Scariest Thing You Ever Did...

I am definitely not a thrill seeker. The scariest thing i've ever done was to drive in excess of 160 mph. There was a stretch of interstate which was about 8 miles long, which had not been connected at either end--it was waiting for an interchange at one end, and a bridge over a river at the other. It was long used by the local boys for goin' fast as hell, because there was a way to get onto it from what had formerly been a farmer's access road, if you were willing to take it easy, and risk your suspension.

One of the local boys came back from 'Nam, and as was often the case, used his accumulated pay to buy a fast car. He got a Plymouth GTX, which was basically the same chassis and body as the plush Plymouth passenger car, but stripped down, and available with engines which were way too big. He had a 440--which is to say, a four hundred forty cubic inch engine. For those who now can only think metric, that's well over seven liters, almost 7.5 liters. It had a spedometer which pegged out at 160 mph. Four of us went out to the uncompleted interstate with him, and we all took it in turn to drive that b*tch just as fast as she would go (hell, we only made a dollar an hour, but gas was a quarter a gallon . . . or less). In the first couple of miles, you could peg out the speedometer, which meant you were doing in excess of 160 mph. Of course, you needed the rest of the distance to slow down, because you sure as hell didn't want to slam on the breaks at that speed in a car which weighed about as much as a VW bus.

Well, I did some scary things in my life but this one was the scariest:

- I once was committed to do some controls on a warship like this one:



According to the check up instructions and requirements, I had to check the ship by a 15° list (meaning that the inclination of the ship was 15°).

When I asked the commander of the ship to fill the ballasts on the port side, the ship looked like this:



I assure you, that was scary!

I'm not a thrill seeker. Though I've had some good runs of being plain old reckless.

So the scariest things I've ever done, or had happen, were things that I didn't exactly plan. Putting myself in situations that were really so over my head.

And as far as the scariest thing, it would have had to be the day I realized that Slavery is in fact still a very real thing and living even in my own comfortable little world.

Story? Somehow, one time, I got myself into a situation where this HUGE man who spoke Arabic and obviously was a very seedy character, was discussing with another man about how much he'd be willing to accept so he could buy me.

Probably for a prostitution ring. And though my life wasn't exactly all sunshine and roses up into that point, I was still naive to be totally shocked that such things could occur and it could even have possibly be my fate if I wasn't so damn lucky to have what I have in this world.

Yes, that was scary. To be talked around as though you have no existence, and can be bought and sold like a pound of rice.

skeeryest thing was prolly walking across this old railroad bridge with a bunch of friends --



it was JUST like that scene in 'stand by me', minus the locomotive bearing down on us

I pretty much cleared my bucket list the day I agreed to do one of those 250 foot in the air lie on your belly in a swing thing then pull the string and fall full speed face first towards the ground with my sister.

NEVER AGAIN!

Sky Diving? check

Hang Gliding? check

Bungee Jumping? check

Parasailing? check

ALL of those and anything similar in nature are now off my "Must do before I die" list. I'm now of the opinion that I was not born with wings for a reason.

Parachute jump - check

Diving off a ship into Australian waters... arriving into port and seeing the biggest mother of a shark on the end of a rather massive weighing machine!!! mmmmm... didn't think about the diving off the ship into shark infested waters. (DOH)!

Swimming up a creek to Twin Falls in Kakadu with fresh water crocodiles somewhere below - scary sh!t. But just had to do it.

Walking in the bush at nite with no torches - knowing there were spiders webs everywhere. Nope - never again.

Running along side a freight train, attempting to pull myself on with my back pack, boyfriend and food.
These trains are working their way up to 30 mph so you quite literally have to grab what you can and pull yourself up.

I got an empty freight car while the train was going slow enough that I could run as fast as I could and keep perfect pace with it.

Threw in my gear


Threw in my food

grabbed the little ladder

Pulled my legs up


and fell under the train.
Boyfriend ( Jon was his name) yanked me by my hair and my mouth splitting my lip and got me out from under that thing and I tumbled down the side of the track. These tracks were raised and lined with sharp white rocks.

I have , well had.. they are pretty much invisible now, but I had lines on the backs of my thighs where the hot track burned me. Which is odd.. tracks dont get that fricking hot.

At the bottom of the hill I layed there for a while. Head busted, lip busted, knees busted and I believe he pulled out a chunk of my hair.
Jon was skidding down on his ass trying to get to me quickly and I remember seeing grey and feeling very cold.


We rested for abuot 2 hours, and hopped on the next one.

I also rode on top of a freight train once.
It came to a stop around...Concord california.

No bridges, no overhangs .. nothing.

Talk about lucky.

I do not remember WHY it stopped........wait.. It actually stopped in Barstow. Because it was close to a Burger King that was known at the time for being a good, open area to catch trains in the first place.

Anyway.

Riding on top of trains apparently was pretty common for the homeless thrill seaker. I got off the train, Jon climbed out of the empty car and we went into Burger King and with our pennies, got two burgers.
Came out and the train we were on had left. Kinda pissed us off.. we wanted to take that thing to Arizona..

So we sat under a tree and watched for the next one.
Not too long after we were done eating, we changed our minds and decided to stay where we were and began walking down the tracks.

it was hot. It was stinky. and there was not alot of room.
One train went by about thirty minutes later at almost full speed and blew me off my feet. I would say from the edge of the train to the grassy slope, we had about 10 feet.

We walked for at least an hour and came up on a small cave for the train.
It was not enough space for us to walk in AND not get killed if a train came by. We could not see the end of it so we decided to climb up this huge, steep slope and go around. We sat down to have a cigarette first, about 8 feet or so up the slope and heard a train coming. Just sitting there watching, we heard yelling and saw someone on top of the train as it approached that little cave. I would venture to say that train was going about 60 mph. And that man did not jump in time.

I never.. EVER rode on top of a train again.

the stories are bubbling through me today for some reason.

Another thing I did that caused the grey I live with today was ride on top of a moving car.

it was an old plymoth. late 70s model but I dont remember the make.

I was 16, and my boyfriend at the time was drunk I think and daring me to do it. I thought he would only go about 10, 15 mph. Nothing faster then what you would do in a parking lot for example.

I climbed on top of the car, stretched out on my belly and held on to the door window frames. And he took off...

I mean.. TOOK OFF...

At one point the only thing I had to hold on to was the door frame because my body had slid down the backglass of the car.
he was laughing his rear end off.
How I made it with out falling I dont know. But I was in tears for hours after that, and he got a huge black eye from me as well... among other things.. I dont think I ever beat someone like that before then
Punk.

SHEWOLF

Squinney- I always wanted to skydive - until I bungee jumped. I do NOT like that feeling of falling. I do love flying in little airplanes though. Just don't want to jump out of them. I guess the biggest thrill I would go for now would be roller coasters. Still love those.

After Shewolf's stories, I have nothing. Wow!

That is some serious internal fortitude she has.

I was gonna say something about heights and trains in combination, but shewolf's experience trumps mine.

I've done several private aircraft landings where the ceiling and visibility was the minimum allowed to do such a thing. I wasn't flying but was right there in cockpit watching for the ground when we'd break out at about 200' going 200MPH. That's pretty scary ****.

anyone who gets into a plane BY CHOICE is braver then I will ever be.

It isnt that I am afraid of heights, the planes themselves nor do I have a fear of them crashing........ I just cant do it. And I refuse to figure out why.

The price of the ticket, maybe?

That is a serious consideration

oohhh.. you have agreat point there

I was considering flying my mother to Austin over the spring next year, thinking that would be more then enough time to save up.

Holy knickers!
1,100.00 round trip!
9 months in ADVANCE and on non peaktime!

what. the. .. !

I read this immediately thinking you were talking about gas..

lordy mercy

I was a really small kid and a very gentle and timid one if you can believe it. I lived in a piss poor section of town and was the target of a lot of thugs and everyone else. I didn't do well at defending myself because I was as frightened of hitting someone as I was of being hit. In 8th grade a kid named Alvin ***** used to corner me in the locker room with a couple of big friends and his little sister and slap the **** out of me and take my lunch money. He called me a little white punk bitch and his little sister (7th.) grade laughed at me. this went on almost all year and one day I had enough and brought a small paring knife into school with me. When the usual thing happened I jammed the knife into his neck all the way to the handle. It's a miracle I didn't cut the carotid or jugular and kill him. I told him as he lay on the floor that I would kill him and his little sister if anyone there ever f**ked with me again. I was so frightened and so shaky I left school puking and went home. That night I cowered at home waiting for something to happen....but nothing ever did.

So the most frightening thing I ever did turned out to be the most liberating. After that incident I poured boiling crisco off my stove onto a guy who was yelling up at me from my window to come out and get shot.

No one ever f*cked with again. I was officially "that crazy white boy". Sometimes you have to work through your fears. I've never been afraid for myself since.

Finally, one of the men steps up and beats the stories from shewolf!

Great job, Bear!