Some individuals find themselves haunted by harrowing childhood memories that do not get erased from your memory no matter how many years go by. People live with their messed-up childhood memories every day. Read on about people's experiences that will bring back your chilling childhood memories:
1. It Is All False
I think my childhood was quite unusual. I used to sleep in my bedroom with dad on two separate beds while my mom slept across the house in her own bedroom. It was pretty clear that things were not okay for them even for someone as young as I was, understood that. When he was out for the weekends until early hours of the morning most weeknights. Much later, I found out about the truth.
I read a text on my dad's phone where the number wasn't saved saying that he would love to spend Christmas with his 'real' family. I was 13 years old back then and wanted to play Snack. Much later, despite having my own family I figured out that my dad cheated on my mom openly with the same woman during their entire 18 years of marriage and I had a half-sister who is my age.
I am pretty sure the text was for that lady but I never cared to ask.
2. Could Not Make It Back Home
When I was around 8 years old or so and once returned from a week long camping trip that school offered, during the return we got stuck in the traffic and it seemed like we had been there for ages. However, I wanted to go for #2 real bad. A 8 year old held the job for dear life while white-knuckled to the seat as we pulled into the parking lot of the school.
Ma'am asked us to wait for our turn to get up and leave but I was not going to do that so when the doors opened, I ran. I also heard my parents yell my name and the teachers too, however as I ran my friends were laughing. It didn't matter to me because I felt the thunder would explore any moment.
I vaguely remember thinking I made it to the bathroom and I was wrong because I threw my entire weight when I smashed into it and suddenly screamed in pain. I didn't know the school locked the bathroom doors after hours. I crushed to the ground in a mass, my bowels took the moment and led the way. Later, someone picked and immediately dropped me. That did not help in any way either.
3. Learnt My Lesson
During my high school days, I had a friend whose parents were absent in his entire childhood. We made fun of him about how jealous we were that he could do whatever he wanted. He would literally go for a sleepover at anyone's house on any day of the week and never had a curfew. Eventually, we became close friends and I started going to his house and to say the least, he was filthy rich.
The food he had was either non-perishable junk food or microwaveable. There was also a turtle tank which was placed between the sink and the stove in the kitchen. The dishes were always filled and trash was everywhere. He would usually grab any opportunity to live at our place when our parents permitted us to but I had to stop calling him over because my friend would not clean up after himself usually.
He once left bread crumbs all over our couch and my mother got furious: 'He should know better, what would his parents think?' to which I said, 'Well, I don't think they would think much.' and went ahead to explain to my mother about the situation at his place. My mother was surprised and held ground on the sleepover he can have only if he learnt to clean after himself and was well-fed.
4. Like Mother, Like Son
My mother had major anger issues. She would usually get mad and handle her frustration in the most psychotic way—by slamming her head on the wall. I always thought it was a sensible way to cope with frustration until I tried the same and was hurt. Hence, I stopped that but would regularly punch walls so hard that it would break my bone or dig holes through the wall.
5. Go Through It
When my uncle was in his phase of withdrawal from substance addiction, I had my worst memory from childhood when I was around 10 years old. My uncle was usually loud, funny and crazy. Once, when my mom and I were heading home from somewhere, we pulled up and he was right there outside and wanted a place to stay. Because my mother had work the next day, she said no anyway I hung out with him for a while outside.
I could figure that he did not feel good because he was gagging and it seemed terrifying. That's when I knew the worst incident occurred. When I asked him if I should ask for help, he said he was fine. Eventually, he died because of liver failure as a result of his refusal to receive medical help.
6. Poor Precedence
When I was 4 years old, my family hosted a BBQ and had relatives over. Everybody was caught up with preparations and brought their stuff all ready. I was extremely hungry and my mother damaged the corn dog to keep me content until then food was finished. I was too young to even help, and I was bored so I started to balance around the lip of the pool.
It is essential to note that our pool was broken from months and had few feet of algae as well at the bottom. Additionally, it also had tadpoles and as I was standing on the lip of the pool, I fell inside and as I was in the middle of the fall, all I could do was think, 'No, not my corn dog!' I raised my corn dog up and laid face down floating in the water. I was surprised and didn't know what to do.
I was drowning with one arm raised and my eldest sister who heard the splash came running and screamed, 'OMG, OMG!' Let me get my bathing suit on!' and went back into the house whereas my brother saved me fully clothed. Fortunately, my corn dog was DRY. A minute after, my sister came out in a black one-piece.
7. Miserable And Loved
I was 6 years old when I used to regularly walk my grandma upstairs whenever I visited her home. She used to love holding my hand, she said and when I went into her room, she would compliment my shirts and say, 'What is this on your shirt here called?' and I would say, 'Oh that is Winnie the Pooh' or any other character I was wearing.
She would tell me stories about different characters or talk about them. When I turned 16 years old, she hit me with the harsh truth that she had been blind for many years. She would ask me for guidance, ask what was on my shirt as she could feel a pattern on it. It made me feel miserable to learn about it and also very loved as well.
Even though she could not see, she would never fail to compliment me about what I wore, all the time. When she passed away, I was quite young but memories like these are something that have stuck by me like glue.
8. I Was Not Dreaming
When I was in 5th grade, I recollect thinking that I felt as if I was going to pass and that was my dream. I constantly tested if it was so. My educators would usually call my parents regarding my weird behavior and were surprised to find out what I was up to. I would not swallow my own saliva, don't know why.
Once, a kid got treats and I trashed mine as I thought he might have spiked something in it. Apart from that, I also twisted my hair due to issues from stress. Around that age, I was pretty paranoid and my teacher thought I was insane.
9. Untold Family Secret
There was this one instance when I went to my friend's home to play video games during the weekend. I might have been 10 years old or so back then and by then played a lot of games on the PS2. Her mother came to the basement from upstairs and asked if we wanted to eat and looked behind and said, 'Yes please,' and before I could finish saying the latter word, I noticed she had a black eye. I immediately turned to my friend asking what happened to her mom's face and his reply brought shivers to my spine: 'I cannot say.'
This event happened when I was 10 years old and it swiftly moved from it saying, 'Oh okay.' We went on to continue playing video games. I couldn't understand this until I turned 19 years old.
10. I Can Still Visualize It
I was around 5-6 years old when we lived in a complex with 8 units. Once my dad asked me to jump through one of the bathroom unit windows and run through the house to open the front door. I actually didn't want to because there was a lady who was old and lived there and believed I would get in trouble if I was caught. Nonetheless, I went through the window and made my way through the front door.
Once I reached the lounge room, I had a creepy sight—she was on the lounge chair, slumped, with her eyes open looking right at me. She was quite creepy but I recall thinking again that I was caught breaking into her house. However, I opened the door and ran through my parents and neighbor right home.
Not long after, an ambulance came and I didn't understand what happened but in my teens realized that she had passed away. Apparently, she had been dead for a few days and everybody in the complex was worried about her so they used me to check her well-being. Even after 30 years, I still have the sight clear in my head.
11. Treasure The Moments
When I was a child, my parents parted ways and I would usually meet my dad on some days and mother on the other days because they lived close by. There was an instance when I did not want to live at my dad's place and because I was an ignorant child and liked it more with mom than dad. I preferred her home because I could do a lot of things there.
I also protested to not stay with my dad one day and also threw a tantrum for two hours but his reaction caught me off guard. I did not acknowledge it back then but he cried. He is not actually a very emotional person and a nice man but he did not display more emotion and wasn't really extra cheerful. Looking back at the memory, I feel it was quite bad.
He did take me home late in the night and I was screamed at by mom and not by him. We never mentioned that again. He died in 2017, 2 years after the incident. Now, I have a lot of regret because I did not cherish the moments I had with somebody who I eventually would not have a lot of time with.
12. Getting Blamed For It
One of my worst memories was when I was framed for something I never did. The act was itself quite horrific. Some child threw a stone at a woman walking by the school and informed the head master it was me. I was suspended for that but they bought that reason because a few weeks back, I threw a stone at a car driving by.
13. NOT AGAIN!!
When I was around 10 years old my dad offered to buy me candy. He stopped at a store and ran in despite our drive being long and far. On asking him where the candy was he said it was inside the bag and would give me once we reached home as we were driving to which I said, 'It is okay, I can reach it.' Once I tried to reach for it, surprisingly—he slapped me and screamed at me that I could wait until I got home.
I was never hit by my father before that and never did again. What was confusing was his look of utter sadness and shock on his face after he slapped me. My father was also an alcoholic who passed away before my 18th birthday. Until I grew up I didn't realize that there was no candy in the bag but a bottle of alcohol that he forgot to keep in his bag.
14. A Land Away From Normal
My father was suffering from a rare cancer type that affects the bones in his face and jaw. When I was 5 years old, he had a tumor that was the size of a softball , which was removed from his check. During the surgery, they had to remove his cheekbone, bottom jaw, nerves, lymph nodes...basically everything. He survived from the cancer but the surgeon did a worse job with the skin that the stitches were placed far away.
After a few weeks of the operation, the wound was infected and I remember when mum and I were coming back home from school and were surprised to see dad come in early. However, when he got out of the car his face would open up and try to cover it from us and ran straight in to the house.
It was one of the terrible things I've witnessed and to see a level of gore like that I was desensitized to it. It was definitely not a normal part of my childhood.
15. A Near Miss
When I was 5 years old, I went shopping with my mom and a man grabbed my hand and walked me out of the shop and I did not realize that it was not my mother but when I did, I tried to pull away and stumbled. The man looked at me and said, 'Come one Tommy, your mother has been looking for you everywhere.' when my mother suddenly came and he apologized.
He told my mother that he thought I was his nephew and left. Now that I look back at this incident, I feel he was a kidnapper who wanted me to go to his van. Although later a person in the shop gave me a toy for free to make me feel better when I had no clue what basically happened back then.
16. Idiots, Not Today
My father would usually accompany me when I was learning how to drive. When there was a football match in the town, my entire family went for it but I was not allowed to. While heading back home, in my neighborhood, we went past a plain white van that was off. At one point, it turned on and followed us all the way to the road that my house is on, right to the cul-de-sac.
My father took the truck at his game leaving behind no vehicles in the parking lot when I was home alone. The white van pulled into my driveway so I went to my father's closet and took two shells, grabbed the 16-gauge and walked out the porch and with it drawn to the van. The van then took a reverse and went out of the driveway faster than it arrived in.
The entire experience was strange while I was sitting on the porch for half an hour before I headed back inside for the night.
17. It Could Have Been Me
When I was in high school, I worked at an ice cream shop and during winter nights, only me and another manager would be working. The shop was in a very good area and there was a giant park behind the shop which seemed creepy during night time. That night, while we were taking the trash out, my manager and I, who were small, pretty girls, could do it ourselves.
I took the trash because she was counting money that night and as soon as I went to the parking lot which was a huge mistake. There was a man who stood there with sweats on and had a look of hate on his face. I immediately ran back and locked the doors to be safe and picked dishes to do thinking I can do the trash later.
When I entered the main room of the store, I could look at him from the window and I shall never forget that creepy smile. I immediately then ran towards my manager and we hid there for what felt like two hours until the authorities came and he was gone by then.
Few weeks later, he was taken in by the authorities for harming and killing a girl. What was creepy was that the victim had a stature like mine and also the hair color.
18. It Was Rotten
When I was 12 years old or so, my friends and I were riding bikes through woods down an old dirt road. I went on to drive into the forest and headed towards the creek which was in a dell down a steep hill from there.
I went crashing down the bill and hit this huge boulder collection before coming to a rest. I could hear my friends calling to me so I knew which way to go. I used to collect license plates back then so when I found a rusted out car in the woods, I went to check if I could grab it. Once I got close, I saw something that sent chills down my spine.
There were bones in the front seat and piles of rags. It looked like a scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark. I screamed and got out of there and informed my parents who called 911.
After investigation, they found out that it was firm that the man had disappeared during a blizzard in the late 50s and was never heard from again. I'll never forget the creepy feeling I had. I also met his widow and children and won an award from the town.
19. Getting Under My Skin
Trigger Warning (TW): It was a creepy moment when I sat with my mom's body which was not alive until the ambulance arrived to pronounce her lifeless. It was unpleasant surely looking at that rigor mortis set in and that the chest compressions that were completely useless, but it is not that what gets me.
Quite often I rub my arms as if they were cold and my skin feels like her body and I am back into that memory again with a fraction of a second. It gets unpleasant for me during the winters.
20. Dealing With A Fool
Trigger Warning (TW): When I was in 5th grade and was riding school with an 8th grader who sat at least 2-3 seats ahead of mine and I never spoke to him yet he screamed hurtful and mean comments towards me. After 15 minutes, he gathered a bunch of pieces of paper where he wrote rude things on it like, 'Screw off' or 'End yourself' and threw it towards me.
After 10 minutes, 'Throw one paper ball at me and I shall see what happens'. The kid probably did not understand and threw another shot at me. I immediately took a Pokémon card tin from my bookbag, walked towards his seat, and hit the right side of his head many times.
His blood splashed at my face and also on the seat. Mu card tin was dented and the dude was screaming and others on the bus were shocked. After 2 months, I found out that the kid's name was Cody and I had erased the last 18 months of his memory.
21. All Set For The Match
When I was 15 years old and played at a tennis tournament during a typical hot summer, there was another man in his 40s mostly who collapsed on the hardcourt. We rushed and started CPR. The ambulance took 15 minutes but it seemed like an hour.
The EMTs took over and pronounced him lifeless on the tennis court itself. Whereas I had to continue my match after the body moved from the court.
His friend came back to find me near the courts to thank me. He told me about his friend, about his life, and his family. In a strange way, it made me feel better. I learned from that day how precious life is and how it can all change in an instant.
22. Wrong Timing
One day, my neighbor did not pick his kid from the school and I knew that he was home so I rang the doorbell but he did not come. I was worried that something had happened to him and couldn't believe what I saw. He was on the basement floor with no clothes on—I could tell he was still alive, but there was obvious brain damage as he could not structure words or even move.
Later we found out that he had a brain aneurysm, and he had no clothes on because it happened while he was...well, you know.
23. Went Too Far
When I was around 10 years old, my father was unemployed and we struggled financially for a few months. A kid at school called me a loser for something I don't even remember. He said I had to buy decent clothes as I looked like a hobo which struck a nerve with me.
While he was on his bike after school, I walked up to him and punched him badly on one side of his head and blood started coming from his nose as his eye turned red. He yelled, 'Oh God! I cannot see!' and I felt sick to my stomach and wanted to disappear at that moment. Fortunately, he was alright after a few minutes.
24. A Foul Play
I was in 1st grade when a friend of mine was asked to come out of the school in the woods. A week after the incident, my friends and I walked in the woods and we found a blade that was filled with blood. One dude carried that and took it back to school.
Fortunately it was a simple and easy case where the man was arrested...otherwise, we could have messed up the evidence for the case.
25. Flipping Out
Trigger Warning (TW): When I was 16 years old, I saw a body being pulled out of my parent's property. He was someone who trespassed and also flipped his truck when he was high. He left when the authorities were called on him and did not take a turn on the bridge and flipped his truck into the creek which resulted in his neck broken due to the impact.
People got him out and when the officers and EMTs arrived, they pulled him out but he turned white by then. They had him on the rescue sled. I still remember the image in my brain where his bloated white head was floating on his broken neck.
26. A Splendid Ending
It was my 5th birthday when I grew up near San Francisco and I wished to walk to the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time. Halfway through there, a man climbed over the guide rail and jumped. I did not understand what that meant when I was young but I remember the incident clearly—where we had parked, what I was wearing, the weather, everything.
My grandmother picked up the wallet he had left for somebody to find and gave it to the authorities. It was still warm from being in his pocket.
27. A Cryptic Thought
When I was young, I had extreme visual hallucinations. Some normal stuff –glowing orbs, floating hands but the most creepy thing was that she never saw my own unalive body on the floor in front of me wearing the exact same clothes I was wearing at the time. That image is burned into my memory and to this day, it gives me nightmares.
28. Spine-Chilling Experiences Endlessly
I was 8 years old when my best friend and I found a body that wasn't alive in a forest and it felt as if it were decomposed. Then when I turned 12 and moved to California, I witnessed another gang war. Around that time, I also saw my cousin's wife end her life, four feet away from her.
When I went to see my elder brother in Sweden that year, I walked on him cradling the body of his girlfriend, whose life was brutally taken by dealers in their apartment. The most painful part was watching him, a 6-foot-4 hulk of a man, shout as tears came down his face. Later, I also saw people responsible for an incident hanged in an abandoned warehouse.
Lastly, in my teens when I was 15 my best friend's fiancé was pregnant and it turned out that the boy was not his so they broke up and he dated a dancer later. She called all her friends and I was locked up in the bathroom for almost 18 years as she had so much of substance which would end a horse. During one of her bouts of paranoia, she absolutely lost it—she ended her life with a blade about eight or nine hours into the ordeal.
I truly believe that bad vibes follow me wherever I go...
29. In The Hands Of Someone It Isn’t Supposed To Be
Approximately, five years back when my uncle was drunk he told me this, still there isn't anything about it since then. He was 7 or 8 years old when a kid who lived on his street played with it with another child. At one instance, he pointed and yelled, 'Freeze!'
The child raised his hand in a funny way and turned around and walked away but also pulled the trigger on me. My uncle does not remember what happened after that.
30. Walking A Different Path
Back in the 70s, friends and I planned a camping trip for a long weekend. We headed to Kernville as we picked a hitchhiker and thought it wasn't a big deal until we reached our campsite. My girlfriend found something from the hitchhiker's bag which said, 'I could have made all of you disappear forever.'
We could not sleep that night.
