Dangerous or Life Threatening Situations

when we moved into the house, the previous owner had the washing machine in a bathroom on the ground floor.

after a few weeks of dealing with a very crowded bathroom, we decided to move it down cellar where it belonged.

jespah worked with a woman whose husband was a plumber, so we asked him to lend a hand carrying the washer downstairs and hook it up.

so i pick up my end, and right away i realize the sumbitch is heavy as all get out.

and, like a fool, i go first, taking the stairs backwards.

the staircase has a couple steps before it takes a right turn -- a tricky pivot.

well, i made it unscathed and drenched in sweat.

i often contemplate what would have happened if i had taken a mis-step...

In A gold recovery job in Nevada, I had an all engineers who were from India. ALL of em were deathly afraid of snakes. We moved a bunch of office trailers and houses as temp town.
The trailers were all perpendicular to the suns path with the AM sun shining into the front door and Kitchens and office receptionist. (the receptionists were all valleys) and the chem e's wouldnt arrive till 10AM.

SO we had concrete riser steps with wrought iron railings. VERY DAY all the rattlesnakes within a 5 mile radius would coil around the railings to warm up and the Indian engineers wouldnt go near the place de or wouldnt come outside of their trailer home and every one of the geo guys and drillers were at the mines.
For 2 or more weeks (Before I could hire some forest ranger services, I would have to pick off the little rattlers and dump en in a box and then Id take em off to a site near Lassen peak. One AM one of the engineers wanted a ride back to his trailer on the other side of the site . I had my boz of about 4 rattlers and hepicked up the box and when he saw what was in it hescreamed and threw the box into the back seat of the Bronco. He jumped aiut and ran the 3 or so miles to his trailer and I was left there trying to find the rattlers. I drove to the wash station and told the guys who got a bigass hose and started hosing the little bastards outta the truck. We only got 3 snakes and I drove back to the drill site. End of the day, my little guy was coiled up on the back seat. So back at my residence I got one of those jay grabbers they had at the powder mag. I got the little guy and took it out to walnut Grove an let him loose on the obsidian field.

wasnt really life threatening but, if you ever hire people from india or se asia, make sure you get their feelings about snakes.

gimme a gang of oz drillers , theyd kill and cook the snakes and share stories about the best snake meat they ever ate.

Hitchhiking out of San Diego one day I got in a car with a guy who was somewhat nuts. He drove us to the highest point in the mountain crossover doing 110 mph. There is a hell of a crosswind there much of the time. The car began to hop sideways toward the mountainside, which if such a collision took place and we survived, the car might careen off of the mountain over a steep cliff. I told myself, "I'm going to die." There was nothing to do but sit still and wait for it to happen. But this nut was cool. He actually brought the speed up to 120, which stabilized the car and we got safely through the mountains. Only to have the engine lock up mear San Luis.

How not life threatening? You can die from a rattler bite, can’t you? Anyway, good one FM.

You said there was nothing to do but wait on death to happen. Bet I could have found something to do - scream like a little girl!!!!
<shivers>

I have a few more. Just wanted to see what others come up with and not hog the thread.

We were remodeling a house, working on a steep roof. I had just bought some new shoes that were slightly longer than my old pair. I turned to come down the incline when one foot kicked the toe of the other and threw me off balance. I was on the way to tumbling down and falling to the concrete below. There was another man down several feet who saw and braced himself and grabbed me before it was too late. Could have killed or crippled me. Definitely would have hurt.

Gah, I wish I could tell a tale of being on the high seas trying to catch mammoth tuna and almost being pulled overboard, or kayaking down some river with terrifying falls and almost drowning, or hunting some big behemoth on a safari and almost getting killed by an angry rhino, but I have nothing, nada, zilch. Oh well, I live vicariously in your moments.

If you had to be homeless in the late 1980’s, I’m sure there were a lot worse places to be than Washington DC. The city had halfway decent shelters and soup kitchens, and the churches were pretty charitable. The homeless population seemed huge to me.I was homeless in DC for the better part of 1988. Won’t go into detail about how I got there, but I’ll just say it wasn’t unrelated to my substance addiction at that time.

(It’s not relevant to this story, but while homeless in DC, I happened to meet Mitch Snyder - the advocate for the homeless that was portrayed by Martin Sheen in a movie about him.)

But my time on the streets was often strange and occasionally dangerous. There were all kinds of homeless people, some decent and down on their luck, some desperate criminal-types, and everything in between. There were some guys that would just as soon kill you as speak to you. Everyone knew that cops wouldn’t waste a lot of energy on investigating it if a homeless person got stabbed to death in an alley.

One evening, two shady looking guys - one of them brandishing a 2x4 with a nail sticking out of it - caught me walking alone. They moved close so I was pinned up against a fence. They told me “Give me your ****!” I told them I didn’t have anything.

The guy with the stick swung it at my head coming close to gouging me with it. I knew that he didn’t care whether he connected or not. I emptied my pockets of my worldly possessions at the time - a pack of Newports with three cigarettes inside. They took my cigarettes, had a good laugh at my terrorized state, and went on about their evening.

For the record, this confrontation was the first time in my life I knew in my heart that I could kill a human being. To this day I believe that if I had my hands on a gun I surely would have killed those two guys.

I must have been under 6 years old. My parents took me to place called Six Gun City in New Hampshire. It was supposed to be some sort of entertainment center for families replicating the old west. I had a close call with death there.

I went on this carriage ride without any family members. It was a horse drawn carriage like they had in the old west. As we went on this pleasant ride with some other kids inside, suddenly guns were being fired, we were being chased by bandits. They pulled us over, I was terrified. These scary bandits peeked in at us and said anyone got any money! I had a tiny little purse which I cleverly tucked behind my back. Everyone in the carriage said No. I was so terrified I couldn't speak and just shook my head no.

They said alright and left. I had never been so scared in my life thought if they knew I had this purse they would kill me. Took me decades later to realize this was part of the "entertainment." I was so scared I did not even tell my parents because I thought they would come back and get me.

Well, I was hitching with my backpack when I decided to hop a freight. There was a slow train headed my way. I was still new at the game. Didn't realize how fast and powerful that train really was. Looked to me like I could latch onto a grab iron and pull myself up. Trotted up and timed my grab. That train spun me so bad I was rolling along beside it. After a bit I turned toward the tracks. Just as I envisioned myself getting ground up finer than the fanciest hamburger a dip in the terrain sent me off to the side. When finally I stopped moving I lay perfectly still, except the part of me going "Ow ow ow ow " The miracle that saved me each time I came down on the rocks I landed on my back on top of the backpack. I was afraid to move, not knowing if I was broken up and just didn't feel it yet. Turned out I was perfectly fine. Got up and hitchhiked the rest of the way.

I'll be back, need to ponder something

Ed, I jumped on a freight train once. Was too chicken and too much of a homebody to ride it anywhere interesting. Jumped right back off after only riding a couple of miles.

I once froze my feet in a boxcar. Couldn't walk for two weeks.

When I was a very young driver I had to be careful because for no discernable reason my hand involuntarily turned the steering wheel left very frequently. I managed to avoid trouble But, one day, my youngest brother and I were driving and having a lively conversation. I looked at him with a big grin and I inadvertently turned left into the oncoming lane. I discovered the situation just in time to see an oncoming car and the terrified face of a man taking evasive action. He stopped and made a u-turn, likely to go home and recover. I drove to my destination as fast as I could, just in case he also called the police

what did you do? crawl home? curl up in a bed or pile of leaves? go to the hospital? sit on the curb and beg? don't leave us hanging or we'll all have more dire circumstances than the reality! And how did that happen? C'mon, details!

Oh, that. I had tried to cover up with cardboard, but it only partially helped. Once I got off the train I had almost forty miles to go. I walked almost half of it, mostly in the pitch dark. I think the walking saved me from needing surgery or whatever they do. I enjoyed a good night's sleep at home. Next morning my feet felt the way an arm or leg feels after it went to sleep and is waking up. Only many times more intense. I sat and lay around for about two weeks and then it was alright.

"oh, that."

Life in the 'good old days', eh? We'll have to chat some time, EB...but I'm glad to learn about all these experiences you had.

Thanks for this thread.

I have a couple more. Just waiting to see if anybody else will join in.