All the way back in 1989 I was on a round-the-world trip. I'd been traveling through Australia, Southeast Asia and China
To get back to Europe I decided to take the trans-siberian railway through Mongolia and also what was then the Soviet Union
In pre-internet days (and with China and the Soviet Union not exactly tourist-friendly countries at the time)
this wasn't a super easy thing to do
I had to organize all of my own visas, train tickets and everything
When I got to Beijing the hotel I stayed at had free loaned bicycles
and I grabbed one and made my way around the city to try and find the Mongolian embassy to get my visa
There was only one train running each week, so I was desperate to get this organized as soon as possible...
Partially because I was low on money, but I was also quite homesick by now
I had already gotten a train ticket and the Soviet visa in Hong Kong, but I still needed that visa for Mongolia
Again, this was in pre-internet, pre google.maps days. I had a street map, but just couldn't find that bloody embassy
At long lost I got lucky and found it, but by then they were just shutting the gates
Business hours were already over for the day. It was only 3 p.m!
If I couldn't get a visa, I'd not be able to get on that week's train
My train ticket would be worthless and I'd have to wait a full week for the next train
Plus I'd need to get a new Soviet visa too
So I pleaded with the guard
Eventually he relented and let me in
There was still someone in the office and because they were keen to finish off for the day
they pretty much just put the sticker on my passport and shuffled me out the door
All set, I got on the train the next day and had an amazing time going through Mongolia, the Soviet Union...
even spent a few days in Moscow and then headed via Finland and Scandinavia back home
The week after I'd been on the trans-siberian train this happened:
A massive gas explosion caused by a leaking gas pipeline and triggered by a passing train killed over 500 people
If the Mongolian embassy guard hadn't let me through I definitely would have ended up being on that train
When I was in my early 20s, I worked at a run-of-the-mill gas station in your average Florida town
Didn't pay great but at the time a job was a job
One particular night and I had to swap shifts with a co-worker
I'd eaten some hard candy the day before and ended up cracking one of my teeth real bad
The pain was so excruciating that it prevented me from working or even sleeping
I had to book an appointment at the dentist to get it all fixed
It was serious agony
That night the guy who swapped his shift with me was just minding his business at the gas station. It was midnight and empty
Suddenly a couple of guys rush in shoot the worker point-blank in the face and empty the cash register
Took his head half-off
No words were exchanged. My coworker didn't even have time to react. Probably didn't even see it coming
They later caught the guys thanks to the CCTV footage, not that it did much to console my co-worker's family
My son had just been born at the time
Scary to think that if I hadn't eaten that hard candy the day before I wouldn't be here to watch him grow up
My pregnant cousin usually takes the 5:10 p.m. bus after work
She was about to hop inside the bus, but she needed to pee really badly, and the commute's about an hour long
so she decided to go to the restroom instead and just catch the next bus
The 5:10 bus ended up falling off a cliff
This was back in the 80s
I lived in Australia and was driving from Brisbane to Sydney
I had a Jimi Hendrix bobblehead on the dashboard of my truck
We'd recently had a "secret santa" at the new company I was working at, and a co-worker bought it for me as a gift
why she'd picked that out for me was anyone's guess
I guess I was a newbie and she didn't really know me that well,
so maybe she thought it might be a funny present... I dunno...
I wasn't actually a Hendrix fan. I was more into disco music myself, but obviously I didn't tell her that
She was cute though, and on the off-chance that she might one day get inside my vehicle
I decided to put the bobblehead on my dashboard
On that drive to Sydney I noticed a hitchhiker on the side of the road
Well, this was the 80s when this sort of thing was more acceptable and viewed as less of a big deal
so I decided to help the guy out and give him a ride. He looked normal enough
The guy hops in and thanks me. Says that he's heading in the same direction
As we made our way towards Sydney the guy points out to the Hendrix bobblehead on my dash
"Hey, man, you're a fan of Jimi Hendrix, huh? He's the greatest guitarist of all time, am I right?"
The dude starts getting seriously passionate about Jimi Hendrix and starts going off about him so much that I can't get a word in edgeways
He seemed like such a big fan of Jimi Hendrix that when he asked me
"You're really into his music too, huh?" I just replied with "yeah, I'm a big fan"
Didn't want to ruin the guy's buzz, you know
"Wow, that's awesome, man...
which songs?"
"You know, all of them man... couldn't pick one in particular!"
In all honesty, I couldn't actually think of a single song title
The hitch-hiker gives me a big smile
"Right on," he says
He spent the rest of the journey smiling and looking out of the window as if he was contemplating something
We start to get close to Sydney
That's when he says that we're near where he needs to be dropped off
He points me down some side road that took us off the beaten track
I pull up where he tells me
The place looks deserted
No buildings around and no people, real nowheresville
Why did he want to be dropped off here of all places?
He hopped out of my vehicle
"Thanks for the ride, man," he says to me
"Yeah, don't mention it. It was good to have some company"
"Hey, I'm gonna be honest with you," he said
He dipped his hand into his waistband and pulled out a pistol
"I was gonna end you man right here right now, just take your money and run, you know...
But I can't do that to a Hendrix fan man...
not to a Hendrix fan."
I had no idea if this was some kind of sick joke or what, but his weapon looked real enough to me!
I knew I had to say something, but all I could muster was "oh...
Thanks for not going through with it, I guess."
With that, he strolled off to who-knows-where. Didn't wait around to see, just floored it out of there
Not too long after that, the guy's face showed up in a newspaper I was reading
He was facing charges for slaying a middle-aged man that had picked him up while he was hitchhiking
Could have easily been me, had my coworker not picked me as 'Secret Santa', and not bought me that stupid bobblehead
On the way to work one morning some guy rear-ended my car with some force
His excuse was ridiculous; that he'd just seen some pretty lady walking along the sidewalk and she had distracted him
I ended up hitting my head in the collision and was advised by medics to go to the hospital and get it checked out
The doctors didn't seem too concerned, but scheduled me for an MRI scan anyway, just to be on the safe side
What they found was completely unexpected
The scan showed that I had a tumorous growth on my brain that I had no idea about
Had it gone undetected for just a little longer it would have become terminal, and it wouldn't have presented any kinds of symptoms whatsoever...
Not until it was too late at least
Because they managed to catch it in time I was able to go in for an emergency surgery, which was thankfully successful
So, because some woman just so happened to be walking down a particular street at a particular time,
distracted some particular guy who just happened to be right behind me... Well, I'm still here today
1943
Stalingrad
My grandfather and his comrades were defending the city from German aggression
They were hungry and exhausted but escape from the city was impossible
A group of five of them were about to rush from one building to the next across an open courtyard
It was risky, but the enemy were encroaching, and they knew staying where they were would mean the end of them
My grandfather (being the youngest and least experienced of the men) waited for the order to charge
His superior rallied the group and began to make a dash for the building across the open courtyard
My granddad and the rest of his friends followed closely behind
As he sprinted, my grandfather noticed a German Panzer tank turning its turret to take aim at them
distracted by his impending doom
he forgot to look where he was running and ended up tripping on something...
A dollhouse of all things, nestled in the rubble on the ground
He fell flat on his face
How that dollhouse came to be lying in that exact position to trip
my grandfather was the result of a long chain of mundane events
A family just so happened to live in a building that once stood there
The parents of that family had decided to buy it for their daughter who kept it in a specific place in their home
Once the building was destroyed during Stalingrad the dollhouse (being placed exactly where it was) just so happened to be launched from the building
landing in the future trajectory of my grandfather, who tripped and fell over it
Whatever the case, it caused my grandfather to fall behind his friends who kept on running
He quickly got back to his feet and looked towards them
A few seconds later the panzer fired off a round
Where his friends once were, there was now only a large cloud of dust
The tank had blown them all to pieces
My grandfather had just enough time to scurry back to a defensive position and survived the day
Had that dollhouse not been exactly where it was
He most certainly would have been right where his friends were when the shell cut them all down
He would have never made it back home. Never met my grandmother. Never had my father
and...
well, I guess I wouldn't be here to type out this story now, would I?
When my daughter was born I bought her a dollhouse. Never know when they might come in handy
Obviously, it's impossible to prove anything in this vein
but my favorite butterfly effect to think about involves a 10th century emperor of China who just so happened to have a favorite concubine
That concubine was a dancer and would perform for him in court
When she danced she would wrap her feet (I assume to protect them during her dance)
The fact that she was his favorite concubine was well known
so other women in the court began to imitate her, particularly her way of wrapping her feet
This practice eventually spread from the court to the general population of China and evolved into the horrific practice of foot binding
Now, aside from the fact that this one woman led to a millennia of women being maimed and crippled to the point that the architecture
and design of old Chinese cities reflects their inability to walk (ie
multi-story buildings being uncommon because women with bound feet couldn't climb stairs and cities being built with narrow streets because women often had to lean
against the wall just in order to walk around) this possibly had a greater effect on world history than it's possible to entirely conceive of
It's well known that China was technologically advanced in comparison to Europe
This extended to their ships
There are historical accounts of Chinese explorers traveling to Africa and whatnot, some before their European counterparts
Thing is, they never colonized
Never attempted to set up a kingdom anywhere else, and while they had many nations paying tribute to them
it's very different from the European way of doing things, of settling into a country and declaring it their own, attempting to change the culture
It's kind of odd considering that just like Britain, China considered themselves the center of civilization
literally the 'Middle Kingdom'
One theory (and to me a very plausible theory for why they never colonized) is that their women couldn't travel
In order to successfully colonize you need women who are at the very least mobile
It's hard to even imagine what history would have been like if the Chinese had been colonizing like the Europeans
Considering their technology they probably would have been the first doing it
And all because an emperor had a thing for a dancer...
My uncle was a deep-sea fishermen
His boat was due to sail on Sunday morning and he went out with a few of his buddies on Saturday night
Had a sort of 'goodbye party' since he'd be out at sea for a good long time
Ended up having a few too many drinks
Some dude made fun of his Hawaiian shirt... just a throwaway insult, but things escalated and he ended up getting into a bar fight
Spent the night in the slammer
Missed his boat the next morning
Some other guy filled in for him at the last minute and they left without him
He felt awful since he really needed the money
Turns out it was a lucky escape
The fishing boat he was supposed to be on was attacked by modern-day pirates
The crew resisted and everyone on board was slaughtered
The boat was later found abandoned
Good thing he wore that Hawaiian shirt that night
I was walking to school and got distracted by a hedgehog that ran in a bush next to me
Then a huge tree branch fell in front of me
Would have crushed me if I didn't get distracted by a spiky little mouse scurrying into the bushes
I gave him a dead cricket the next day
He took it and ran off
Godspeed, spiky mouse...
Hey guys, Lazy here and thank you very much for listening
Well, everyone loves a good butterfly effect story, and you will voted for it on Twitter, so I hope they lived up to our expectations
A huge shout out to all of my supporters on patreon, especially my biggest supporters...
Thank you all so much for your support. It really helps the channel out!
And if you'd like to leave a pledge as well, you can find a link to my patreon in the description below
That about wraps things up for this one guys
Remember to smash that like button or I'll smash you, and I'll be back again very, very soon
until then, you all stay spooky... and remember:
The best things happen...
In the dark
