Your Scariest Moments

[bobover3 (imported)]

Reading Moi's thread about ghosts started me thinking about the scariest moments I'd ever had. I guess everyone has been really scared at one time or another, and it might be fun to talk about it.

I let myself in for an awful fright when I was in my late twenties and not yet a grown-up. I was taking a late night walk in Manhattan and found myself on the site of what would become the Javitz Convention Center. Back then, the far West Side, near the Hudson River, was still known as a hang-out for thugs and low-lifes. Several entire blocks had been demolished to make way for the Center. The streets and street lamps were still there, but instead of buildings there were just piles of brick and rubble. It was totally deserted. There were only small puddles of light from the old fashioned lamps. It was a moonscape surrounded by a high-crime neighborhood. Only an idiot or a criminal would go there alone at night, and I wasn't a criminal. I thought it would be a nifty urban experience to wander there.

Right in the middle of the place I heard a scraping and clanking noise behind me. I turned to see a tough looking black man carrying a length of metal pipe which he was dragging on the ground as he walked. He was coming down the street toward me at a brisk pace. Expecting the worst, I relied on what little "street" lore I had. Showing fear provokes violence. You have to look cool, as if walking construction sites with threatening strangers past midnight were part of your average day. So - looking my coolest - I sauntered slowly down the street.

That was one of my scariest moments. I fully expected that man to crush my head with his pipe. My hair actually stood on end. I'd thought that was only a figure of speech, but I felt my hair standing in back where I thought the blow might fall. The man passed me, still dragging his pipe, and going as fast as he could. Only after he passed did I realize he had the pipe because he was scared, maybe scared of me. He was dragging that pipe to scare off trouble. But I was still shivering with adrenaline, and got out of there as fast as I could. I was truly terrified. So ended my "urban experience."

Now how about you?

[butterflyjack (imported)]

In VietNam...down in the rice paddies of the Mekong Delta..We were gathered, waiting for choppers to take us back to base camp when we were mortared..The guy about 20 feet from me was blown up, and my Lieutenant, Francis X Love, from Brooklyn, NY was injured to the point that he never came back to the unit...and I heard the next rounds leave the tube...to land who knows where...Scared the crap outa me..We, as usual, never even saw the Cong using the mortar....Five or six quick rounds and they took off...Man..was I glad to get out of there... This was about the point in my life where I started drinking...Kept it up for another 25 years...I guess, this had a profound effect on me..I still jump and startle very easily..PTSD, I assume....Jackie

[Riverwind (imported)]

OMFG I know exactly when that happened, the last time I saw my Ex-Wife.

River

[butterflyjack (imported)]

Hehehe River..And I'd wager she had similar comments...Jackie

[Cainanite (imported)]

Of the times I have been most frightened, all have been from my own stupidity blowing up in my face.

Example:

I was installing a portable shower unit in my main floor bathroom. It was a very old house. As I was drilling with the hole saw, through the floor for the drain, I hit something unexpected. A floor joist. I had done my measurements. It shouldn't have been there. It turned out whoever built the old house, had doubled up. There were twice as many as needed. Once I determined it was safe to cut through, I went down into the basement, and tried to remove it. Unfortunately it was in a very awkward place. I couldn't reach it easily.

So. I got out my chainsaw. It had a long enough blade to reach, and I went to work. Just as I was almost through, the chainsaw bucked (it had hit a hidden nail) and came straight back for my head faster than you can say, "Fu..." One inch from my head, it miraculously stopped. I had almost cut my head in half. I was more scared in that 1 second than I have been before or since.

What stopped the blade? Oh, that was a mystery pipe. One that I didn't know where it went or what it was for. It had a pretty good gouge where the blade had ground to a halt on it. Feeling grateful to that mystery pipe, I followed it along... all the way to the natural gas meter.

In one second I had BOTH nearly cut my head in half, AND nearly blown myself to kingdom come.

My heart rate didn't come down for several hours once I realized that. I could have very easily become just another Darwin Award recipient.

I guess I'm still young, I could still win myself that award. Maybe I'll have better luck next year.

[tugon (imported)]

Two of my scariest moments have already been posted on the EA. I am not sure if I have ever decided which was the scariest. In no particular order.

Being raped at gunpoint. I knew the ahole was becoming more aggressive and I found it easier to satisfy him than deal with the threats. One very late night he called for me to come over and talk since he was depresses. I arrived and he was smiling. I questioned about this change and he said he was happy I came. The next thing I knew he held a revolver against my temple and ordered me to drop my pant and lie on the couch. He raped me which is very painful when the body tightens up and the gun banging into my temple with his thrusts. I wondered what he would do to me when he came. I also worried that as his muscles contract during orgasm would he accidentally pull the trigger. I did not worry for long since I dissociated. I went somewhere warm and safe.

Another scariest moment happened in Room 137 of the Knight's Inn. The anxiety over my impending castration grew as I shaved and prepped for surgery. The cutter would be there any minute. I had only spoken to him on the phone. I had worked around doctors for a number of years and I knew how they comport themselves. I was not expecting a doctor but I was not expecting what walked through the door. Anxiety grew to fear. My first reaction was get me the hell out of there. Of course there was the side of my personality that told me I had promised him he could remove my testicles. I also felt bad since he had driven so far. I crawled up on the bed and hoped and prayed that all would go well.

[SplitDik (imported)]

Mine are more mundane. Car accidents, workplace accidents, medical scares, violent encounters. Definitely have been close to death, but not as interesting as your guy's stories.

Some of the most interesting are usually workplace accidents since so many weird things can happen, when I was a teenager I worked on a tar-and-gravel roofing crew and I was the gravel shoveler. We were working on a large apartment complex of five story buildings. I had a couple near deaths there, the two worst related to the "ladder-vator" system of getting gravel from the ground to the roof. Basically it is a winch on a tall ladder with a motor at the base. It had a big bucket that held a yard of gravel (about 2000 lbs!). I would fill it up, then operate the lever to hoist the gravel up. The company was really cheap and poor on safety, so didn't maintain the machine. One day the cable snapped and the whole thing came hurtling down with me at the bottom. I just got out of the way and it was a tremendous impact, shattering the pavement and setting off all the car alarms around. Another time, on the same machine at the end of the day I was at the top and at the end of the day was unhooking it. The problem was the operator at the bottom hadn't fully released the tension. There wasn't a lot of tension left, probably 100lbs, but it was enough where the hook actually went right through my hand and was pulling me with 100lbs force off the roof. I basically was hooked into it pulling back for my life. It took a bit (probably wasn't that long, but seemed like it) for them to figure out what was wrong and release the tension.

Most other scares have been results of my own risk-taking -- going to bad neighborhoods, hanging out with wrong crowd, driving dangerously, etc.

SD.

[Riverwind (imported)]

If you were here you would get a hug.

River

[tugon (imported)]

Of the times I have been most frightened, all have been from my own stupidity blowing up in my face.

Example:

I was installing a portable shower unit in my main floor bathroom. It was a very old house. As I was drilling with the hole saw, through the floor for the drain, I hit something unexpected. A floor joist. I had done my measurements. It shouldn't have been there. It turned out whoever built the old house, had doubled up. There were twice as many as needed. Once I determined it was safe to cut through, I went down into the basement, and tried to remove it. Unfortunately it was in a very awkward place. I couldn't reach it easily.

So. I got out my chainsaw. It had a long enough blade to reach, and I went to work. Just as I was almost through, the chainsaw bucked (it had hit a hidden nail) and came straight back for my head faster than you can say, "Fu..." One inch from my head, it miraculously stopped. I had almost cut my head in half. I was more scared in that 1 second than I have been before or since.

What stopped the blade? Oh, that was a mystery pipe. One that I didn't know where it went or what it was for. It had a pretty good gouge where the blade had ground to a halt on it. Feeling grateful to that mystery pipe, I followed it along... all the way to the natural gas meter.

In one second I had BOTH nearly cut my head in half, AND nearly blown myself to kingdom come.

My heart rate didn't come down for several hours once I realized that. I could have very easily become just another Darwin Award recipient.

I guess I'm still young, I could still win myself that award. Maybe I'll have better luck next year.

Please, please for all that care about you hire the work done.

[A-1 (imported)]

Sometimes, I have a tendency to be a fear junkie. I used to climb commercial antenna towers for fun and thrills. I am to old for this now so I have restricted myself to flirtations with 18 to 20 something Y.O. women and an occasional roller coaster ride...

...I am so baaaad...