When I was in high school we (several friends and I who also happened to also be in the chess club together) a war game club. Back then it was stricly board games played by mail in addition to to playing with each other.
I played one game with a man in California who would later turn out to be a really infamous serial killer. He wasn’t killing people then - that would come later.
Still spooked (and still does to certain extent) me greatly when the news came out.
For a while, when I was in college in the '60s, I shared a large house with a number of people. It was sort of a commune. One of the girls was a friend of some of the local Hell’s Angels, and a few of them would occasionally visit. One night they were over, obviously tripping on acid. One of them, a HUGE guy named “Tiny,” put a pistol to my head and threatened to blow my brains out. Fortunately his girlfriend talked him into putting a bullet into the wall instead. That’s when I realized the gun was loaded.
You must be slightly older than me. Those certainly were the times weren’t they? I really miss the music. Goes off and listens to “Mechanical World” by Spirit.
I was robbed at gunpoint three times while working in a convenience store in West Texas. The third time was by a regular customer, so I really thought I was a goner that time. All turned out well though.
I had a friend who worked at a gas station and was robbed at gunpoint. It was during a snowstorm and the police promptly arrested the robber by the simple expedient of following the tracks in the snow.
Camping in Kenya when a huge fight between a pride of lions and a bunch of hyenas broke out about 100 yards from my tent.
Camping in Panama and having a jaguar grunting in the night about 10 yards from the tent.
Being mugged at gunpoint on the NYC subway.
Fright & Fear are two different things.
Open closet door at night in my room when I was very small.
I think it is the Frontal Lobe? of the brain that helps you develop good judgement.
Well, in 1989, myself and a few friends found ourselves in the Amazonian jungle in Ecuador. We were hiking around and found a cave system that was just “perfect” for exploring. Some places you could walk upright, other places you had to shimmy on your belly to make any progress. Small openings in the cave system’s roof let in a few rays of light, but it was basically dark or nearly so. To make a loooong story short, we nearly got lost and ended up spending a few hours to find an exit.
My point is this: As we initially walked into the cave I could tell that the entire interior was carved by water. It had to be hard flowing water as the walls were all rounded and very, very smooth. {Sort of like some of those above ground small canyons in the Southwest U.S.A.}
I can’t believe I knowingly walked into such a dangerous situation. I shudder to think about it because sure enough an afternoon rainstorm blew in and soon that very same cave was filled with a rushing torrent of water.
I can just imagine some Peace Corps official telling my Mother that her Son has disappeared in the jungle and is presumed dead…
.
I’m married and have a teenager.
I once managed a rooming house full of crack heads and witnessed someone being attacked with a chainsaw.
You just won the thread.
Went out on the fore-deck of a ship in 16 foot seas. Put my back to a large winch and let the thigh deep Bering Sea water rush pass. Once. Then I realized how quickly I could get washed overboard and rushed back inside.
We had a similar experience with lions in Botswana. We retired to our tent for the night, but at some point we both woke up, having heard a noise. Off in the distance we could hear the roar of lions and the “huh-huh-huh” sound they make. As we lay there, the noises got closer. And closer. And closer. When that happens, your ancestral memory kicks in and you’re suddenly some poor humanoid lying in a cave waiting to die.
I really had to urinate by then, but was afraid to make a sound of any sort, so lay there hoping not to piss myself. The other night sounds ceased and we could hear furtive noises outside. The tension was nearly unbearable. In the morning we found paw prints within 20 feet of our tent. Lesson learned: don’t imbibe any liquids after mid-afternoon.
As an undercover narc playing the role of a nerdy white guy buying an ounce of coke in the 'hood, I had the target (a known shooter) unexpectedly get in the back seat of my four-door car. He was sitting behind me and, even though I had a gun, I was a sitting duck. If he wanted me, he had me. No doubt about it. I was just plain lucky was in the mood to do business and not simply shoot me and take the money. I never made the mistake of leaving the doors unlocked again.
I was on a ship in similar seas that did lose someone overboard (I was not on deck at the time). Looking back on it, I feel like I should have been more scared than I was.
Going out on a whale-watching ship from Maui one time, the guide on the boat told us, no kidding, if anyone fell overboard to take out a credit card and start flashing it. Said the sun reflecting off the hologram shone brightly and made it easier to find you. Really.
Yeah yeah yeah. I used to know a guy who was one of seven kids - a singleton and then three sets of twins. At one point his parents had seven kids under the age of five.
I defy any parent to read that without hyperventilating a little bit.
Former Yugoslavia early 1990s, too many times to count. One very prominent memory of pure terror was a day when we had to remain indoors (and don’t look out the windows) at a friend’s apartment because the local paramilitary unit was ethnically cleansing the neighborhood of Muslims.