Close Escapes!

[bill1953]

Has anyone had any close escapes? These are some of mine. The list is not exhaustive as they say

1, Near drowning twice Aged 8 and 17

2. Stabbed aged 15

3. Explosion aged 15 (lost a bit of an eye but the lucky thing was the shrapnel that missed my jugular vein by 3/8ths inch)

4. Serious poisoning aged 9

5. Car crash aged 30

6. Poured bucket of water onto blazing pan of fat aged 11 (kitchen burned down)

7. Fell three metres into pit of acid (landed on concrete ledge) aged 19

8. Fell ten metres down cliff aged 47

9. Escaped when crane driver dropped car on me in a scrapyard aged 38

10. Gassed with sulphur dioxide aged 19

11; Nearly drowned in concrete when shuttering collapsed aged 19

12.Nearly decapitated by excavator.aged 18

13. Attacked by a bull aged 32 (me not the bull)

14. Almost forgot .....nearly hit by a train aged 22 (no I wasn't trespassing!)

[oldjerry]

Apart from that,anything interesting ever happened in your life??!!

[bill1953]

Yes....I was on a plane which suddenly fell several hundred feet. I knew there was something up when the stewardess screamed. Don't think that was a close escape. The pilot said it was a freak air current or something and we weren't in danger of crashing. Well he would, wouldn't he?

[eco-mick]

Darn lucky you - tried playing the lottery

[Green Aura]

You must have been a black cat in a former life! If I was you I'd never leave the house

By my reckoning you've outlived one and a half black cats! Blimey.

I've got a couple - maybe not in your league Bill

1) Got caught ripping down election posters by members of a far right organisation who we'd watched pasting them up a few minutes before. Fortunately we were on a motorbike, they were in an old mini - they only missed grabbing me off the back because they couldn't get full grip on my bag (lesson - never carry a long shoulder bag!).

2) Anti=poll tax march. I nearly got run down by the riot vans hurtling down the Strand - I was carrying my 2 year old and we were just leaving as the tension was palpable. We saw them coming and turned round and discovered they'd put the barriers up behind us - one van passed so close it the windstream knocked me forwards - fortunately. My gal still remembers it, she's 26.

[flower_hercules]

If we ever meet, can we just say hello from opposite ends of a field?

At least you've had a very active and eventful life! long may it continue! (the life, not the eventfulness).

Nearly lost my hand in an upright sanding machine, aged 17.

[oldjerry]

After failing at school,I sort of got an education in evening classes ending up with a PGCE.I had this strange idea about teaching Rural Studies,bad timing,as Mrs.T was consigning that subject, and others,to history.As a result,I ended up teaching Social Studies to the teenagers of West Bromwich! I lasted 18 months then quit teaching for good.

I reckon those kids had a seriously close escape.

[merlin]

I was going to answer with a long list starting with the boys brigade, through paper rounds, helping on milk rounds, coal rounds and even markets. Through the Falklands, Ireland and all sorts of daft pursuits like that. Although sounding reasonably normal, They all had their moments! Then I remembered, last summer in my quiet town, I was almost killed by a rampaging bull in the street (not common), almost run over by a dirty great horse and cart with more than a tonne of sand on the back and almost killed due to brakes ‘serviced’ by the local garage. It’s all about being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Great subject by the way.

[Thomzo]

8. Fell ten metres down cliff aged 47

I thought you gave up being a professional stunt man at 45

Zoe

[Maykal]

Was almost blown up by Islamic fundamentalists once.

[Maykal]

Oh, and a 7.6 mag earthquake.

[merlin]

lousy fundamentalists

[bill1953]

8. Fell ten metres down cliff aged 47

I thought you gave up being a professional stunt man at 45

Zoe

I would risk your breakfast eggs any day

[oldfella]

Back in the late 60s, during my military service abroad, we were on observation and I was laying under camaflage net, in a shrub-land area, and had been there about 12 hrs. When I opened my eyes there stood a man with a weapon trained on me. At the same I saw the man my weapon fired a burst and the man yelled and ran. I have no recollection of firing, and can only assume that the fear I felt caused me to react, and I tighten my grip on the trigger, thank God the safety was off
When the group leader group leader crawled up asking in very impolite language, what had happened I explained, and he then asked if I was OK, and as he turned, he sniffed rather pointedly, and remarked, " I think you should see to that wound in your underpants before we move out"

[bonniethomas06]

Blimey I have lead a sheltered life - had a massive spin-out on the M4 a couple of years back, ended up on the hard shoulder with my car pointing the opposite way to the traffic...was lucky that I didn't hit anything.

But I suppose my most exciting 'near miss' was when my dad (the year before he met my mum) walked past an IRA bomb in london. It detonated just as he walked past the car it was under - he heard a loud click and went to investigate, only to find a gurt big bomb! Not technically my near miss, but if he was blown up, I wouldn't be here to type the tale.