For stories of moments where life was just like the movies:
I have yelled MUSH! to a pack of sled dogs
A few years ago, my girlfriend bought a day of dog-sledding through groupon or whatever and after I got over my surprise that there was such a thing, we drove way-the-heck-outta-town to some isolated place and found an honest-to-God yurt. After some brief preliminaries, I found myself standing on the back of wooden sled with ten dogs harnessed to it. I yelled Mush! but the dogs clearly didn’t give a fuck (for every fuck a human wouldn’t give, they clearly didn’t give seven) - all they wanted was for me to release the sled brake and they were off. I wasn’t surprised at how effortlessly these dogs can run, but I was taken aback by how eagerly they did so - I even fell off the damn sled at one point and had to chase them through the snow on my own pathetically inadequate mere-pair of feet. If anything, these dogs looked antsy and nervous when they weren’t running and, being Huskies, they naturally ranged from Handsome to Gorgeous, and the puppies were diabetes-inducing.
I have yelled MEDIC! after a military injury
About twenty-five years back, I was on a military exercise with my reserve unit. We’d needed an extra vehicle, so we borrowed one from another unit and they insisted on providing one of their guys to drive it (with his salary coming out of our budget, of course). The driver, who I’ll call Smith, was working on a camp stove behind me while I set up a communications switchboard. Suddenly he yelled SHIT! and very hot water splashed across my face, causing my purely-reflexive near-instant exodus from the tent. As I stood outside, wondering what had just happened, I saw Smith running off to my left with his hands on his face. He’d opened a pressure cooker without properly venting it and gotten a face-full of steam, as well as splashing very hot water everywhere. I yelled MEDIC!, which I’m sure got a flurry of attention and a second later when someone popped up holding a first-aid kit, I pointed in the direction Smith had run. I saw Smith a little while later, bandaged up, when they were preparing to drive him to a hospital back in Montreal and I ended up driving his truck back myself. I saw him one more time after that, a few months later, and he looked okay which was a relief because I was afraid he was going to lose an eye or something. Sure, I’d felt kind of silly and self-conscious yelling MEDIC!, but what else was I gonna do?
Have you had moments where you found yourself doing something you’d thought people in real-life didn’t actually do?
I’d been cross attached to another unit along with a platoon as their mechanic. The recieving unit assigned me to the medic as his driver. While putting up camo netting over the apc we were using as an ambulance, he fell off the top of it, resulting in a compound fracture to his leg. It just popped out of my mouth when it happened, but I still fell sorta dumb afterwards.
We were at a rather sketchy bar. One of the guys playing pool must have insulted another guy’s girlfriend, because stuff went down, and it went down fast. Buddy dropped enough cash on the table to cover our tab, and then some, and said to me, “Go out, start the car, and bring it up just shy of the doors. Don’t block them.”
At this point, I should point out that Buddy had been a hand-to-hand combat instructor in the Canadian Armed Forces, and had belts in various martial arts.
Anyway, I pulled up just shy of the door. I saw one guy get thrown out, past the sidewalk, into the roadway. A few seconds later, I saw the other guy get thrown out, into the roadway. Then I saw Buddy walking out, calmly, dusting his hands off.
He walked to the car, got in, and said, “Let’s get outta here!”
I swerved around the guys in the road, and got us out of there fast.
Not me, but I was in a New Orleans taxicab when a co-worker told the driver, “Follow that cab!”
Long version: Most of my office was in New Orleans for a trade show/conference about twenty years ago. We had an invitation to a party meant only for the exhibitors but the only person who knew where the party was got in the first of two cabs taking us there.
When I was a teenager I walked into a room and over heard two friends bad mouthing me. I hid and listened to them and then stepped out dramatically and confronted them. It was not as a satisfying moment and the TV shows let on.
I was once given a raise verbally by my boss at the time who then suddenly and unexpectedly passed away shortly thereafter (it was sad. I liked him). I had to go through the awkward conversation of asking if he had told anyone about it before he died (turned out he had but it was a sucky conversation nonetheless).
Two that I remember:
My mom was complaining about serving kids food and them saying “What is that?”
"If only there was a way to tell without asking. " I said. Then I made tricorder noises over the food and said. “This is food, but not as we know it.”
My BIL Dave was complaining about having trouble with his computer. As he struggled with it I said “I’m sorry, I can’t do that Dave.” In my best HAL9000 voice. He just gave me the stinkeye.
Shortly after 9/11 (well shortly in bureaucratic terms) Everyone at my workplace was issued identification badges. We hadn’t needed them in the previous 27 years. There were some actual safety problems with wearing them on the job, which I did not bring up, when I was asked what I thought about the new badges.
“Badges? We don’t need no steenkin’ badges!”
It was disappointing how few people watch classic movies.
What makes it work is the way “Wayne” on ‘Wayne’s World’ replies to “no way”: When he replies “Way!” it’s not in an argumentative tone, but a friendly upbeat way, with just the slightest hint of sarcasm. It’s in keeping with his character. It’s one of those “you have to be there” things.
