I've got shingles, but i never had chicken pox as a child. this sounds weird... am i a unique case?

No, but rare: Probably you had sub-clinical ailment, your body amounted a good response to control disease, but the virus was dormant in your nerves.

Not particularly: Research has shown that an excess of 90% of those adults with no memory of chickenpox had blood evidence of prior disease. This often reflects a mild case or one mislabeled one of many other viruses like hand foot mouth syndrome. I encourage adults to find out their varicella status because it can be deadly in adults. Shingles just proved you had it at some point.