A childhood belief about physics

When I was about 3 ys old I would roll a can (probably a soup can) across the kitchen floor. It would slow down about 8' away and then begin to return roll back to me only to stop again about 3' away and then go forward. Back and forth a few times till it stopped in the middle of the floor. I believed there was some cosmic attachment the can had with the universe, and that the process of rolling would cause it to twist up like a spring in a clock is wound up. It then would return the energy and cause the can to reverse the roll. I accounted for it not making it all the way back each time as energy dissipated by friction. My error was assuming that the floor was level and not concaved downward in the middle of the floor.