>>46774677It was in mid or late elementary school, kids playing gen 1 and 2 games was pretty common (in 2001, both generations were on the shelf at the same time until RS came out)
I was on some route just outside of new bark town on a new game, or right outside of pallet town, I can't exactly remember the details, this was almost 20 fucking years ago. It was a level 3 or 4 shiny pidget but nobody knew what shinies were back then. Of course NOW we all know the red gyarados is a shiny, but back then the rule wasn't established.
Anyways, for whatever reason I didn't have any pokeballs so I couldn't catch it. This is why I think it was a new game where I didn't have any balls yet, but my memory is pretty adamant about being just outside of pallet town.
When I finally told my friends at school, they all "ooh"d and "aah"d but deep down I knew they didn't fucking believe me. Even I didn't believe me for awhile, it was a pretty unbelievable thing to apparently see a golden pidgey that nobody else in the world had.
It wasn't until like 3 or 4 years later that RS came out and one of my friends got a strategy guide that explained shinies, and I could finally have closure on this mystery.
