Your Scariest Moments

[Slammr (imported)]

Oh...the tractor one reminded me of another close call - it is a wonder I'm still alive.

I was working as an ranch in Southern Oregon. I spent most of the day on a tractor irrigating, cleaning out irrigation ditches, switching the water from one field to the other, things like that. That year, they had installed roll bars on the tractors. They hadn't had them before. The roll bars could be locked in an up position or they could be left down. I rarely locked the one on my tractor in the up position. I often had to plow ditches with the tractor, and they would take me under trees where the tractor with the roll bar up wouldn't fit.

For some reason - I have no idea why, one of those little voices in my head I suppose - I locked the roll bar in the up position, and this was toward the end of the day. I'd been driving the tractor all day without it up.

I was coming back from the field to the road. Between the field and the road was the main irrigation ditch - much too big to cross with the tractor - and a small ravine. Between the two was a space a little wider than my tractor's wheels. It was a shortcut I used all the time.

When I attempted to cross it this time, it was raining lightly, little more than a sprinkle, actually, but enough to wet the top layer of the dirt. The left rear wheel of the tractor slipped on the wet dirt, and the next thing I knew I was at the bottom of the ravine, which was deep enough to swallow the tractor, on my back, on the rocks, staring up at the tractor above me. It was balanced on the roll bar and the smokestack.

My shoulder hurt. I couldn't use my left arm. The smokestack broke; the tractor went one way onto its side, I went the other way.

Luckily, I had a pickup parked nearby, and drove home in it. It was dark by then. I called my boss from my house, told him what happened, and drove myself to the hospital. Nothing was broken, but it was another insult to one of my shoulders. I've since had rotator cuff surgery on both.

No doubt, if I hadn't put up that roll bar, I would have been crushed beneath that tractor, and I can't explain to this day why I put the roll bar up. It was just one of those feelings I guess.

[Slammr (imported)]

I have been giving this thread a lot of thought and I think my scariest moments are related to heights, more specific falling.

Its not rational, but if I am in a tall building I don't go up next to the window to look down, I wont get on the roof of a house, I have a problem if I get above the third rung of a ladder. However planes don't bother me, I can't fall out. So is it the height or falling that is the real fear. Its a real fear and logic tells you that falling can never hurt you, landing is another story.

I agree with Dave, Dumb dumb dumb.

When I was at my first base the Sgt I worked for said 'lets go up to the tower' it had open metal steps with rails and all safe as can be, I froze 40 ft up we had 10 ft to go I was white as a sheet. Three people helped me back to the ground. Was this rational? NO but real.

Threat is different, but pure fear - heights, its always been heights.

River

This happened before

I cured myself of my fear of heights.

I was fourteen. We were at a park near Ponca City, OK. There was a tower in the park with a spiral staircase inside it up to the top. This tower was an enclosed cylinder. There was no possible way to fall out of it - but every so often there was a small, round, window, no bigger than a foot or so across. I could see how high I was getting.

I never made it to the top of the tower. I got weak in the knees. My legs refused to propel me any higher up that tower. I had to go back down. My younger sister made it to the top, but I couldn't.

[cheetaking243 (imported)]

I've only had three genuinely scary actual life moments, all of which were nowhere near as bad as anything that's been described here so far. The first one, I was 10 years old, and I was vacationing on the Florida coast with my Dad. Hurricane Bertha decided to come our way. And in our infinite wisdom, we decided to go body-surfing in the 6-foot surf. I caught a wave that was way too big for me, and didn't get a good breath as I took off on it. That wave dragged me all the way to the bottom, and I was fighting to get back to the surface for a good 15 seconds, which felt like an absolute eternity. I really felt like I was going to drown in that wave, and had nightmares of drowning for a while after that. The second one was when I visited Elk River falls in North Carolina when I was 8. There was a humongous rock face that we had to walk right next to in order to get down to the lake at the bottom of the waterfall, and for whatever reason I was absolutely petrified. I was so afraid that this giant rock face was going to collapse right on top of me, and crush me. It sounds stupid, but at the time I was absolutely petrified, and that genuinely is one of the scariest moments I've ever had in my life. The last one was when a lightning bolt struck a tree about 10 feet in front of my car. That scared the s*** out of me, and I'll certainly never forget that. Also, I did have a tornado hit my house once, when I was 7, but although that should have been the most frightening moment of my entire life, I actually slept through the whole thing, even though Dad came busting into my room when he heard it coming, dove on top of me in the bed, and tried to shield me from any flying debris. But I slept through the whole thing. So that's the scariest moment of my life that I ever slept through.

Really, most of my scariest moments have been in my dreams. I had a lot of nightmares where I was as good as dead, most of which involved being chased by a Tyrannosaurus Rex. (I watched "Jurassic Park" way too young, and as such I probably got killed by dinosaurs in my dreams at least 30 times between the ages of 8 and 15.) My other big recurring nightmare that always scares the hell out of me is when I'm in a building that all of a sudden comes tumbling down, and I'm stuck inside of it. (I was having these nightmares WAY before 9/11, by the way.) And then there were various other ones like death by pool chemicals, death by angry wolf attack, death by falling down an elevator shaft, being trapped in a forest fire or volcano, and being caught in a tornado. My dreams are a scary place sometimes. (But on the plus side, they also often let me be a girl for an hour or so, so I still love them.)

[inked4ever (imported)]

My scariest moment came while I was in the Navy. I was abroad a destroyer, The USS Cogswell DD 651 and we where riding out a typhoon off of the coast of Formosa. it was late at night and most of us were in our bunks. it was very hard to go to sleep because of the violent pitching and rolling. Suddenly the ship started rolling to the port side and just kept going. All of the lockers opened and everyone's gear was falling out. My sleeping compartment was in the aft part of the ship and the starboard screw came out of the water and the ship was vibrating like mad.

It hung there for a short time and then gradually corrected itself. No sooner did the ship even out when they announced

"MAN OVERBOARD" . 2 men were washed over the side. One was real lucky and was thrown into a self inflating raft that was pulled loose but the other we never saw again.

One of the engineers in the engine room said that he was watching the inclinometer and it showed that we were at 60 degrees when the lights went out and the ship was still tilting.

I did have a lot of faith in that old ship after that

[Slammr (imported)]

I'd forgotten about nightmares. I used to have really scary ones. When I was three, the whole world shook in my nightmares, like we were having a huge earthquake, although I'm not sure I'd ever been in one then. I did live in San Diego when I was two, but I was living in Texas when I was three and having the nightmares.

When I was about five, I had nightmares almost every night. I can only remember one of them clearly, but they were all scary. I do remember that about them.

We had a couple of fairly large holes dug in the front yard for some reason, and they were about half filled with water from the rain. In my dream, smoke was coming up out of the water in one of the holes, and that scared me, because that smoke was coming from Hell, which was, of course, somewhere down there.

Curses on all preachers that use Hell to scare kids.

Although I can't remember the other dreams specifically, usually in them, someone, my sister maybe, was about to get killed. I remember grabbing her hand and saving her in one of them, but that's usually when I woke up.

Looking back, I wonder what was going on in my life at that time. I wasn't getting beaten or anything like that, but my father did run around on my mother, and I might have been picking up on something going on between them. The asshole never paid any attention to me.

We never did anything: just the two of us.

We never played catch.

I don't think he ever said, "I love you."

But when he died, I cried.

A little poem I wrote about him.

Boy, am I getting far afield in this thread.

[Sweetpickle (imported)]

I liked the nightmares train. I used to be able to remember every one I had had, but I'm not sure anymore.

When I was about 4 0r 5 I dreamed that no one could hear me. It was related to my mother having

complained about my saying "What ?"

When I was about 10 I had seen the movie "The Hand" and dreamed that a hand kept reaching out of

a small metal box in our bathroom trying to "get" me.

When I was about 30 I dreamed that my air conditioner quit working and when I took the cover off the vent

there was a dead baby inside blocking the air flow.

[speedvogel (imported)]

Two incidents come to mind. The first scared the hell out of me at the time. I was walking down Broadway, in the morning, on my way to the New York Gauntlet shop to get my PA and ampallang done. I saw three teen aged punks working down both sidewalks. I said to myself, "Self, you are about to get mugged." They saw a juicier target, though. The hoodlums descended on an elderly Chinese merchant, gently put him on the ground and were off in a flash with his starting cash and whatever else was in his shopping bag. I determined he was not hurt and helped him get inside and call the cops. There was nothing they could do as I could not identify the punks, nor could the merchant.

The other, in retrospect, was really much worse. I had been driving a midget race car in Wisconsin in the days before roll cages. The car was powered by a V-4 Chevy (the front half of a 283 Chevy V-8 band-sawed off and bolted to a plate). We had overheating troubles until we finally got the water circulating slow enough to pick up the engine heat and carry it away. That night, I was really hauling until I was lapping a slow car. That guy spun in front of me. I climbed his rear tire and flipped higher than the light poles. I remember thinking as the car bounced and ground itself to scrap, "So this is what dying is like". I didn't die, but I also figured out that a fellow could get hurt doing that sort of stuff.

Speed

[Slammr (imported)]

Another close call: it is a wonder I'm still alive.

This took place somewhere on the California coast. I was at the beach with a couple of friends and was swimming in the surf. I got caught in my first and only real riptide. You don't ever want to get caught in one, I guarantee you that.

I didn't think I was going to make it back to the beach. If at any time I thought I was going to die, that was it. By the time I dragged myself onto the beach I was literally too tired to move. I lay with my arms out, on my belly, with my face in the sand. I was maybe twenty-nine at the time.

I know you're not supposed to fight it; you're supposed to swim parallel to the beach, but at the time, you don't think about that. You're just trying to get back ashore, and it's not letting you.

[moi621 (imported)]

Not counting the Organic Chemistry final,

a fear of flying seems to have developed. I use to love to fly. And landing in Milwaukee during a blizzard was so much more exciting. Then flying became uncomfortable. And I suffered 3 days before a flight and 3 days after until I finally decided, flying ain't worth it.

I can climb a rock or steep mountain and as long as I can have a hand on, I feel okay.

If I stand on a high platform with no railing above waist high, I tremble inside.

Same with similar visuals on TV.

But, no ghost has ever scared me.

Moi

Still do, believe in ghosts. Even a cat.

[Eunuchus (imported)]

That's called SHOCK and it kills faster and more often than the underlying injury.

Yes, It was a strange feeling. The room was going dark. The doctor ask me if I was OK. I told him no. He then placed cool wet towels on my head, chest, and stomach. I started feeling better.