TELL 5 INTERESTING/SURPRISING THINGS ABOUT YOURSELF!

Sofia, Our older son was in a car accident in the Oakland hills when he was attending college. The car he was a passenger in was totally demolished, because they went down a steep hill. Both the driver and our son miraculously survived, but when we went to the hospital very early in the morning after we were awaken at 2AM, and I saw our son being sutured in the face, I broke down and cried - even after the doctor told us he was okay. They were both thrown out of the car, and came out with broken arms. Thanks for sharing your foot tickling incident. c.i.

ci--Thank goodness your son was OK! That must have been a nightmare--between recieving the call, and seeing that he was alright. I think parents must age dramatically when things like this happen.

Counting blessings.

c.i. I'm glad your son is ok.

I forgot to include one interesting/surprising thing. I was elected to political office in my youth--in da Bronx.

CI -- Being wakened in the middle of the night to come down to the hospital is one of a parent's worst nightmares. I'm glad that the injuries were not so severe as they might have been.

I was also amazingly touched by Sofia's story of tickling her friend's foot. I wil remember that if I am with a comtose person and if I'm ever comatose, please, somebody... tickle my foot!

That story reminded me of my father, who once lay comatose. The entire family, all the siblings and their spouses and their children, crowded into one small hospital room to say goodbye. We did, and then we left, milling around outside, waiting for the elevator. One last grandchild stayed behind and was holding grandpa's hand. Suddenly, Grandpa squeezed it and tried to sit up. It was startling but like a miracle, it seemed to us and his physicians. Within a few hours he was up and about. We had three more wonderful months of enjoying his company. So, never underestimate someone who is in a coma. They might wake up. Who knows, maybe we should always try and tickle their feet?

I believe the foot-tickling is called the Babinski reflex, and doctors with comatose patients are supposed to be checking for it. Hmm.

jespah, Did a polish find that reflex? Not meant to be a Polish joke. Honest. c.i.

c.i., you got the dreaded call most parents have nightmares about.

I'm so glad your son is okay, and his friend!

God is so good!

Thanks to all of you for saying such nice things. I really appreciate your good thoughts, even though this happened over 15 years ago. He's always been the good son that makes all parents proud. c.i.

There was an article in the NYT magazine a few years ago, or eight, time flies, about a woman who was unable to communicate from stroke in a mental hospital, or some long term care, for years and years... and years. She lived to tell how she experienced people coming in and treating her like, like....well, not well. Totally gripping article, Hitchcockian, as he had a short story like that in one of his compilations.

A tangent of course, to the main thrust of this topic. When I posted, I was one of the early ones. I should tell another five. Not right this minute.

Well, I don't know if it's of much interest, but, here's a few:
1. At age twenty I had never been away from my mother for more than a day or two for short distances. I had no idea how to fend for myself and I had quit school at age fifteen (to work) and so had only a few skills such as driving nails and carrying heavy loads. I walked away from home that day, with three dollars in my pocket, half of which I squandered on a book to read along the way, and hitch hiked from San Antonio to Long Beach, California. A trucker put me up in his home for a few days; I got a job and was self sufficient from then on.
2. I am a distant cousin to Babe Ruth.
3. I wrote a song based on "The Raven" as a kid and had a record made of it - You remember the song services in the back of magazines - I had the only copy, and it was the most popular song around Medina Lake for a time.
4. A woman psychic, whom I met in a bar while on military leave, told me about my future and was amazingly accurate. A few tidbits that proved true: I would marry two times, once for convenience, once for love; my older brother was never going to be more than he was that day (he was murdered within a few years). There was more, but that's enough.
5. I have always (and I still do) considered astrology bunk; yet, one year, I came across an entire book devoted to my sign for a whole year. Many of the events it forecast came true. Example: I would have something major happen that would change my life; and, I would move to a different city to live and work. During the time period specified, my older brother was killed and I was the logical choice of my siblings to look after my mother, which meant moving from Kansas City to Corpus Christi and living and working there.

edgar-- That was fascinating--especially #1!
You just walked away from home with a few dollars. I hope you'll entertain the idea of telling more about that adventure. How you must have felt, alone on that road... Did you stay in contact with the truck driver? There's a great story in there!

I've always been afraid to get a 'psychic reading'. A woman came in and did some at work. I was the only one who declined.

I had no plan when I left home, Sofia. I said I was going into the city to look for a job. About halfway there I realized I was on my way back to California, instead, where I had been raised. There were times it got a little scarey - like when you sit in one spot half a day before finally getting picked up. I have hitched many times since, and, strange to tell, I never really felt hungry on these trips. I still had most of my money left from buying the book when I arrived in Long Beach. The trucker was really great. He gave me cigars and fed me. I slept in the bed behind the seat. He had a wife and daughter there. The daughter was about to wed another trucker, but was really reluctant to be parted from her parents. In time I joined the Navy and got stationed right there in Long Beach. The trucker allowed me to use his garage apartment for my home base. He would have trained me to share the driving and loading in his Allied moving van, but I declined, for I knew it was no life for me. I love the open road, but it would be in my nature to fall asleep at the wheel and kill somebody. I continued to hitch for a number of years, then graduated to freight trains when the drivers became too unstable. I did not drive until 1965, after being released from active duty, hence the borrowed rides.

That is amazing to me. Thank you for sharing it. Thankful that the trucker was so good to you.

I had relatives in Fresno to fall back on, but they were poor - They would have welcomed me, but I felt no mandate to burden them.

Sofia, I never believed in any of that 'stuff', however, I have a friend who does. After my reading, I was completely amazed. Seriously, it is fun to get one and I hope you do. BTW, the psychic knew -0- about me beforehand and I kept a 'clinical mask' going throughout so she wouldn't have any nodding or smiling/frowning to go on, yet she was amazingly accurate about my past which made me more open about what she stated about my future!

G'head; not scarey at all: just do it!

1.Actually I am really a sentient (your comments are NOT welcome) computer programme, residing in cyberspace, with the express intent of pushing the human population into a terminal mind spasm.

2.Actually I am really a sentient (your comments are NOT welcome) computer programme, residing in cyberspace, with the express intent of pushing the human population into a terminal mind spasm.

3.Actually I am really a sentient (your comments are NOT welcome) computer programme, residing in cyberspace, with the express intent of pushing the human population into a terminal mind spasm.

4.Actually I am really a sentient (your comments are NOT welcome) computer programme, residing in cyberspace, with the express intent of pushing the human population into a terminal mind spasm.

5.Actually I am really a sentient (your comments are NOT welcome) computer programme, residing in cyberspace, with the express intent of pushing the human population into a terminal mind spasm.

egar, I'm amazed at the similarities of our lives. I left home when I was 17 to finish high school in another city. When I moved to Chicago, I barely had enough for the bus fare, and a few dollars in my pocket. I struggled for a couple of years in Chicago as a biller at AC McClurg and Company, a wholesale house, then enlisted into the US Air Force. From then on, my life improved 1,000 percent, but the day I left the air force was one of the happiest day of my life. c.i.

Leaving the Navy ranks high on my list of best days, too, CI. When I walked down the pier with my seabag on my shoulder I was as close to Nirvana as I shall ever be.

Excellent topic this. Utterly fascinating people here. Fantastic.
Well not too much hugely interesting about me but here goes.

1. I love throwing myself out of perfectly serviceable aircraft and off bridges.

2. When I am in love with someone it actually physically hurts me to not be near them. Takes a long time but I fall really hard.

3. My IQ puts me in the >1 in 2 million bracket.

4. I'm a damn good drummer.

5. I've never been in trouble with the police.