What was your scariest moment?

[frogmarch]

My most recent scare was being stuck alone between floors in an elevator. It happened day before yesterday. I was trapped for only about 15 minutes on my way to third floor before it slowly lowered and opened the door in the basement, but by that time I was almost a basket case.

[MiHale]

1. Getting prepped for heart surgery...

Then the drugs kicked in.

[True Dough]

2. Were you in there alone or with other people?

Glad it was only 15 minutes, even if it felt like an eternity!

[frogmarch]

4. Alone.

I was all by myself.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. I was accepted into law school. I was eligible for a scholarship.

But my father dissuaded me, saying he'd pay for the three years of tuition.

But I was also working at my father's office and had given notice as I was going to school.

And a kerfuffle between 2-3 coworkers turned into an office battle. And I managed not to get involved.

But my father was an authoritarian who used black-and-white thinking for problem-solving. And he took the side of the coworker at issue (who wasn't doing her job). The problem was the idle coworker had an ally who coordinated and filed Medicare forms (which was the bulk of the medical office's profits).

What happened to make it scary? First, my father ordered me to join him at a restaurant for dinner. I knew from past experiences that this wasn't going to be good. And it wasn't.

My father was in a hellish mood from the get-go. Halfway through the meal, he "explained" that because of me, the ally of the idle coworker threatened to quit if her buddy was fired. And that would leave him without a vital employee to file those Medicare claims. And that would mean that he'd have to retire early. And that would mean he wouldn't have the means to pay for my tuition. And it was all my fault.

Now, remember that I kept myself out of office politics, but that was irrelevant. Dad was on a roll. He pulled a Trump maneuver where I was being threatened without a direct threat. What was being put on the proverbial table was that 1) no law school, possibly ever, and 2) no job/no pay for domicile, necessities, transportation, etc. and 3) possible bankruptcy.

And it was my father!! And he knew exactly what he was doing to me.

And yeah, part of me was terrified at the prospect. And there he was, across the table, ordering coffee.

But as scared as I was (I think the ambush aspect heightened my terror), I also did a quick analysis. First, if I really wanted to become an attorney, get used to this. It's part of the profession. My adversary being my father was irrelevant. Second, I could always find another job. Third, I could re-apply to law school and get a scholarship. Fourth, my father painted himself into a corner: he'd have to explain why he suddenly and arbitrarily decided not to pay for law school (if not also for retribution). Fifth, he could be bluffing, and the idle coworker and her ally weren't going anywhere.

How I resolved the situation at the restaurant: I leaned back in my chair, got comfortable, took a sip of wine, put it down, and calmly responded to my father, "Well, I guess that's entirely up to you." He wasn't prepared for that. He harumphed and sputtered out, "You're damned right." Dinner ended quite abruptly as there was nothing left to say.

How it ended: Three weeks later, my father told me to pick up my check for the first semester of law school. The idle coworker and her ally stayed at the office after my departure for a number of years. My father retired 2-3 years after I graduated from law school.

Yeah, I was scared shitless, but I kept my rational side of my mind working. And I learned a lesson: You don't have to be literally brave when you're scared. You just have to act like you're brave. Nobody can tell the difference.

[livetohike]

5. Hitchhiking at night back in 1971. Went to a concert

and had to split up with my friend who lived a few miles from me. It was 1:00 am. Got a ride with a guy who was clearly drunk and he tried to make a move on me. He stopped at a stop sign and I jumped out of the car and ran to a nearby home (not mine). When I was sure he was gone, I walked the rest of the way home which was about 1/2 mile. My parents were still up waiting for me. It was a different time. I’m a female and hitch hiked everywhere back then.

[onethatcares]

6. my work truck broke down and

I called my brother to give me a tow.(this was in the late 70s). We hooked a chain up to our vehicles and began moving. After a few blocks a car that was following rammed into the back of my truck. It took a short time to get my brother to stop but in that time the driver rammed my truck 3 or 4 times. I got out and he drove by me at speed and barely missed me before making a u-turn and tried to run me over.
I started running down the street we were on trying to find a place to hide from this idiot and ended up running through a semi=truck repair place yelling,
"Call the cops this guy is crazy" and thought I would hide between some cars parked in a lot and a large building. Nope, the lunatic chasing me pulled into the lot and began crashing into the cars I was using for refuge smashing them into the building.
About that time a citizen from across the street came out with a handgun and fired 3 rounds at the car putting three bullet holes in the windshield but missing the driver.
That's when the driver decided to leave the scene and on his way he wrapped his car around a light pole after hitting 8 more parked cars.
The police arrested the man that fired his pistol in my defense, discharging a firearm in city limits, and they took the demolition derby driver to jail and on to a mental health facility. Seems his medication wore off or kicked in and he was seeing things.

That was probably the most scared I've ever been hearing those cars being crunched into that building. I have the newspaper clipping somewhere in my personal history papers

[MustLoveBeagles]

11. OMG

How terrifying 😱

[electric_blue68]

17. That's (well, the person was) crazy!

[PJMcK]

7. Sailing across Currituck Sound , NC in a dangerous squall

The sound is very shallow outside the Intracoastal Waterway channel and we would run aground if pushed too far away from safety. In those conditions that could have been a life-threatening danger and the boat would be in jeopardy. The storm had 30-40 mph winds and following seas of 5'-6' that continuously tried to broach our boat (push it sideways which exposes the side of the boat to the next waves- very dangerous).

The squall lasted about 2 hours and it was harrowing! Because of the rain and spume, visibility was extremely limited and without the electronic navigator I would never have been able to navigate the channel. I was so frightened that I had no concept of time and how long we were in the storm; I was living moment by moment. When it was over and we were safe, I was shell-shocked for a couple of hours. Although we have a sailboat, we relied on our Diesel inboard to power through the storm and it performed flawlessly.

In my lifetime of sailing, this was the worst and most dangerous situation I ever experienced... so far! The fear of grounding was deeper than when I've sailed offshore in the ocean in bad weather. For most sailors, running severely aground is one of the greatest fears after a fire, collision, man overboard or sinking.

[electric_blue68]

15. Woah! A friend then living in Thailand i think got caught in unexpected storm, and went overboard but managed to get ..

back in her sailboat. Something terrifying like that! I was horrified!

Glad you made it!

[PJMcK]

23. Overboard?!

Yikes.

We were wearing our safety harnesses so we were clipped onto the boat.

Still, weather can be tough.

[electric_blue68]

24. I'm pretty sure. I was very upset.

I was like "be more careful!!!!!"

Anyway we lost touch for years, then one day 3 years ago I got a Postcard from her tucked inside an envelope asking to reconnect. She'd found something of mine while cleaning her parents' house.
I was thrilled, and we've talked on the phone, and texted since then. So happy we are connected again. We go back to the mid-late '70s.

[doc03]

8. While fishing in the Ohio River with my brother in our boat we decided to cross over to the

other side of the river. There was a barge tow coming down the river maybe 1/4 mile away and it looked like we had
plenty of time to cross in front of it. A full barge tow on the river is about 1000 feet long and maybe 150 feet wide and I heard
it takes about a mile to stop them. The outboard motor stopped running in the path of the barge tow. I pulled the motor up
and saw leaves had plugged the water intake and stalled it out. I was lucky I got the leaves cleared out and the engine
started. The barge was bearing down on us with the horn blasting, we made it out of the way with just seconds to spare.

[electric_blue68]

18. Oh, my...is That how big those barges are. Like almost a water version of being tied onto train tracks!

Phew for you both!

[quaint]

9. 60 years ago, the car I was a backseat passenger in went over a 250 foot cliff into Turnbull Canyon.

I still have eye floaters.

[XanaDUer2]

10. Yikes nt

[electric_blue68]

16. Gah! Thank goodness you, and others got through

How on Earth did you survive?! Sounds like a movie scene!

[quaint]

25. We hit an embankment 100 feet down which slowed our descent.

We were in a 1954 Ford (still made with steel) or doubtful we would have survived in my folks' tincan Comet stationwagon. My sister was driving both times. Turnbull Canyon

[womanofthehills]

12. When I was young, I worked at a social service agency

My boss asked me to take the company van and take a veteran he had spent the last few hrs talking to to the Veterans Hosp across town.

I had my 5 yr old daughter with me. The vet sat in passenger side and my daughter was in back.

He pulled a knife on me and said he wanted the van, I said fine - he changed his mind and said keep driving. I tried to be as calm as I could making small talk. I couldn’t jump out because my daughter was in back.

We get to hospital and he wants to go to a back door - makes us get out with him -

He gets into a line in hospital (with us). I see nurses going in a “do not enter” door - I grab my daughter’s hand and we run in. I tell the nurse the story and she goes out - she knows him - Hi Jim -and asks for the knife. We run out of there.

I was so pissed at my boss - he spoke to this guy for hrs and didn’t get a vibe he was crazy and put my life and my daughter’s in danger.

[quaint]

13. Terrifying!

[electric_blue68]

19. Woah! You should have gotten hazerdous pay! How awful esp w your yoing daughter there.

Good thinking on your part

[ProfessorGAC]

14. On An Interstate

Driving the band truck home at around 3 am.
I'm approaching a long gradual hill over a bunch of railroad tracks when something ahead just didn't seem right.
Took my foot off the gas, hill slows me down more and just then, a guy driving the wrong way crested the hill in front of me.
I pulled to the shoulder, hit my flashers, started waving the guys behind me (other band members over).
Guy comes over the hill and he's weaving from lane to lane & starts wobbling toward us. I completely stopped and operated to be hit, when the maniac swerved the other way. Couldn't have missed the truck by more than 2 feet. And, I estimated he was also speeding. Very fast, perhaps over 80.
I jumped on my cellphone and dialed 911 to report it. (I stopped under 30 feet from a mile marker, so I could give them pretty accurate location.
Incredibly, this lunatic did not cause an accident but they caught him. The local paper in the town 20 miles from us said he was DUI, and was arrested.
If I hadn't just had a weird feeling about the way the top of that hill looked, I could have still been going 55 or 60 when he crested the hill.

[electric_blue68]

20. Phew!

[electric_blue68]

21. 3 for me. Getting ready to go up to surgery for simulataneous cataract, and different kind of rential detachment...

You know, in old cartoons where a character is scared enough they run right through a wall, and leave a gap of a silhouette of them running! That's how i felt.

While crossing a street in Midtown Manhattan during lunch about halfway across I heard a weird whine heading towards me. I rushed to the edge of the sidewalk when turning I saw a street vendor's plastic shelves above his cart explode in sort of slow motion into pieces. As I swung around someone nearly knocked me over yelling "call an ambulance" as they ran toward an injured woman who I could only see part of - laying on the ground between the people standing around. The out of control car crashed into the bank clear across the crosswalk square. It made the papers next day.

Finally, and first was working at a magazine doing paste ups and mechanicals. I had to go into a room where this curtained machine was.
.
I had to put something through the twin rollers in front of me (I don't remember what, or why!) but stupid me was wearing a long skinny, decorative scarf which I didn't either tuck under my top, or turned it around to be on my back.

Well, it got stuck in the rollers. It pulled me down closer, and closer. I finally was able to find the toggle switch, and turn it off! I probably could either have been paralyzed, or dead. Why, I didn't scream for help, idk, but phewwww!!!!!

[LudwigPastorius]

22. I've had a couple of runners up.

Had a pistol brandished at me when trying to collect payment for a night's work at a dance club. We didn't argue further, packed up and left.

I hydroplaned on the freeway going about 75mph in my Gran Torino and ended up against the inside railing facing backwards while cars zoomed past me.

I had to have all of my upper teeth pulled in one go to get an implant. Turns out, I shouldn't have been worried because of the demerol/propofol cocktail they gave me.

The scariest though was coming back from a concert in a remote base in the mountains in South Korea. We were in a Chinook CH-47, and the flight crew was cool enough to let me listen to the radio chatter when we flew out. Extremely turbulent ride...like we would have been bouncing around like pinballs if we hadn't been strapped in. We were also very hungover, having been introduced to a vile liquor called Soju the night before.

About 15 minutes into our flight, I heard the engineer mention the "number 2 engine chip detector", this was soon followed by the pilot, "shutting down engine 2", followed by "emergency landing". It really wasn't as bad as it sounded, because the helicopter could fly fine with one engine, but I didn't know that, so I was mildly perturbed.

[Emile]

26. My first colonoscopy exam. Actually

Last edited Mon Dec 9, 2024, 11:46 AM - Edit history (1)

I was in the Navy out in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and the captain called for swim call. I jumped into the sea from the third deck. It was high up and when I hit the water it hurt. I must have went underwater 10 feet, I could see the whole bottom of the ship. When I surfaced I found I was quite some distance from the ship. I was a strong swimmer, but I was fighting an ocean current and was starting to freak out. I was beginning to think I was going to drown when a life boat picked me up and gave me a ride back to the ship.

[femmedem]

27. Walking home on a cold March night. A woman asked if I wanted a ride. Thought it would be safer

than walking, so I said yes. But her brother, whom I didn't initially see, was sitting in the back seat. He pulled a knife out and held it to my throat. His sister drove us to his apartment. It was their plan all along; they were just out looking for a victim.

It was a long time ago--the early 80s--and I don't think about it much anymore, except that from time to time I remember how very lucky I am to be here.

[lark]

28. Being told I had a 100% chance of dying or being paralyzed if I fell prior to surgery.

Falling twice in the bathroom was what caused the problem in the first place, so it was a definite concern. My cervical cord was 30% impacted in 3 places! If I fell, or had an accident, I would either die or be paralyzed from the neck down. I couldn't have surgery for 2-1/2 months, specialized surgeon not available until then so I had to be so careful for so long, it was a nightmare. Recovery was really difficult too, but I made it - 8 years out and still walking - yay!

[Kali]

29. the day my sons got into a scuffle

and the oldest clunked the younger in the head with a mug. I was wrong thinking it was superficial because he subsequently had a couple of seizures. after getting him to the local ER he took his second medical helicopter ride to Tucson. (first was at 18 months for rattlesnake bite, yes this was scarier)
he had surgery to remove some bone chips and a little titanium patch job. been pretty much fine ever since. my misjudgment of his injury still bothers me.