09-08-2020, 09:19 PM
I saw my doppelganger standing at a bus-stop just across the road from where I was passing.
Like Wallfire, this was back in the eighties and before I was married.
I'd guess I was around twenty years-old and walking from a local Working Men's Club to a public house called
The White Horse. It was in the summer and the evening was too early to suggest low light may have had a bearing.
The bus-stop was -and still is, the last stage in a bus's route in my town before it leaves northwards. Back then, it
was merely a pole with a small sign attached at the top.
I mentioned in another thread that there'd been a 'spooky' old mansion-style house that was close to where I lived,
this had been torn down and replaced with an old-folks home. This building was on my side of the road and I'd just
arrived at where it stood when I saw the perfect double of myself.
Relevant...? I don't know.
I can confidently say I saw the perfect double of myself because from the look on the person's face at the bus-stop,
he was thinking the same too.
I slowed my walk as I became aware of the likeness and my doppleganger didn't seem to notice me getting closer.
He was looking up the road towards the public house (north) and the opposite direction from where any bus would
come. This suggests to me that he knew the time the bus would arrive and later, I wondered if his visit wasn't his first.
Drawing directly across from this person, I knew that the realisation of the situation had dawned on him. Less than
twenty feet in font of him was his double! I was in awe of his stance, the fact that his hair was the same length and
of course, his features were exactly like mine.
His attire was dark -close to what I used to wear, but I could not say what exactly he was wearing.
We looked at each other, looked away as if something was interesting elsewhere and every so often, glance back
at each other. The road is the main route out of my town, but I cannot recall if the traffic was busy. Usually at that time
of the evening and back then, I'd guess it would be limited.
Then a double-decker bus came and blocked our view. In a movie, he would be seated my side of the vehicle and
we would continue to stare at each other. But I just never saw him get on, get seated or move along the bus.
He was just gone and I've never seen him again.
Sort of.
You know when someone comments that you look like someone and it's always the same, there's a manner that
someone sees and it reminds them of you, but the actual physical likeness always lets you down? When looking
at a suggested 'double', we will always see a flaw in their suggestion and know in our heart that the person put
forward looks actually nothing like you.
Well, when I was working for a local newspaper, I dealt with the images that were to be used for the daily paper
and at that time, a ex-gangland/businessman with oodles of money purchased my town's football team.
The guy was a braggart, always boasting of who he was going to buy for the team and actually paid for a huge
new football stadium to be constructed.
The motto was 'old safe-cracker done good'!
This millionaire would stalk my Editor and demand that certain facts regarding his past life would be kept out of
the paper, he usually had a large thug with him when he knocked on doors late at night and intimidated folk.
Eventually, the Police caught him with a boot load of money in his car, speeding along country lanes up to God
-knows-what. Money-laundering I'd suggest, but he was imprisoned for tax evasion.
Back to the tale.
One day, (with the help of the internet, I've got it to around 2002.) this loud-mouthed football team owner arrived
at the gleaming stadium in a large black 4x4 and in front of a group of Reporters and Photographers.
These newspaper-people were there due to this guy ringing up the media and telling them he'd bagged a premier
overseas striker for his third division team.
The chap was Faustino Asprilla... except it was all a sham.
But there's a photograph in my attic, the one that was used in the paper. It shows the the footballer looking slightly
sheepish from the front-seat passenger-side window of the car and in the back seat and seemingly attempting
to speak through a half-opened window, is me.
Except it isn't me.
He looked like I did at the time and with with Faustino Asprilla once playing for Newcastle United -which is just up
the road (north) from where I live, I wondered if it was the guy from the bus-stop now enjoying his employment!
It still makes me smile.
Like Wallfire, this was back in the eighties and before I was married.
I'd guess I was around twenty years-old and walking from a local Working Men's Club to a public house called
The White Horse. It was in the summer and the evening was too early to suggest low light may have had a bearing.
The bus-stop was -and still is, the last stage in a bus's route in my town before it leaves northwards. Back then, it
was merely a pole with a small sign attached at the top.
I mentioned in another thread that there'd been a 'spooky' old mansion-style house that was close to where I lived,
this had been torn down and replaced with an old-folks home. This building was on my side of the road and I'd just
arrived at where it stood when I saw the perfect double of myself.
Relevant...? I don't know.
I can confidently say I saw the perfect double of myself because from the look on the person's face at the bus-stop,
he was thinking the same too.
I slowed my walk as I became aware of the likeness and my doppleganger didn't seem to notice me getting closer.
He was looking up the road towards the public house (north) and the opposite direction from where any bus would
come. This suggests to me that he knew the time the bus would arrive and later, I wondered if his visit wasn't his first.
Drawing directly across from this person, I knew that the realisation of the situation had dawned on him. Less than
twenty feet in font of him was his double! I was in awe of his stance, the fact that his hair was the same length and
of course, his features were exactly like mine.
His attire was dark -close to what I used to wear, but I could not say what exactly he was wearing.
We looked at each other, looked away as if something was interesting elsewhere and every so often, glance back
at each other. The road is the main route out of my town, but I cannot recall if the traffic was busy. Usually at that time
of the evening and back then, I'd guess it would be limited.
Then a double-decker bus came and blocked our view. In a movie, he would be seated my side of the vehicle and
we would continue to stare at each other. But I just never saw him get on, get seated or move along the bus.
He was just gone and I've never seen him again.
Sort of.
You know when someone comments that you look like someone and it's always the same, there's a manner that
someone sees and it reminds them of you, but the actual physical likeness always lets you down? When looking
at a suggested 'double', we will always see a flaw in their suggestion and know in our heart that the person put
forward looks actually nothing like you.
Well, when I was working for a local newspaper, I dealt with the images that were to be used for the daily paper
and at that time, a ex-gangland/businessman with oodles of money purchased my town's football team.
The guy was a braggart, always boasting of who he was going to buy for the team and actually paid for a huge
new football stadium to be constructed.
The motto was 'old safe-cracker done good'!
This millionaire would stalk my Editor and demand that certain facts regarding his past life would be kept out of
the paper, he usually had a large thug with him when he knocked on doors late at night and intimidated folk.
Eventually, the Police caught him with a boot load of money in his car, speeding along country lanes up to God
-knows-what. Money-laundering I'd suggest, but he was imprisoned for tax evasion.
Back to the tale.
One day, (with the help of the internet, I've got it to around 2002.) this loud-mouthed football team owner arrived
at the gleaming stadium in a large black 4x4 and in front of a group of Reporters and Photographers.
These newspaper-people were there due to this guy ringing up the media and telling them he'd bagged a premier
overseas striker for his third division team.
The chap was Faustino Asprilla... except it was all a sham.
But there's a photograph in my attic, the one that was used in the paper. It shows the the footballer looking slightly
sheepish from the front-seat passenger-side window of the car and in the back seat and seemingly attempting
to speak through a half-opened window, is me.
Except it isn't me.
He looked like I did at the time and with with Faustino Asprilla once playing for Newcastle United -which is just up
the road (north) from where I live, I wondered if it was the guy from the bus-stop now enjoying his employment!
It still makes me smile.
Edith Head Gives Good Wardrobe.