We love mysteries here at Chicks on the Case, so here are some spooky things that have disappeared—poof—without a trace.
The Little Mermaid’s voice—first in 1837 then again in 1989 then AGAIN in 2007
Agatha Christie—for ten days in 1926
Roald Amundsen—lost over the Arctic searching for missing explorer, 1928
Amelia Earhart—pilot, lost over the Pacific, 1937
Glenn Miller—big-band leader, lost without a trace over the English Channel, 1944
Michael Rockefeller—heir to family fortune, lost in Papua New Guinea, 1961
DB Cooper—along with $200,000 ransom, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest, 1971
Vicki Lawrence’s singing career—immediately after the lights went out in Georgia, 1973
Jimmy Hoffa—union leader, 1975
My ability to learn French—probably never actually had it; confirmed 9th grade, 1976
Clingy, needy high school boyfriend—soon after I left for college, 1980
All my modesty—slowly ebbed away beginning with my first pregnancy, 1987
Legible handwriting—lost to decades of typing, 1997 and getting worse, if that’s possible
My son’s goldfish—no skeleton, no fishy corpse, no nuthin’, 2003
The ability to refold roadmaps—thanks, GPS, 2006
What has disappeared in your life? Any real-life mysteries we can solve for you?
Chicks on the Case 
Any semblance of my rhythm or grace– confirmed missing by ballet teacher circa 1984.
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Oh, Etta, same here. I took a jazz dance class for a PE credit in college with some friends. I was hilariously bad. It met right after lunch where I inevitably had a cheeseburger … you know, like all elite dancers do. I saved the Hostess Suzi Q’s until after class, though. I was into fitness like that back then.
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Same, Etta! Almost got kicked out of my first ever yoga class because I couldn’t stop giggling about how terrible my tree pose was…there was epic flailing.
Becky, HA.
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You’re clearly better at yoga than I am, Cynthia, because I don’t have enough balance to giggle during any pose!
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I get annoyed at the people who get annoyed when I giggle at my yoga fails!! Being that uptight about yoga is, to me, defeating the purpose.
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I had a yoga teacher stare at me and say, Are you *really* that inflexible? I don’t attend Yoga for Authors sessions at conferences (too early anyway).
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That’s just rude. I expect more from yoga teachers!
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Any artistic abilities in tactile arts (think: crocheting, knitting, silversmithing, pottery, quilting, basketweaving, singing, playing any instrument to date). There are more to come, I expect, as I keep trying. Fun list!
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Thanks, Ruth. My mom taught me how to knit when I was a kid, but she still has to cast on for me, lo these 50 years later. And I can only go back and forth. My projects are limited to wide scarves and narrow scarves. But they remain on my needles because I don’t know how to finish them either. Thinking about opening an Etsy shop….
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Those are my exact knitting skills. I can’t cast on or off (I can’t cast a fly fishing rod either, no matter how hard my husband tries to teach me.)
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Along with the usual assortment of socks and one pair of coral shorts (they were cute, honest!), my ability to read music without whispering “Every Good Boy Does Fine” to remember the notes has also disappeared. Mysterious!
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Clearly, the shorts were TOO cute and were banished from the drawer by the, let’s call them, “less cute,” probably not even coral shorts. I’m sorry for your loss.
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Thank you. There should be a line of greeting cards for such occasions. Doubly so for the loss of Word docs that vanish before we have a chance to save them.
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Perish the thought! I email my WIP to myself every day, when I stop for lunch and when I’m done for the day. And hubs got me a battery back-up so if the power blips, I don’t lose anything.
Why yes, thankyouforasking, I HAVE lost my work before ….
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So SMART! My daughter once over-wrote a huge chunk of my WIP. I then made sure my laptop was well away from little typing fingers.
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LOL… hardly anyone makes backups till they lose something critical. Given your level of backup, it must have been something extremely important!!
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Yep, the old “email it to yourself” school of saving your work–been doing that for years!
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Email is so easy!
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Judge Crater?
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“Judge Crater, call your office!” I think he disappeared himself. Things were getting a little hot and he could see the writing on the prison wall. He cashed out and ran away, living a quiet life as a clerk at a small town haberdashery.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Force_Crater
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The specific brain cells of any individual in my house used to ask “Tammy needs help cleaning”? Circa 2009 & 2012.
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LOL!
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Lol!
But I never knew Glen Miller just vanished. Granted, I don’t know that much about him, but still, very intriguing.
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Yep, his twin-engine plane was lost over the English channel on the way to France on Christmas eve. I remember crying at the end of The Glenn Miller Story when I first saw the movie as a teenager.
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La Bamba movie!
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And don’t forget all the Bermuda Triangle planes!
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I didn’t know this either! I did know about Buddy Holly, though. I saw the movie(s).
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A ceramic bowl that Robin and I both like eating our yogurt, cereal, oatmeal, etc., out of disappeared with no trace about two weeks ago. And I think we both suspect the other of either breaking or misplacing it, and not wanting to fess up.
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Awww…where IS it? How strange?
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You can blame my husband, if you like. That’s what I do.
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Itwasn’tme!!Ididn’tdoit!!!!!!!!!!
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My body AND my mind seem to be trying to depart. Lots of things never made it from all the moves we’ve done. But I think I know where Jimmy Hoffa is.
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Ha!
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Kaye, have you ever gone straight to a cabinet in 2019 where you KNOW some baking dish is, only to realize it’s nowhere in the house? And then your husband says, “We got rid of that when we moved in 1989.” No? Just me?
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Honestly, we’ve moved so many times, I have no idea which cupboard anything is supposed to be in any more.
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LOL! We’ve lived in this house almost exactly 30 years.
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Just went through this last week…still haven’t found the wok.
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My get-up-and-go along with my enthusiasm for do-it-yourself projects
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Becky, this is a fascinating list!
I have lost so many things that I can’t even zone in on one…but your post made me think of Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, “One Art,” which has these lines:
“Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn’t hard to master.”
Here’s the rest: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/one-art
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If only I could be like Elizabeth Bishop. Sigh….
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Accept the fluster. My new motto.
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I totally relate to the “legible handwriting” loss.
Somewhere along the line I lost the ability to do simple math. I need a calculator for everything these days.
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I kid you not, about 15 minutes ago I pulled out my calculator to see what 10% of 4,625 was.
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Yep. Intellectually I know, “Just move the decimal,” but I simply can’t do it.
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I never trust myself, so I pull out the calculator before even trying. So bad.
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I consider using the calculator as “checking” my math. 😉
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Can I say “checking my math” if I use it from the beginning? 🙂
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Yes! We’re rebranding what “checking” means. 🙂
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Great list, Becky! We moved a ton of Christmas stuff from Memphis to Michigan, and all of it seems to have made it here except a two-foot tall silver Christmas tree John had in his room as a kid growing up. It’s timeworn, but well-loved — and it’s shiny silver for Pete’s sake, we should be able to spot it!
(And Becky, even though my computer automatically backs up to the cloud, I also email my WIP to myself every day. It must be writer’s anxiety!)
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I don’t trust that shifty-eyed cloud.
I bet your house elf kept the shiny. They’re shifty-eyed, too.
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My ability to focus for more than fifteen minutes at a time.
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Be honest. Did you ever really have it? Or is it hanging out there with my ability to learn French? *winky face*
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I used to see Vicki once on awhile in Long Beach. She had (has?) a house in one of the beachfront communities. But no sign of her singing career!
I’m still looking for MIA $50 Amazon gift card and a $100 bill… both noticed missing in Dec. I live alone and they were in diff places, out of the reach of catnip-craving kitties.
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I bet those kitties are enjoying their $150 worth of catnip.
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When I always a teenager, I had dark hair. Over the years, almost all of it has disappeared and been replaced with gray hair. The injustice of it all.
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That. is. freaky! I’m glad that’s not happening with me.
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You are so lucky, Becky!
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I always lose my mittens and gloves. Always. While this may not seem like a big deal to anyone, it is currently 3 degrees here. I need those mittens you buy on a string (or with those nasty little clips). Do they still sell those? —Freezing in NH.
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I have mittens and gloves everywhere! At the end of the season, I buy a bunch on sale and stash them in the consoles and glove compartments of the cars, in all my coat pockets, and in a big bag we keep in the hall closet. That’ll keep the house elfs busy!
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Don’t forget Judge Crater!
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