harper_murphy•5d agoProlific Poster

The guy at the gas station who swore the moon landing was filmed in his backyard shed

I was filling up my truck near Austin last Tuesday and this older dude just walks up and starts talking about how his uncle's neighbor had a buddy who worked on the 1969 moon landing as a set builder. He claimed they built a fake lunar surface in a shed in Bakersfield and that he saw the leftover props as a kid. I asked him for proof and he pointed at the moon and said look how flat it looks tonight, like it's painted on a backdrop. I just nodded and paid for my gas while he kept going about how NASA paid his neighbor's uncle $500 in cash to keep quiet. Has anyone else run into a random stranger with a conspiracy story that made you laugh but also wonder where they get this stuff?

2 comments

2 Comments

paul_morgan5d ago

Oh man, I feel you on this one. I had a guy at a diner in Amarillo tell me the Great Sphinx in Egypt was actually built by Texans in the 1970s as a prank and the government just went along with it. He was SO serious about it too, said his granddaddy was on the crew that hauled the limestone blocks from Oklahoma. I just sat there eating my eggs, nodding, because what do you even say to that? Some people really latch onto these wild ideas and they just SPILL them out at strangers like it's common knowledge. Makes you wonder if they're just messing with people for fun or if they genuinely believe every word.

butler.mark5d ago

Haulin limestone blocks from Oklahoma for the Sphinx, that's a new one. I swear these gas station philosophers have a whole network where they trade these stories around. Reminds me of a guy in a bar near Waco who told me the Pyramids were actually built by giant beavers, not aliens, and he had a blurry photo on his phone of a tooth he found in the desert.