Post your most amazing or outrageous experience here (good or bad)

[Joe Fields]

Aside from getting married, or your children being born, or your sexual escapades, what was the most outrageous thing that has happened in your life, be it good or bad that you can talk about here?

I can't tell you my most outrageous experience, because it is simply too unbelievable. But one of my more outrageous incidents was when I was escorted out of Texas by the state patrol, and I was minding my own business, not breaking any laws. This trooper escorted me to the New Mexico state line and told me not to cross paths with him again.

[skygazer]

1. Haven't really had very many

Well, I was struck by lightning. Twice. But that happens all the time. And I once got fired for doing too much work. That was a little odd. Oh, and there was that time I flew to Alabama while doing acid. That was a strange experience. And the time I helped a friend steal $900 from her mom's bank account and damn near got busted for a felony (what did I know? I was 17).

There was the time I ran away from home at 15 on a nice spring day and ended up sleeping at the town dump and discovering that it was 18 degrees and snowing the next morning. Rather shortened that adventure. Or the time when I was 18 when I left the house at about 8 at night to see how far I could hitchhike on 20 cents - I was gone for a month and traveled all over the country. Oddly, I did it again 20 years later.

Mostly, my life's been pretty boring and mundane.

[Joe Fields]

3. You, sir, are boring. Don't you have ANY good stories to tell?

P.M me and we'll compare notes sometime. Strange parallels.

[skygazer]

4. That's ma'am to you, sir!

And that sounds like fun. :hi:

[Joe Fields]

7. yes, maam!

I think if we had grown up together, we'd both be behind bars!

[angstlessk]

20. Oh, just an ordinary life lived in 'interesting times', huh?

My son would be glad to read that his life was not totally different than most!

Edit: Is that you, son? :rofl:

[malta blue]

2. I was lost in the Atacama desert in Nothern Chile

for 22 hours with only a half liter of water and a few M&Ms to keep me alive. I trekked in with 20 others, but when it became obvious that we were lost, everyone's survival instinct kicked in and we ended up breaking up into groups of 3 and 4. My group was the last to be located since I carried one of my companions on my back out of the canyon (and this person was overweight). After we climbed out, her leg was miraculously healed and she carried on, leaving me behind with 2 others. I am told that at one point I stopped, laid down in the middle of the road and told them to go on without me (oh the drama).

[Breeze54]

5. There's no way I could top that! WoW!!

:yoiks:

[Joe Fields]

6. Was this before the advent of the compass? Sorry. couldn't resist.

Seriously, was this before GPS became all the rage?

[malta blue]

This was in 1991, so GPS was not readily available.

We had aerial photos taken by the Chilean govt, but the thing is they took the pictures in the fall before the winds had come in, and the path we were following just dead-ended on a cliff -half of us were on one side of the canyon and the other half the other....they yelled at my team STOP!!! Come back!!! When we came back and hiked on the other side we saw that we were about to slide into the abyss of canyon had we kept going. :scared:

It was scary, but really the most character building experience of my life. Hell, I can walk 35k with only half a liter of water and some M&Ms if I ever need to again (and I better not)

[ForrestGump]

8. Wow

Thinking about candidates, I just realized I've had a lot of them. Just like that other Forrest Gump. :D

My grandchildren are never going to believe me....

[Joe Fields]

10. You also told JFK you had to go pee?

[ForrestGump]

12. No, I just did it in the nearest handy container

How the hell was I supposed to know it was about to be presented to Kruschev as a state gift?

Oops.

[Joe Fields]

13. LOL!

[Courtesy Flush]

24. Forrest Gump WAS a candidate

They left that out of the movie. Read the book. It was great.

[ForrestGump]

68. You know, I've got to read that book

Wasn't he an astronaut, too?

So much for the Blue Meanies who claim the film was far-fetched... :D

[Courtesy Flush]

70. The book was MUCH more far-fetched than the movie

He was also captured by pigmies, and he saved Mao's life. It was so outlandish, you couldn't put it down.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

9. Well, I won't go into the full story, but let's just say the scariest

experience of my life involved a cop driving my car.

[mainegreen]

22. That can't be good. nt

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

26. It worked out okay.

Fortunately, he didn't reach into the box of cookies on the seat next to him.

[Ptah]

11. When my children were much younger,

we were at a minor league baseball game.
We usually met my father there and sat with him in the grandstand,
right at first base.
This particular night, Pops wasn't there so we decided to
sit in the right field bleachers.
Fisrt they (son and daughter, 8 and 7 yrs old) wanted to sit very high
up in the bleachers.
Then they wanted to sit very close to the field.
Then they wanted to sit about half way up the bleachers.
Finnally settled in we were ready for the game.
But first they were hungry and thirsty so I gave them some
cash and let them go get some nachos and soda.
My son had brought his fielder's mitt, thinking he would
catch a foul ball. I put it on, just to demonstrate parental
diligence or something.
The game began before they returned.
They were making their way back up the stairs, hands full.
When they were about five rows from me, the batter hit
a foul ball.
Right to me.
I didn't even have to standup fully to catch it.
With my son's glove.
While they were looking up at me.

:applause:

[Joe Fields]

14. perfect timing!

[Ptah]

62. Yes, right time, right place.

:hi:

[angstlessk]

21. Hero of the night!

Too bad you could not auction it off on ebay!

[Ptah]

63. I think if I auctioned it, both of my children would be very sad.

:hi:

Welcome to DU, angstlessk

[CabalPowered]

15. Night diving is my fondest experience.

Every night dive I've been on has been out-of-this-world experience. Giant jelly fish, baby sharks, manta rays, shrimp.. it's a completely different planet down there.

[angstlessk]

23. I miss read it to read "Night Driving" and did a double take!

then I thought you meant dreams..but it was all 'fish related'...til I re read it...DIVING..okay...makes sense now!

[CabalPowered]

27. LOL!

Ya jelly fish on the road! Now those are some drugs I'd be interested in. :evilgrin:

[cobalt1999]

25. Night dives are REALLY cool

Also, any shark encounters while diving are memorable, I had a hammerhead swim up from behind me and next to me for about 10 seconds, he had the look of "don't mind me, just browsing the menu" in his demenor. You can't see them coming and at night they are always surprising me.

On the negative side, my most memorable diving experiences were usually due to extreme carelessness when I was younger (hung over, throwing up through the regualtor, diving below the dive tables, and random equipment failures (there is nothing like a free ascent from 80' to see how long you can go without air).

[CabalPowered]

31. Whoa! Ascending from 80' without safety stops is really dangerous

Glad you're still here! Hammerheads are really cool, I had two babies follow me for most of a dive. I haven't had any bad experiences or equipment failures, thank goodness! A couple nose bleeds has been the extent of it.

[cobalt1999]

40. Like I said, young and immortal.

Looking back, I don't know how we survived some of the stupid stuff. Unsupervised teenage boys with no octopus regulators, single tanks, no bc's, a buddy system that meant we were just diving in the same football field sized area (forget about helping each other).

In our twenties we'd rent this crap equipment from the local third world dive hole after we finished trying to drink all the local alcohol and screw the local girls. I think there are some islands in the Caribbean we may still be banned from. :)

Now, in my forties, I'm Mr. Conservative Diver.

[CabalPowered]

48. We spend the first part of our lives trying to kill ourselves

and the second part of our lives trying to stay alive!

Sounds like you had lots of fun trying to kill yourself. ;-)

[ForrestGump]

50. I think the buddy system's overrated and can even be dangerous

I have occasionally been the only person in the water, but I usually have a buddy somewhere -- the "same day, same ocean" buddy system. The exigencies of my research work and such things as taking photos are often incompatible with 'buddies' being right beside each other (anyone who is going to be a true buddy, as taught in open-water classes, to an underwater photographer is not going to have a very exciting dive most of the time). And if buddies are not right next to each other, they're not really buddies...they're each solo diving. They just don't know it, and therein lies the danger. They're lulled into a very false sense of security.

I have saved novice divers from themselves (panic attacks and such things as uncontrolled embolism-begging ascents, occasionally upside-down) a few too many times, so I'm not saying the buddy system is inherently evil, just that it's misunderstood and misrepresented by the agencies...the odds, for example, of one of those novice divers saving my life are pretty slim. I have done an octopus ascent with an experienced diver (one of my assistants) when he had air problems, and myself done the same with another experienced buddy when I ran out of air while preoccupied with a task, but in both cases we could have probably made controlled ascents to the surface and been okay even with skipping the safety stop. I very much like safety stops, though, so in each case we took advantage of the other's presence and made sure we'd be okay. And in both cases we were ten or 20 yards away from each other, at different depths, when we realized we weren't able to breath, yet we still chose to make it to our buddies because we knew the other would not be rattled and that would not necessarily be the case of a new diver.

Read dive accident reports and, very often, you'll find that both buddies perished because one panicked or otherwise had a problem. I've bene fortunate, in that I have usually dived with some of the best divers around (scientific divers, underwater film-makers, etc, including ex-commercial divers and some of the most phenomenally balanced divers I've ever seen in the water: cave divers), but I've also dived with a fair few novice (or experienced in number of dives but arrogant and unwilling to learn or to admit when hydrologic and other conditions are truly beyond their skill level) volunteers and students, and it can be a nightmare trying to keep some of them alive.

But the certification organizations place such emphasis on buddy diving and so absolutely villify 'solo' diving that they make divers dependent on a buddy system that is more often than not just an illusion, Further, any time a diver dives with a person who is less skilled, less experienced, badly-trained (a huge problem in the past 15 years or so, with PADI immorally pushing these weekend crash courses, the greedy f***ers) or otherwise incapable of rendering meaningful aid to their companion, the more capable diver is solo diving, even if they are literally holding hands with the other. There's nothing wrong with that, but I submit that laboring under the illusion that one is not solo diving when the buddy system is really not in play is very, very dangerous. Very.

In my opinion, all divers should be able to dive absolutely solo and be self-contained and self-possessed underwater, capable of taking care of themselves without having to count on help (help that is unlikely to come even from a qualified buddy who is more than a few feet away, for that matter) from another. And if that help's available, so much the better. Even if they never dive in a manner many would label 'solo' (literally the only person in the water, or just widely separated from their partner or engaged in activity that requires focusing solely on that activity), they'll be safer divers all around. I mean, that's just logical, and it's easy enough to verify empirically just by looking around at divers in the water.

And crash courses are vil and unethical. I'm not an instructor (my brother is, and he eventualy quit PADI in protest of the people they were letting through not just as open-water divers but as instructors and even instructor-trainers) but I have had to deal with the products of such courses and I think the people who came up with the idea should be staked out in a sand patch and left for the hagfish. Exceptional people aside, the best way to become a good diver at the outset is to have a great instructor and to spend a lot of time doing pool drills, including those more rigorous than some of today's agencies now permit (hello again, PADI), until it's all second nature.

[CabalPowered]

53. Thanks for that. I would feel comfortable diving by myself

but they ingrain the buddy system so much that even considering a solo dive feels wrong. I'm landlocked at the moment and I'm really wanting to dive and none of my friends are certified. I've been considering this lake dive but I've been a little hesitant about the high altitude. It's at about 7000' and the highest lake I've been in was at 4000'. Any thoughts on high altitude lake dives?

FWIW I received college credit for my open water and my advanced (PADI). I had an excellent instructor and dive masters. I've logged probably 100 dives, most of them off the Oregon coast and coastal lakes.

[ForrestGump]

57. Doing SCUBA as a university course is probably the best way, nowadays, to

do it -- you get all that pool time before you hit open water, and the instructors are usually superior. Good for you!

Yeah, I wouldn't recommend absolute solo diving too much, especially for anything but fairly benign conditions (that, when you think about it, ar enever present given that we are not mean to be under the water and we die if we lose our air source for more than a few minutes), but it really does peeve me that people go "oh noooooo...no no no no NO" to mention of diving solo when, in fact, it's almost guaranteed that most of their dives are functionally solo. Dangerous denial, that is.

It's been a while since I used dive tables for high-altitude diving -- I did it for my advanced certification (high altitude lake with zero vis in which we did search and recovery exercises, handily taking care of several of the desired criteria for certification all at once) -- but computers make that all a lot easier these days. That's pretty high, though, so I'd take a look at your advanced diving text and, if you use a computer, your computer's owner manual to make sure you do it right. If you do it,l I hope it's a great submersion! :hi:

[cobalt1999]

55. that I agree with.

The one time I could have used a buddy with an octopus, (1) he was too far away and (2) he didn't have an octopus regulator. Once my air stopped, it was time to make a quick decision, swim to him and try and share regulators or go for the surface. Easy choice. Went for the 80' free ascent. Since most divers stay shallower than that, relying on a buddy is probably the more dangerous option (although after 65' feet I started getting a little tunnel vision and the lungs were dying to inhale).

The only time I would rely a buddy would be if they were one of my long term dive friends or my wife (I know they won't get rattled).

The crash courses are nuts. I feel I've learned everything by experience (even the stupid experiences) over many years, and I don't feel comfortable around people who have just finished their certification.

[ForrestGump]

59. Exactly!

We're twins in these respects, methinks, except I did all my hit-and-miss stuff with snorkel (harder to get lethal) and didn't dive with compressed air until I was certified, so the only stories of stupid experiences and trial-by-error I have are more embarrassing by virtue of coming on the heels of advanced certifications that had me allegedly as a 'Master' SCUBA diver... :D

Master of what? Certainly not my own fate, apparently.

But the tales from underwater researchers decades my senior, who've logged more dives than I've had showers in my life, make me feel a little better about some of my own booboos. They happen, right? Most dives are good dives, and any time you surface at some point after submerging...well, that's not a bad thing even if the rest of the dive was shot to hell.

Did you know that they don't even teach buddy breathing any more? Too dangerous, they say. PADI, anyway, I think, and undoubtedly some of the others because most of them are following PADI's lead nowadays. Sure, it may not be the most optimal, especially in this day of redundant air sources, but if I'm trusting my life to artificial breathing apparatus, I'm darn well going to want all the permutations on staying alive that I can get. Your wife or your old dive buddies might be able to save you with buddy breathing (an octopus can fail...indeed, during the ascent with my dive buddy who was breathing on mine, the thing DID begin to kind of explode, a thing that in itself would have totally freaked out a newer diver, and it failed immediately thereafter for all time) but a new diver wouldn't be able to because they'd have no idea of what buddy breathing even is. Stupid.

Same with some of the rigorous drills that one of my university dive instructors had us do in the pool for our advanced course, like swimming down and turning off our air or making us swim around the pool and doff and don all our gear with our masks blacked out...all that was excellent preparation (and I have had nearly those exact kind of circumstances crop up underwater) but he said that he can't do it when teaching his PADI students (though he did, anyway) because not only was it way beyond PADI's levels for the advanced cert but they consider it harrassment and would sue him, if they had to, or at least kick him out of the organization. He was an instructor for PADI, nonprofit NAUI, and (the most hard-core of the three, but with no slick learning materials) decidedly nonprofit YMCA as well as IANTD, and he taught us how to dive like, as he said, a "fat old man like me," albeit a fat old man who I'd have had no trouble believing was at some point a Navy SEAL instructor. :D

Man, a few years ago PADI even shortened the length distance an instructor candidate has to swim as prerequisite to his or her training. :eyes:

It's all about money with those guys -- there are great PADI instructors about, and the organization has done some good with certain awareness campaigns, and I really do hate to seem as if I just have a beef with that one agency and am a knee-jerk PADI-hater (I did their rescue course and their medic first aid course and they were good and, indeed, I got a little funding from the PADI Foundation a couple of times) but, really, they've been a very negative influence on diving training and competence standards for a while now. The overriding for-profit emphasis (PADI = Put Another Dollar In, Pay And Die Immediately, Patches Available Diving Instruction, etc) is both too obvious and too at odds with what they should be concerned with...

[ForrestGump]

28. I like night diving without a light

I mean, without using a light, because I usually carry two (small ones...I love the Ikelite PCa Lite and have never used the huge 'artifical sun' type) that I keep on lanyards attached to each wrist. At least on moonlit nights. Nothing quite like it. You can see a lot further and really get a sense of what the reef's like at night, especially if you get away from any other divers who're using lights. I usually just use flashlights when I'm taking pictures and need either a focus light (I have an Amphibico video light mounted on my camera housing, but it always seems to run out of battery power right when I really need it) or if I'm searching for macro critters or want to avoid envenomation by stingray, stonefish, or Inimicus when I'm about to settle down on a sandy patch.

The most obnoxious thing I ever encountered at night were divers (volunteers, supposedly helping me with my work -- their intentions were in the right place but they were more detrimental to my efforts than helpful) wearign headmounted lights who kept looking straight at me whenever they drew near and handily robbed me of my night vision...on top of that, they were toting veritable searchlights and shining those all over the place, mostly in my eyes. :grr:

[cobalt1999]

42. work!?!

Okay, I'm officially jealous.

Hey, I want to volunteer! I promise to only use red glow sticks. I treasure my night vision also.

[ForrestGump]

44. I'm on hiatus from that work

And I sure miss the diving. :-(

When I get back into it, I'll let you know! :D

[CabalPowered]

49. Me too please! And I'm cheap!

B-)

[ForrestGump]

51. That's good, because

(unless we can get a TV gig), if I get back into it in the way I was before, grants only cover fairly rustic perks. :D

But we always ate well, all the same...

[CabalPowered]

52. What kind of grants did you get for this?

State, federal, private? Probably WHO..? Just curious.

[ForrestGump]

56. All sorts

US Federal funds, international and local NGOs, and private foundations inside and outside the US. Also got free or low-cost logistical support and massive discounts, etc, from local facilities and adjacent dive resorts and talked airlines into a few discounts and dive companies into a little bit of gear donation. Got some state funds through my university, as well, as a grad student. And TV companies, too -- they were the best of all! :D

[seemunkee]

16. climbing fun

First time I went to Seneca Rocks WV. We were only 16 and this was our first time on a multi pitch route. We climbed slow and had a very inexperienced person with us. We had no flashlights or headlamps. The moon wasn't going to be up for a long time so we had to do everything by feel. Took us hours to get off the cliff without killing ourselves. One friend thought he was on the trail off the mountain and stepped into air. Luckily he only feel about 8 feet. Scrambling down the scree slope the rocks we kicked loose sparked as the rolled down.

Ice climbing in the Adirondacks. We were on a snow slope when it got dark(you would think I would learn). The whole snow pack suddenly settled about 1 foot and we thought it was going to slide off. I was the least freaked out and so was last one to rappel down. I laid in the snow looking at the moon waiting my turn. I was warm enough from the work and it was quiet and peaceful, I didn't want to leave.

Mt Ranier
I'm not an alpine cliimbing so this was physically the toughest thing I have ever done. My friend had attempted several times and had failed due to weather and/or other party members getting sick. He and I started climbing together over 30 years before then and it was great to summit together.

My friend turns 50 in October. I think we need to plan a trip.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. September 11, watching the jumpers and the towers

and wondering how much damage my office took and when and where I'd go back to work and if my mates were alive or what, and what was gonna happen next and listening to all the bullshit on the radios that some people had with them, stuff like "LA has been hit, too!" and "The Pentagon has been destroyed!" and "Chicago has been hit!" and thinking the whole country was in flames and totally fucked and I was scared, and I was constantly wondering where the military was, the question, "Where are the fighter planes? Why are we not under fighter protection yet? It's been more than hour since the first tower fell, where is the military?" constantly going through my head (the military apparently told to stand down by someone at the top, and not do their duty OR follow protocol for intercepting hijacked airplanes...).

[Tikki]

18. This...I always felt it was an amazing coincidence....

...the company that my husband worked for offered a free family dentist...but it meant driving 75 miles round trip from our Ventura County home down into the San Fernando Valley... (the SF Valley covers 464 sq miles and has a population of a million+)

After a trip to the dentist my son begged me to stop by an In-N-Out for a hamburger...this franchise hadn't made it's way up into our neck of the woods yet, but, there were three or four in the Valley.

Not real familiar with the SF Valley, I wasn't sure but decided that I remembered there might be an In-N-Out a couple blocks over from the dentist's office. I made a couple wrong turns trying to find it..but then I saw an In-N-Out sign ahead of me. As I was heading down Van Nuys Blvd my oldest son yelled..."STOP MOM, TURN AROUND, GO BACK...that's uncle Larry walking back there."

Larry isn't actually his uncle, but my son remembered him as someone close to the family. We had completely lost touch with Larry. It had been over four years since we had heard from him and we had finally quit asking other's if they knew where to contact him.

I told my son that it just couldn't possibly be Larry, Larry always said he would never live in the Valley, it must be someone who looks like him and that the odds of us seeing Larry walking down the street on this day in huge San Fernando Valley were astronomical.

"If you won't turn back then let me out of the car and I'll walk back there and get my uncle Larry" my son said. So I drove back by... and I guess you know you what was what...

We have never lost touch with him since.

Tikki

[angstlessk]

19. I have had three EXTREMELY embarassing things happen to me...

1. I was in a rush to get to the bus stop for school, I was about 11. I scooped up my books I had set on the ironing board in the laundry room and ran out to the street to wait for the school bus. The people on that street (very busy..a road to a navy base) were exceedingly friendly that day, waiving and smiling...almost chuckling as they waived. I felt GOOD! I got on my bus and everyone's eyes grew into great big saucers. I had NO idea what they were looking at til I sat down and put my books on my lap, and peering out from under was the brazier I had scooped up on my arm that was lying under my books on the ironing board. I almost cried.

2. Remember those kilts the girls used to wear? The ones you would wrap around and pin at the middle front with a giant Safety pin? I was such a fashion bug when I was about 12. Well, there was this GREAT hamburger joint on the corner near my house called the White Castle. All the kids/bums/general creeps hung out there, and we liked it for it's GREAT hamburgers. Well the entrance had two doors, you know a foyer to keep the wind from blowing in when the first door is opened. Of course when the first door is opened all eyes turn to see who is comming in the second door, just routine stuff. I entered into the foyer and looked everyone in the eye to show I feared not, then the very instant I opened the second door the button on my kilt popped, and since there was nothing else between that button and the Safety pin in the middle of that kilt to stop it, it plunged to my feet while I was still holding the second door open, and all eyes on ME! No slip...just me, my unddies, and my gravity ladden skirt.

3. That same corner, directly across the street from the White Castle (mentioned above) was an old fashioned drug store. Had a fountain and all the comic books one could read in an outting, a quite busy intersection for traffic and pedestrians from the local area. I had left the drug store and was heading home at about dusk. I waited for the light to change so I could 'safely' cross the intersection and when the light was in my favor I began the trek. Exactly in the middle of the street, neither direction favoring me, my underpants fell from around my midriff to around my feet. I looked down in disbelief and witnessed a sea of white surrounding and encompassing my feet. Immidiately my mind raced. "Do I step out of my pants and run, or do I pick up my pants and run?" Horns honked and some lady waiting for a bus at the bus stop the farthest from where my unddies lie, called out "Is that yo undia pants, honeychil? Bhawwaaahaaahahaaaaa" Well, finally the decision was made, pick em up and run like hell, to behind the White Castle until all the traffic passed and the 'lady' got on the bus so I could make good my escape home.

I slipped once while all dressed up in the middle of downtown when I was older, but crap...that was nothing!

[Joe Fields]

33. You seem prone to "clothing malfunctions", lol!

[Tracer]

29. I was sixteen, and ...

... my dad took me and my younger brother out in his boat.

It was a beautiful day in August and the ocean off Boston harbor was flat calm, so dad went pretty far out -- maybe 7 miles.

We were getting ready to do some fishing, when -- about a mile off to our right, a huge whale leapt out of the water and came splashing down with a great flip of his flukes. We were totally thrilled at the sight.

Then --- 3 minutes later the whale did the same thing. But he was only 3/4 of a mile away and coming towards us.

Then --- he did it again at 1/2 mile.

Then --- he did again at 1/4 mile.

Dad said "Kids, get your life jackets on right now." And we waited and waited, expecting at any second to be upended and thrown into the ocean.

Then --- we heard a gurgling sound from the other side of the boat and were stunned to see the whale gently floating right next to the boat, rubbing on the boat's side and whuffing out of his blowhole.

We could reach down and touch him! He calmly stayed there for a few minutes and then slowly sank down in the water.

A minute later, we saw him again leaping and splashing --- and going away from our boat.

(A size estimate would have been 50-60 feet, since he was longer than dad's 40 footer)

[ceile]

32. Wow!

That must have been amazing and terrifying!

[Joe Fields]

34. Wow! How Cool was that!

I would love to have that kind of an experience with a whale. How lucky you are.

[angstlessk]

37. That gave me goosebumps...how WONDERFUL

I am sure they KNEW you were a liberal, or he/she would have headed in the other direction!

[Tracer]

43. Gave us goosebumps too!

This episode was looooong before "whale watches" even existed.

I know that the whale was just out playing and having some fun, and was curious to see what that floating thing was.

[Debi]

30. One that isn't my wedding day or birth of my child or graduation such

Dancing on stage (I was the only one!) at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake Iowa during the Winter Dance Party while Jason D. Williams played.....My parents were in the crowd....do you think they were proud????!!! :P

[Joe Fields]

35. Would that be the one and only Surf ballroom?

But of course, it would have to be. I assume you made the pilgrimage.

[Debi]

36. Many times!

Mom and Dad say they were at THE event in 1959 (would have been teenagers). Haven't gone since 1998, but didn't miss a weekend from 1987 'til then! My time up on stage was in 1994 - the big tribute year.

Some Jason D. for your listening pleasure:

http://www.rockinjasondwilliams.com/sound_clips.htm


On Edit:

Have you been?

[SteppingRazor]

38. Hmmm.... can't discuss that one... that one either....

or that... or that.

Sorry. Can't do much with this thread. Statutes of limitations are a bitch :evilgrin:

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

41. Yes they are.

:evilgrin:

[begin_within]

39. Not me, but my Dad met both Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart once

My grandparents were members of the National Geographic Society and went to all their monthly luncheons, which usually had a famous person as the guest speaker or honoree. My grandfather was sick for one of them so my granmother took my Dad to it. He was about 13 or 14 at the time. The guest of honor was Amelia Earhart, and after the luncheon, my Dad and his mom were walking through the hallways and came upon Eleanor Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart talking, and my Mom introduced them, and they had a polite conversation.
Also when he was in high school they had a scavenger hunt, and one of the items they had to get was a piece of White House stationery, so they drove right up the driveway and knocked on the front door of the White House. A butler answered and gave them a piece of it. Later when they drove by, they noticed the gates had been closed. So they won the scavenger hunt because they were the only team that got the piece of stationery.

[MiniMandaRuth]

45. Don't ever tell my parents this, but one time

while me and my friends were wandering around our little town, we went into an old abandoned house. This thing was one of those creaky victorian house thingies you always see in horror movies. Well, we just went in there on a bet. Me, Friend 1, Friend 2, and Friend 3. It was us and one flashlight. So me, being the bravest of the four, went in first. The house had been abandoned and deemed unlivable since 1978, but they hadn't torn it down yet because of historical significance.

Getting in was easy. My friend got me a rock and we bashed the lock off. I opened the door, brushed aside a few large spiderwebs. Flashing the light along the walls, we discovered old, yellowing wallpaper printed with flowers. Some was peeling off the walls, reveling the sad, blackened wood. We pressed onward. Me, holding the flashlight, looked up to the ceiling. It was a two story house with a magnificent light fixture hanging down into the foyer. To our left was a dining room, to our right were stairs that went up. Spider webs were everywhere and we saw a few rats.

We walked into the dining room, not saying a word. There was a chair in the corner, collecting dust. A pile of rags was on the seat, looking dejected and sad. I flashed the light into the kitchen, seeing the cabinets in a sad state of repair. Some of the doors were falling off the hinges. We traipsed into the kitchen, every step making the floorboards creak. One friend brushed up next to a cabinet and the door fell off, nearly hitting her in the head. A rat climbed down from the cabinet, tittering angrily at her for disturbing his home. She shrieked and bolted back out the door, screaming. We had the option to leave by me and Friend 1 were getting really interested, so Friend 2 kept going along with us.

From the kitchen we went into a side hall. There were candle holders everywhere along the walls, and there was more flowery wallpaper. I poked my head into the washroom, watching in fascination as the light played off a cracked mirror hanging from the wall over a pink bowl. Friend 1 pulled me on as Friend 2 was already walking ahead.

The next room was a bedroom. The walls were green. There was a bed in the middle of the floor, as if no one bothered to move it. The windows were covered, allowing only a little natural light through. Friend 2 coughed loudly and a spider dropped down on her shoulder. Though it was only the size of a nickel, she screamed, whacked it off, and tried to push past me. I said it was only a spider. She said she was too creeped out and told us she would wait outside on the sidewalk. Friend 1 and I allowed her to go.

Now having lost two of our friends, Friend 1 and I pressed on, to the very back room. It was a den, with a couch pushed up against one wall and an empty bookcase on the other. There was a smaller version of the light fixture from the foyer in here as well, and it was no less magnificent. A stone fireplace with a cracked mantle stood at attention beneath two covered pictures. I skittered the light over the picture frames and wondered to myself if they were the owners of the house. The rumor was that the house had fallen into ruin after the owners had died. They're son had become a hermit and a crazy man, dying in old age in the upstairs bedroom. It was said he haunted the house. But we never believed that part.

Looking around, I saw that my friend was walking towards the paintings. I asked her what was she doing, and she said that she was simply going to look. Not seeing any harm, I went over to examine the last book left on the bookcase. It was an ancient looking dusty bible. I propped it open and began reading. I heard the rustle of fabric as my friend cast the black velvet aside. She gasped loudly and told me to look. I did.

The pictures were beautiful, of a handsome young man and a gorgeous woman. We stood there, admiring the paintings. Then, my friend twitched. I asked her what was wrong. She said that she had heard something. I listened. I didn't. She twitched again, telling me that there was something right over us. I laughed, before hearing the sound of footsteps myself. Heavy footsteps, pacing back and forth right over our heads. Then I heard this low moan, a painful one.

We decided that it was a bum and we were going to scat. I dropped the bible on the couch and we quickly headed back out the hallway. The footsteps followed us, the noise increasing. It was dreadful. We broke into a run. She was ahead of me when she opened the door to the outside. I stepped forward and my foot went through the floorboards. My jeans protected me from any splinters, but as I tried to get myself out, I only found myself sinking deeper into the floor. I cried out to my friend, who turned. She grabbed onto my hand before looking at the stairs and gasping. She dropped my hand.

I turned to see what it was she was in shock about. There was a dark figure, shadowy, that stood at the top of the stairs. It slowly began to walk down, the moan deepening and getting louder. My friend hurled my flashlight at it. It passed through. I yelled for her to help. She did, trying to get her footing on the rotting floor.

The figure was approaching at a painfully slow pace, but he had a purpose. I finally got a knee on the floor and pushed myself up. We both looked back. Just as the figure reached the bottom step, he disappeared. We ran out the door and never looked back.

It was the most frightening experience of my life. I still get scared when I think about it. :scared: I was shivering the whole time I wrote this. Ew.

[Debi]

58. You've got me scared!!! n/t

[MiniMandaRuth]

64. Gave me nightmares for three weeks.

No horror movie really scares me anymore because I've been in one.

[kwassa]

46. Being ignored for saving someone from drowning

Surreal. Like it never happened.

I saved a Japanese tourist from drowning in Haunauma Bay in Hawaii, by swimming underneath her and pushing her onto a reef. I almost drowned in the process.

No one saw it, not even my girlfriend on the beach.

[MiniMandaRuth]

47. Eh. At least you saw it.

That's all that matters.

[politicat]

54. Kayaked down the Colorado River from about Boulder City to Yuma

9 day trip, fourteen years old, with eleven other Girl Scouts and three adults. Not much white water, but a little. LOTS of scenery.

Sixteen years later, my husband and I did white water down the Arkansas with level V rapids.

Other than that, we lead awfully boring lives.

[querelle]

60. Etched In My Mind Forever......

......is something that happened when I was seven years old. My family was driving to our summer house in the eastern townships of Quebec when we passed a head-on collision on the highway. My Dad wanted to stop to help but my Mom started freaking out on him. She didn't want my younger brother and I to see it and insisted that my Dad drive on to the next pay phone to call emergency services. Too late......we saw it all because my Dad had slowed down while passing. It was horrible. Body parts strewn all along the highway. A woman's head on the hood of one of the cars. A man drenched in blood trying to flag down passing cars.

I'll never forget that scene for as long as I live.

Q

[idgiehkt]

61. the worst one just happened a few months back

but I can't talk about it.

The second most freakish one was coming out of a blackout while driving drunk to find a man braced against the front of my car in a gas station parking lot. I don't remember hitting the brakes but apparently I had and the impact of my head slamming back against the head rest kind of made me come to or something. It took a long time to sink in that I had almost run him over...I didn't process it til the next day cause I kind of blacked back out again and then came to on my bedroom floor later on that night.

I only drank for about two more months after that, which was in '92.

[Roon]

65. I was stabbed at a grocery store

I am hiv poz and blood was flowing everywhere. It really sucked.

[Joe Fields]

66. Don't leave us hanging... please go on.

[Roon]

67. It's just people are in a hurry

and if you slow them down, they get mean. And that is all I am going to say about that.

[Dora]

69. Rolled off a cliff in a Jeep Cherokee.

I was in the eighth grade and on a camping trip with my friend Yvonne and her parents. We were part of a group expedition, everyone had Jeeps and Cherokees - this was in 1983, before SUVs were the ubiquitous plague they are today.

We had driven up to Globe the night before, and become lost in the wilderness, driving through mile after mile of unimproved forest roads. The front wheels became stuck in a ditch and we had to pile up rocks in the ditch to give the right wheel the traction it needed to pull out. We finally stopped and crashed in the car for the night. The next day we found the group we were looking for.

It seemed like we'd only just gotten started when it happened. The backseat was folded down and Yvonne and I were lazing about and napping in the back, along with all the ice chests and camping gear. The next thing I knew the whole world was spinning and crashing, spinning and crashing, spinning and crashing, then it stopped. I knew immediately that we had barely escaped death and maybe would yet die. I could see blue sky through the windshield, but I couldn't see much else. Yvonne was whimpering somewhere behind me. Her mother moaned, and her stepdad started cursing and stepped out of the car. I could hear the far away voices of other people from up on the road calling to each other and down to us.

Apparently our vehicle had been too close to the edge of the road and the soft dry shoulder gave way. We first slid down the steep hillside, then twice rolled completely over from side to side, landed on our wheels on the road below us, bounced and rolled off the ledge end over end one complete rotation to land rightside up on top of a fortuitiously located and very strong desert shrub of some kind.

To this day, cliffs, ledges, and mountain driving make me very nervous.