A Childhood Tale, Never Satisfactorily Explained.....

[slingblade]

Hi folks, tis my first post on this particular forum; I usually haunt religion and politics.

I've a story from my childhood (some 34 years ago, this was) and while I realize memory is a tricky and often faulty thing, I sincerely feel I remember this event accurately. Maybe not. At any rate, I've never been able to explain this event to myself, and it's an interesting little story, or so I think.
You decide. I'll hear any reasonable hypothesis regarding how this might have happened in a way that isn't paranormal. I'm no woo, but this one has always stumped me.

It was three weeks before my 12th birthday, 1971. Ten-speed bikes were the latest thing, and all the rage. I wanted one very much, and it seemed all my classmates already had one, but I knew this was nothing more than a dream for me. My mom was a single parent, you see, and ten-speeds cost around $100 then. That was more than our mortgage-payment, and there was simply no way my mother could ever have afforded such an expensive toy.

Not having a lot of extra money, Mom was in the habit of not driving on the weekends if at all possible, to save her gas for getting to work. She often had me run errands for her, and being without a bike, I mean that literally. So, on this particular Saturday, she asked me to go to Otasco (Oklahoma Tire and Supply Company) to make a payment for her on some car repair she'd had done.

Mom was also in the habit of wrapping her checks in a piece of paper and sealing them in an envelope. This one was no different. She told me not to take the envelope out of my pocket or open it, so I wouldn't lose the check. And I was also to be sure I waited for the receipt--don't come home without that receipt!

Now, Otasco was a good long walk from our house, and it was colder than a witch's wart outside, and I rilly rilly didn't want to go. But Mom insisted, so I put on my coat and reluctantly set off. I was in the habit of making up elaborate fantasy-type stories on such walks, to keep myself occupied.

That day, feeling that envelope crinkling in my coat pocket, I made up this tale:

Inside this envelope is a check, all right, but the piece of paper it's wrapped in is actually a note. The note says "I have bought my daughter a 10-speed bike for her birthday. Here is the last payment, so please give my daughter her new bike. Sincerely, Mrs. Mom." And then the guy behind the counter goes into the back room and wheels out my brand-new bike and I ride it home.

Oh, that would be so cool! But it's utter, total fantasy. Aliens would be more likely to land at my feet and whisk me off to their planet than this has a chance of happening. It was a fun story, though, and I had a good time telling it to myself and imagining my new bike; its color, size, and speed. Wow.

Okay, so I get to the store, hand the envelope to the guy behind the counter, and explain I have to wait for the receipt. He says "Okay," takes the paper and the check out of the note, looks down for a few minutes (I couldn't see the surface of his desk, my being too short and it being far too tall). Then he tells me to "wait there," goes into the back room, and wheels out a brand-new gold 10-speed bike!

What I had imagined was almost word-for-word what the note said. The only way reality differed from fantasy was in my imagining the bike was purple instead of gold.

Before I end my little tale, I have to emphasize just how impossible I thought this to be, and how fantastic I considered my imaginings. There is simply no way I could have guessed this.

But is that all it was? A very lucky guess? I've no other explanation that doesn't defy rationality. But it's still a fun story.

 

[Garrette]

More than a lucky guess, but no more than apparently impossible coincidence. Emphasis on "apparently."

The fantasy was a normal one for a ten year old. Your mother knew you wanted a 10 speed.

Magically gather all the ten year old fantasies just before their birthdays, sift them through the sieve-of-unfulfilled-prophecy, and see what remains.

You were one of umpteen million fantasizing kids that day. Most fantasies remained fantasies.

 

[Beth]

I imagine that your mother loved you very very much, know how badly you wanted a new bike and scrimped for months to pay for it. What a lucky girl you are!

 

[Jon.]

You obviously knew your mom pretty well. You knew that she loved you and that if there was any way of getting you that bike, you'd get it. So you constructed the most likely way of having that happen in your mind.

You said you were in the habit of constructing these elaborate fantasies - I presume most of them didn't come true. You remember particularly well the one that did.

Also, are you sure your memory of the fantasy isn't coloured at all (in the minor details, like colour and style of bike, etc.) by the fact of what happened afterwards?

Oh, and by the way, you had a very cool mom!

 

[ChristineR]

Great story! It sounds like you picked up on the clues she was throwing out. I assume you knew Otasco sold bikes. Perhaps you also knew that this is not the way car repair payments are usually made. It also sounds like your Mom spoke to the Otasco man in advance, so perhaps you picked up on the fact that something was up. And your Mom's insistence that you go right now is even more suspicious. And given how close your birthday was I'm sure the thought Maybe Mom will buy me a bike from Otasco was running through your head a lot.

 

[slingblade]

I can accept that you're all correct. It was just a lucky, subconsciously-informed guess.

A few things I see I left out, but which make no real difference:
She insisted I go because she said the payment would be late and she'd have to pay a late charge she couldn't afford.

I had made these payments for her before, so that wasn't strange, either.

And yeah, I still have the coolest mom in the world.

Thanks all; it was kind of you to respond!

 

[CheeseDude]

Well, the first thing to come to mind is that you must have known that this particular shop sells ten-speed bikes. This would make such a fantasy way more likely to happen than not. Also, since you wanted a bike so badly, I would bet you mentioned it to your mother at least a million times. This makes the fantasy becoming real even more likely. You never mentioned if your mother had written notes to people in this fashion before i.e. on the slip of paper inside the envelope. If she was in the habit of doing this, the likelihood of this event continues to climb. Also, did this day occur on or near your birthday or a major holiday? That might get you fantasizing too. The relationship you had with your mother is also very important here. You mentioned she was a single parent. You were probably her whole world at this point in your lives. Such a sacrifice is not a huge stretch. Still, you made a lucky guess. Just like the woo crowd, you forget about all the fantasies that never panned out and focus on the one in a million shot that did. What about the other 999,999 fantasies that you must have had as a child? Lastly, I would like to point out the obvious. The story is awesome, what a great mom you have! If she is still alive, call her now.

 

[Tricky]

Yes, but how many times did you wish for a bike when you didn't get one?

Great story though, Slingblade

 

[slingblade]

Well, the first thing to come to mind is that you must have known that this particular shop sells ten-speed bikes. This would make such a fantasy way more likely to happen than not. Also, since you wanted a bike so badly, I would bet you mentioned it to your mother at least a million times.

I did know the store sold bikes. It was next to my school and I saw them every day. As to talking about it, I called Mom and she says that I had made a pain of myself about it so much at Christmas, I got grounded for a weekend. My birthday is in Feb., so by that time, she says, I had pretty much shut up about it. (She laughed when I called; she had forgotten the incident and was surprised I remembered. )

You never mentioned if your mother had written notes to people in this fashion before i.e. on the slip of paper inside the envelope. If she was in the habit of doing this, the likelihood of this event continues to climb.

Nope. It had always been just a blank sheet of notepaper in past times. It was simply (kind of lame) camouflage for the check.

Also, did this day occur on or near your birthday or a major holiday?

Yep: 3 weeks before my birthday.

The relationship you had with your mother is also very important here. You mentioned she was a single parent. You were probably her whole world at this point in your lives. Such a sacrifice is not a huge stretch. Still, you made a lucky guess. Just like the woo crowd, you forget about all the fantasies that never panned out and focus on the one in a million shot that did. What about the other 999,999 fantasies that you must have had as a child? Lastly, I would like to point out the obvious. The story is awesome, what a great mom you have! If she is still alive, call her now.

We have always been unusually close--more like sisters, I suppose, than mother/daughter. She's always been my best friend. And yes, she is still alive, and lives 3 blocks away. I talk to her every day and see her often.

As to fantasies coming true: oh, occasionally one would, now and then, but nothing ever as major (to me) as this one, and easily explained as a good guess. Being almost-12 and fantasy-prone, this one freaked me out more than a little!

 

[CurtC]

Great story.

I also received an Otasco bike, also in 1971 I think. Not a ten-speed, but the spider style bikes popular at the time. What I remember about the bike was that instead of a single top tube, it had two smaller tubes in parallel. I soon figured out that I could get at the top of a hill, start going down, then put my feet on the top tubes, one in front of the other, and stand completely up, with my arms outstretched and not on the handlebars. That thought terrifies me now, but it was completely no big deal at the time.

Anyway, I hadn't thought of Otasco in years - thanks for the memories.

 

[slingblade]

Oh, all the boys loved those! My old bike that I'd had when I was 9, and which got stolen, had a banana seat and butterfly handlebars. And it was purple.

 

[CheeseDude]

We have always been unusually close--more like sisters, I suppose, than mother/daughter. She's always been my best friend. And yes, she is still alive, and lives 3 blocks away. I talk to her every day and see her often.

I hope others on this thread are noticing how amazing this forum is. If you would have posted this story on a lot of other forums, the focus would have been on how you must have some psychic abilities, and how this is just another example of proof of these kinds of paranormal phenomena. Here, everybody seems to be focusing on how cool your mother is and how much she must love you. And scpetics are supposed to be the ones with empty lives. Your mother loves you and that makes all the other nonsense pale in comparison.