u/Silver-Honkler

Hey everyone. I'm just hoping to share here what I experienced. I'm not here to argue and tbh you can choose to believe me or not; take it or leave it. Nothing can convince me this didn't happen.

I was camping with my parents in 1988 at a place called Devil's Hopyard in East Haddam, CT. It was just like any other camping trip. Arcade games, candy, trout fishing, uncomfortable rocky ground in a crappy tent, farting around with my brother and just being a kid.

I woke up to pee in the middle of the night and it was pretty bad. The kind you jump out of bed for because it's coming at any moment whether you like it or not. I throw on my windbreaker and hastily exit the tent and go run toward the bushes.

I see what I believe to be the head of an opossum in the bushes up ahead. Close enough to be a danger if it wanted to attack but I knew they were peaceful so I just watched its little angular face. But it troubled me because something about the eye shine was off. It seemed too bright green and the reflection stayed as it turned its head, which didn't really calculate in my brain right until I realized its eyes were glowing. There was no light source to give its eyes that reflectivity.

It kinda freaked me out but what am I gonna do about it mid-stream. Maybe I was just tired, still half dreaming, who knows. But then the horror unfolded when my eyes adjusted and I realized it had a bug face. It kinda like cocks or tilts its head at me repeatedly and its head begins to rise and I realize it is some type of creature that is standing up as more of the body is revealed. It must have been crouched down or laying down observing us. It approaches adult human height but continues standing up. I realize it is massive, about 8 or 9 feet tall, and a standard human would be small to it.

I'm so fuckin scared I stop mid piss which was pretty wild to me at the time because how. I start screaming my brains out and my dad wakes up and runs out with his gun. He sees nothing and starts getting mad at me for freaking him out. He walks over to the tree where I tell him this thing was, and by God, I was expecting some appendage to sneak out from behind the tree and cut him in half or something. Watching him stand right where it had just been was almost more terrifying than seeing it because I knew there would have been nothing I could do but just watch him get killed.

I suppressed this memory for like 30 years and just randomly thought about it one day. I didn't know what a mantis was at the time but that's exactly what this thing was. I still don't really know how to process something like this. Never seen one again, never cared about mantids, and not really into this sort of thing and don't really care. But I know what I saw and I know it was as real as you or I.

I bought a lot at 125 but sniped deals so final closing price was 85/oz for that batch. I'm not too worried. Of course, it is not ideal.

Got deals on MS64 and MS65 peace which are right now more or less the going rate. Pretty much even on all of those. I see I could be getting a better price now though if I was patient.

Got a little carried away on some raw Morgans but nothing crazy. I'm glad to have them though after seeing how wild the prices for them got. I think they're ugly coins so I never had any. Gonna sell the first chance I get.

I've been down this road before and I bought in mostly between $4 and $30, so it is hard for me to sweat right now. But I do see I could have tempered my emotions better.

So I ask: What is it like for you? What did you do wrong? What did you learn? What would you have done differently? Just buying the dip, waiting for another dip?