#0017 | what do parents do
Submitted by Matt in Bath, England
Here’s Matt’s story:
“My mother has always maintained - and I have no memory of this - that between the ages of 2 and 3 I insisted on being called John, rather than Matthew (the name I was christened with). I would tell stories about the second World War and begin each with the phrase ‘When I was on the bomb.’ These stories would be crammed full of details about equipment, combat terminology and abbreviations, everyday life during the war - things that 2 year old boys don’t ordinarily know about!
One day I was in my car seat in the back of our family car as we were coming back from my grandparents’ house when we were stopped at a traffic light. I went crazy in my seat, demanding that they turned left so I could show them where I was stationed. It transpired that down that road was an old Royal Air Force base!
One time when I was 3 years old, I developed a really bad fever and told my mum the tale of my demise. I had died on a sortie, trying to bomb the Bismark, a German warship. Once the fever receded, I was left with no memory of any of this. I was happy to be called Matthew and bemused as to why I’d want to be called John. I knew nothing of the war and was most definitely no longer ‘on the bomb.’”
8 folks have left comments on this post
that is one eerie story. i have no idea what i would do if my son said that sort of thing. creepy is right!
oh, this one is my favorite thus far!
very creepy, i love it.
This sounds like something right out of a book I am reading called, One soul, Many Lives. He must have been John in a former lifetime. Try regression therapy, Matthew. This sounds like a classic case.
Hold me!
I’m scared!
The little war boy visited me in my dreams!
I think I might give Regression Therapy a try Christy. I hope it doesn’t turn out that my mother sat me in front of old war films from birth and I progressively invented a new identity for my infant self. She said that such was my hunger to learn, that I’d regularly hand her the phone book to read to me, and that I could readily hold a conversation at just 1 yr old.
Other than being unnecessarily tall, my freakishness seems to have melted away through the years - thank god.
This story is amazing. My boyfriend is a history nut (geek, aficionados, FREAK, but I love him) and he greatly enjoyed this one.