

[Fatoy]

I've been to the Whit Friday Contest multiple times with my band (I'm from Switzerland) and it was always great to play in front of so many people. We are actually trying to establish a contest in our hometown inspired by it.

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That's really cool. I have to admit, when I first heard about the contest, I dismissed it as ludicrous. But that all evaporated when I actually went along and saw how seriously people take it internationally, and how it brings the local community together.

 

[Deleted member 30411]

My town created this man.

 

[H.Protagonist]

Do you live in Sherwood Forest?

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Cheshire is rural but they're more like to be the ones robbed than be home to the robbers. This is Hunter boots country.

Was a bunch of teenagers from my high school. They spent nights in the graveyards drinking each other's blood and doing rituals. They also stole animals from the humane society where they sacrificed them and drank their blood. The leader went on to murder his girlfriend's parents and is currently serving a life sentence. My mom actually worked with him at Walmart back then when she worked in the Bakery. He has turned his life around in prison last I heard. Our town was also known as one of the most friendliest towns in America once, which I find ironic given this case.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Ferrell

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Amazed they downgraded to life with that account, but if anything productive can come out of that mess good, I suppose. The juxtaposition does make it kind of funny, though.

I live in one of a small conglomeration of villages between Manchester and Huddersfield. We're home to what I believe is the world's biggest brass band contest every year, and brass bands come from as far afield as Sweden, in big tour buses, to play before a hidden panel of judges in each village. Basically the whole area is shut down for a full weekend, and everyone sits outside and watches people march around with trombones.

We're also home to a rushcart race and an associated museum. And the Richard Gere World War 2 movie Yanks was filmed in one of the villages, so every year people get into old tanks and Jeeps they keep meticulously maintained, and other people dress in era-appropriate costumes, and the biggest village has a parade where everyone gets drunk and pretends it's World War 2.

Just down the road from me is a coffee roaster who does great private business supplying hotels etc. with exciting coffee ground on-site, but he also runs a drop-in cafe where he'll serve you if he feels like it, or he might give you some free wellington boots with your coffee, or he might just shout at you and kick you out if you're inconveniencing him. I've stopped trying to go there for coffee.

My brother lives just into the West Riding of Yorkshire, and the last time I drove home from his house, I had to get out of the car twice to slap a sheep on the ass and convince it to get out of the road.

I used to live in the centre of Manchester (England's second-biggest city) before this, so it's been quite a change of pace the last few years. I wouldn't change it for anything, though; there are three local breweries, great schools, and really imposing scenery a few minutes' walk from my front door. And I actually live in a modern house with decent fibre internet, so it's kind of like the best of both worlds.

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Sounds both exciting and stressful. I'd love to try my luck there, though. :D

My town is just known for hanging a monkey

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-40801937

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Wow. That's definitely something. Like, how could even the most uneducated person have thought the thing was human...?

Well, my town is much like yours with the notable exception that David Icke lives here. I guess that means I win.

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He is pretty special, but does it mysteriously rain grass in your town?

Oh you sweet summer child, have you heard of New Orleans...

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Indeed, and I've been there before (left two days? before Hurricane Katrina). I would certainly say it would beat out my town if anyone here was living there and shared some of the amazing stories (of which I know a great abundance and also delight in).

In my town it is legal to hit swedish people with clubs if they cross the frozen seas in the winter.

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Seems like common sense to me.

Oxford has:

Occasional monks.
Eccentric academics.
Busking string quartets.

A main road in the centre of town is shut down for a couple of days at the end of August for a full-on fair. This fair has run since medieval times.

Thousands of people congregate at the crack of dawn - and we're talking students here, the times I did it I only managed it from staying up all night - on the first of May to hear one song from the top of a cathedral tower. This has been going for over 500 years. And people often jump into the river from the nearby bridge. This all closes down the other major road into town.

There's probably more Oxfordy things, but it's been a while since I lived in the city centre to witness it first hand!

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I love stuff like this. To keep up traditions for so long is amazing.

I've spent so much time here I unintentionally make quaint pastoral puns apparently. I think I remember you from the old forum, you used to live in the US yeah? Wild to think someone could travel all that way and end up in my neck of the woods!

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I did, and Japan before that, and Australia before here! It is funny to land so near a fellow this far out of the way of things. One of the baristas in Costa here knew my old company and a bunch of games I'd worked on, though. That was kind of weird too. :D

My home town is one of the Northern towns that inspired 'Royston Vasey' in the League of Gentlemen.

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Yessssssss...!

I've seen ferrets being walked on leads a couple of times now

We also 'weigh our mayor in' at the start of their term, and 'weigh them out' at the end with a giant pair of scales to see if they've put on weight at the taxpayers expense - if they have, custom has it that they are booed, jeered and have rotten fruit and veg thrown at them (the fruit and veg no longer features in festivities though)

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This is a good tradition and I think it should be carried out everywhere.

 

[Rassilon]

I've seen ferrets being walked on leads a couple of times now

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I have seen this in Leeds.

A man was walking a ferret and a dog, and they were getting on just fine with each other, but the ferret moved in an incredibly erratic manner.

 

[Deleted member 24021]

Yes, the entirety of Florida.

 

[H.Protagonist]

I have seen this in Leeds.

A man was walking a ferret and a dog, and they were getting on just fine with each other, but the ferret moved in an incredibly erratic manner.

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I used to have ferrets as a kid and when we took them for walks they were incredibly erratic. I think it's just a ferret thing.

Yes, the entirety of Florida.

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It's not by state but by town. Give some examples from your town! Pics of alligators riding lawnmowers also appreciated.

 

[Vex]

My block is stranger than your city. Heck, my apartment complex is stranger. Imagine coming home and suddenly the smell of a dead body hits your nose as you settle in. Imagine having a drug deal drive-thru in front of your apartment complex. Imagine looking out your window and seeing a lady trying to make a snow angel in the concrete - she was probably on drugs. Imagine hearing loud thumps every night to the point where you get used to them and brush it off as loud neighbors, but then one day it actually is something serious and the cops are now asking you if you noticed two hooded individuals fleeing the area - they kicked in the neighbor's door and held them at gun point for money.

 

[Riversands]

You said your town was strange. But have you ever heard of King Falls?