Somehow catalogued 72 gnome sightings in my town alone

I started keeping a photo log of all the garden gnomes I spotted in random spots around my neighborhood. After like six months I counted them up and it was 72 different gnomes in parks, front yards, even one chilling on a bus stop bench. I thought I was just being weird but now I'm wondering how many more are out here. Has anyone else counted their sightings and been surprised by the number?

2 comments

Log in to join the discussion

Log In

2 Comments

david_henderson62mo ago

Hang on, are we really turning garden gnomes into some kind of existential mystery? Sounds like you just started paying more attention. I walk past the same three houses every day and I bet if I counted all the random lawn ornaments in my neighborhood, I'd hit 50 just in mailboxes shaped like cows or those little stone frogs. It's not a secret gnome population boom, it's you finally noticing the stuff that's been there the whole time.

6

bethcarr2mo ago

72 gnomes in six months" is WILD but it actually tracks with this thing I've noticed where once you start paying attention to one specific weird thing, you realize how MUCH of that weird thing is actually just... out there. Like I started counting how many houses in my town have those plastic pink flamingos and I stopped after 50 because it was making me feel like I was losing it. It's like that game where you think of a car model and suddenly you see it everywhere. Your brain just unlocks a new filter for reality.

0