Before I start, wanted to give a shout out to J's little spot for showing love for the B-Ball players, especially in light of the playoffs. (Well, I'm obsessed with AI and Jordan, but the rest of the pics are worth looking at for aestetic value). I don't care for Lebron James I have enough of those in my life (hehe @ inside joke), plus he bites his nails and YOU know that I don't do bitten nails. Any way, for the ones that I do love, I wish I could play a game with them. I wanna play. Also, go by there and give her a little boost of encouragement - she could use it. But anyway, back to the ballers - I might even wanna get double teamed. Okay, that was the phreak in me I don't really mean that. (Little voice in me: You didn't mean that really, you nasty whore!?! Right? Right).
Anywho, fifty (in the anniversary sense) is represented as gold. Gold is precious. Life is precious. And the thought of losing it, or being in the trenches, and the stench of death has sent me a-quivering many of days. I consider life a gift. But I also consider life an adventure. Nothing is promised, so my expectations of the future are everything, and they are nothing. I want to tell you about things that almost happened to me. Almost is the word. As Brandi says, almost doesn't count.
In short, I have had my share of being scared shi*less several times in my life. Don't worry if you chuckle at the second one, we all laugh about it, now.
You know there was always the neighborhood liquor store where everyone knew the owner, or at least the cashier. There was a Vietnamese man who worked there that would always give me free things (I was 13) and ask where my sister was, his future wife, he would say. She was 18 at the time. He was very nice and always wore jeans and nikes to work. That day, I went over there and got some twinkies and a creme soda (yeah I know waaayy to much sugar). He talked to me for a little while, and I went back across the street home.
I was in the house not fifteen minutes when I heard "ambulampses" and fire trucks. So, me, being me, I walk across the street to see what's going on at the Milk Palace. There are police all around, but not in the area that I was in. There were way too many looky-loos (about 40) over there. The yellow line was up.
There were two people shot. One dead, one wounded. The wounded person was being treated and stabilized and was being transported. The other person was under a white blanket in the store, almost completely covered up.
Except for the Nikes.
The article in the paper, I remember it clearly, saying "Geung Suk Park, 34, of Long Beach, was dead on arrival of police". Based on the timing, I had just left the store not five minutes when the strong arm robbery occurred. A customer tried intervening and was shot, and Geung tried to fight back and was killed.
Close Call #2 – Age 16
It was after a basketball game at my high school. My girlfriends and I were walking home, and we saw this '64 that pulled along side us. Someone looked back at us; we just looked, and they kept rolling.
Once we turned the corner, the '64 was halfway down the street. The passenger leaned out the window, and aimed right at us with the biggest gun. The only way to describe it was the scene in Boyz in the Hood when they rolled by and killed those boyz that Killed Rickeeeyyy!
It was a surreal moment. All of us girls saw the gun coming at us at the same time. No one had to say.a.word. All of us (it felt like slow motion), turned around, hit the corner, and took off running. We could hear the car screeching down the street coming towards us. We ran three houses down and started banging on the door of our friend's house. Her mother answered the door (not the screen door, just the door). We yanked open the screen door and went tearing through the living room breathing very heavily all screaming and shouting different things. Want to know the punchline?
Her mother has never met us.
So we scared her half to death. Needless to say, our friend had already made it home, because she had went to the game, too, and we were able to explain (breathlessly so) what was going on. All good news, right? WRONG.
One of our friends was missing.
So now we are sweating bullets. We were NOT about to leave that house just yet and when we did (about thirty minutes later), we went back the same way looking for her.She said the hell with us. We found her hiding in the backyard of the corner of the house that we were on (we were at the corner when this happened). She decided to wait it out there. Not a bad idea!
I have more but I want to hear yours. Car crashes, near misses, drownings, or even being close to to the whispering, lingering, beckoning call of death. You name it. Holla at yo girl.
Have you had any brushes with death?
29 comments:
I've had a couple...
One time I was pumping gas into my 87 VW Fox about to go get a haircut when a thug in a 98 rolled up on me with a shotgun. Then at the last minute he said "my bad I thought you was someone else" and sped off. I damn near pissed my pants.
Another time I was at this ghetto club called The Bow Wow on July 4th. One of my best friends at the time told me not to go there b/c niggaz be shooting, but I was 19 at the time and thought I was invincible. Anyway, I'm chillin outside the club and a fight breaks out. Then someone starts shooting and a bullet whizzes right by my head. We take off running as some more niggaz start shooting back. I hid under a car until the cops came and cleared out the scene.
Sorry this comment was so long, but you got me thinking about what might have been.
T:
By the way, I do believe that the second incident that happened to me was mistaken identity.
I am sure of it.
Oh, as for the long comments, you know thats how I roll, ask the WCBH gals.
NO thank the Lord!!!! but my son has. we were sitting in my moms living room and i had just had Calease (your baby;)) and Gino was 2. my mom didn't have her deck built yet and had the door opened cause it was May and getting hot. from the deck door it had to be like 15ft to the ground. my mom was outside in the back yard working in the garden. Twin showed up and Gino was really excited to see her and my neice that he ran to tell his Nani through the deck door. but the screen was open so he was running and kept going. i screamed "NO GINO!" and my mom screamed "JESUS!" he fell right before he got to the door and was hanging half way out by the time i got over there. i don't know how she knew he was coming...but she did. i had just had a baby and could barely move. when i picked him up he had a hand print on his chest!!!! We all know that Jesus was there that night and saved his life! my mama of course told me don't call on the person you better call on the Lord!
Wow! Mistaken ID and the handprint.
In 99 I wanted to take my fam to Disney World in Orlando. My first trip ever down south. We stopped by my exes peoples house in Adel, GA and funny thing they prayed for us to have a safe journey. We were supposed to stop by Rosewood but I fell asleep and we missed the exit. However, we did stop in Ocala. My ex just HAD to have some M&M's, so we stopped at the Amoco gas station. Instead of parking in front of the store, he parked at a pump and left the motor running. Next thing I know I hear tires screeching and I see a Crown Vic barreling towards us. There was another car on the other side of the pump but this Crown Vic pushed it out the way and pushed the gas tanks on top of our car! All of my girls were in the back seat buckled up in their car seats and seat belts and I was in the passenger seat. For seconds I could not move. So many thoughts were going through my head...I couldn't chose which one to save and I couldn't move anyway. My ex comes running out of the gas station store because he sees us yelling and screaming and he quickly moves the car out of the way. At the precise moment that the car knocked the gas pumps over onto our car the attendant turned the pumps off. Had he not we would have blown up because the driver of the Crown Vic had a heart attack and his foot was cemented to the gas pedal. He burned all of the rubber off of his tires which caused sparks to fly off of his rims. Unfortunatly the man died, but we made it through with out a scratch.
@ TCas: I forgot to mention that I would have so passed out at that moment, he would NOT have had the chance to tell me "my bad, I thought you were someone else" I would have been DONE.
@ KB: MAN! I can imagine the sequence of events that occured were prolly so quick, all both of you could do was holla! Your mother FELT something was going on the way you called your son's name, and then SHE knew who to call on. Whew. What a story!
@ LAA: You know, everyone always said what they would DO in a situation like that. I can imagine that, again, like KB's situation, everything happened SO quickly, you're thinking "who to save, what to do, what's going to happen", and a MILLION other thoughts. That whole situation is terrifying all around, and it sounds like everyone (including your ex, the attendant, even you) reacted accordingly. Can you imagine how that man's family would have felt is worse went to catastrophic?
Have all y'all noticed how intricate all of you are with these details. You can explain them to a T, like you're reliving them?
I remember when I was 8 years old and us kids used to hang out at the Drop-In Learning Center. It was an after school spot for latch-key kids such as myself. Anyway, the staff took us on a field trip to the YMCA so we could go swimming. I didn't know how to swim but I still went on the trip. From out of nowhere this girl comes up behind me and throws me in the deep end of the pool. I remember sinking to the bottom and knowing that I was about to die. The lifeguard jumped in and pulled me out and I sat in the corner for the rest of the trip coughing and crying. Needless to say, to this day I am still terrified of the water.
One other time was when I was in my early 20s. I worked part-time in the evenings at this little seedy motel in my town. I was trying to save up for a car. So I worked my full time gig M-F, 7:00-3:30. Then I went to the motel Tue-Fri, 4:00-midnight. Anyway, all I had to do at the motel was check people in, wash/dry and fold the linens. It was an easy job but some of the characters that checked into this place left little to be desired. My mother hated that I worked there, but since she wouldn't help me get the car I ignored her warnings. Finally, after 8 months I had the downpayment for my car and I quit. One week later I read in the paper that the new front desk chick (who shared my first name) was pistol whipped by someone who was trying to check in.
i was at a party a friend of mine was throwing (while his parents were out of town no less) when a fight broke out around me. my boy 'toine tried to intervene and i was standing right next to him. next thing you know one of the boys goes to his car, pulls out a gun and points it in our direction. we were frozen as he shot at us, missing us but hitting the guy he was arguing with, my boy kwame.
kwame was shot in the head and killed instantly. meanwhile, the experience still haunts me.
another time i was driving my brother and i home during a serious downpour. an eighteen wheeler in the next lane decides to get over in our lane. he didn't see us and he wasn't gracefully merging. i had to cut the car sharp to the left and he ran us off of the expressway.
when i was little and visiting my folk in new york, a gun battle broke out as i was crossing the street. the bullets came close but didn't hit me but i was so scared i wet my pants as i ran to hid behind a garbage can.
This post was like recovering a repressed memories. I had to write the whole story on my blog. Thanks P
I was standing at a bus stop on my way home from my boyfriends house. (I had skipped school that day and had to make it home by that certain time) While waiting on the bus to come, my back was turned to the street talking to my boyfriend. And all of a sudden he drags me down in a ditch and shot rang out! While being dragged down I saw the car and the gun out of my periphreal. When we came out of the ditch there were bullet holes in the bus stop sign and the road sign behind us. I was so glad he was paying attention!!
i had one...
damn fool...air force andre was doing '90 me, my boy marky mark and t-dot in the city limits...18 wheeler truck pulled out @the last minute, he braked and we were like "Oh Shit, dude"...last minute we switched back into the next lane (because we had to wait for the back of the 18 wheeler truck to clear the lane)...after that..we all said in unison, "i ain't fukkin' w/u no more dre about driving"...
doing the speed limit 90...(corrections)...reading everybodies stories..i'm like wow....
I think I was 8...I went across the street to play with my friends. One of my uncles came over to visit and as he was leaving (I could see him standing out front with my mother), my mom yells for me to come back across the street to say goodbye. So I'm thinkin - OK, lemme run across the street...well I never actually LOOKED before I leapt and a car was barreling down the street just as I ran across. He missed me by two hairs...As I watched the horror on my mother's face turn into RAGE, I said my goodbyes QUICKLY and my mother proceeded to drag me back intothe house and BEAT THE DAWG SHIT outta me (I think I woulda been happier gettin hit by a car - that only woulda happened ONCE).
When I was 14 my mother decided she wanted to live ADVENTUROUSLY. Every event then became a "PJ Production" and we were in "PJ's GROUP" ((rollin my eyes JUST THINKIN about it)) Well we get a large group of people together (friends and family) and head to the Kern River for some White Water River Rafting. Now, if I had only gone down ONE run, I' be here saying OMG - YOU HAVE TO DO THAT SHIT AT LEAST ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!!! But no...I'm not even gonna go there. The first run was exciting - I was with my folks, one of my uncles, a cousin, a family friend and the guide. By the time we made it back to base for the next group of people to go, several people chickened out because we were all wet and lookin crazy. They got scared, so they said we could go again! Someone beat me to my seat on our original raft, so I had to ride with a group of people that hadn't been down the river yet. They instruct you to keep the oars IN THE WATER should you hit a rapid...ummm yeah...well it started off cool until we hit the second rapid...everyone started to panic and they lifted their oars. Our raft folded and I got washed out. I was head first, on my back, in icy water, having gone through 3 of the MAJOR rapids in that run...for 5 miles. I never knew it was so hard to just DROWN. I can swim, but simming in that water is impossible. As soon as I could come up for air, I yelled," Moooooommmmmmmmmyyyyyyyyyyy" just before going under again. My parents were in the last raft and could see my head, but when my mother leaned until she couldn't see me anymore - SHE fell out. So my dad was freaked because now BOTH of us are in the water. It felt like it took them forever to get me out. As a result of that trip, my mother has had her left knee replaced TWICE and I no longer get into bodies of water larger than my bathtub. My parents have a pool...I can count on ONE hand how many times I've been in it in the last 16 years.
btw...we were only supposed to be on a CLASS 2 rapid...some ASSHOLE mistakenly took us to CLASS 5 (and all we had were life vests...no helmets). Let's not forget all the signs along the Kern river that tell you how many people have DIED in that river. *sigh* I need a drink now.
@ Cool AC:
I can't believe how vivid your story is. As I mentioned below, It feels like y'all are telling me what just happened. Good looking out to your ex. Man, just think.
@ Sarcastik: The Phoenix always talks about how she is very uncomfortable about being with folks that are barreling down the highway; I am too. My mother always says "I don't know why people drive so fast, they sure will have to slow down after their ass gets on a paramedic gurney"
@ The Phoenix: WOW. It was bad enough for me to try to learn how to float at the age of 16 trying to learn how to swim. I can't imagine what it's like to almost drown in a body of water like so! That was chilling. . .People already have a fear of drowning - You actually experienced it.
By the way - at everyone.
Y'all making my sheeat look amateur. This is some That's Incredible stuff all y'all are talking about.
The funny thing is. . .
I can't believe all this stuff happened to folks. Man. Count our BLESSINGS. . .
@ Phoenix:
What the heasy? What kind of tourist attraction is THAT showing folks going through THE RIVER WILD how many folks have DIED THERE!
I was a shorty. I was jumping over a narrow gangway going from porch to porch. One time I decided that I would jump in the grass and onto a sewer hole. The sewer hole top slid and I fell in. I grabbed the edge with one hand. The water came up just below my knees. I was scared to death. I pulled myself out and to this day I will not walk over a sewer hole.
I have had soo many close calls with death. I feel like a cat with 9 lives.
1) A crack head shot my boy Dee who was only two feet away from me. I couldn't stop screaming, and the crack head put the gun right to my head and changed his mind.
2) Got hit by a car going about 60 miles an hour when I lived in Hawaii, saw my whole life flash in front of me, the white light, the whole nine. Then when I realized it wasn't my time, I just woke up on the hood of a car. Everyone said it was a miracle. I couldn't walk for a year. They said I would be handicap for life...
3) Someone tried to break into my apartment and do God Knows what, while I was sleeping. I woke up just in time to call the police right before he came into my apartment.
And those are just three off the top of my head.
Whew God is good!
I was 15 & waiting on the LaBrea bus stop bench when the fool sitting beside me got shot. In the arm. He was okay, but he was hella mad. Thank God for straight-shootin' gangbangers. gah....
Come to think of it, I've dodged a few bullets in my time. I came up in LA in the ballin' 80's. Streets was a graveyard. U remember, P...
Gotta go pour out a gang of liquor...
OH - and a dude I dated & broke up with (10 yrs ago), ended up MURDERING his next girlfriend after me. Beat her in the head w/a hammer, then stuffed her in a box.
Fucked. me. smooth. up.
Be blessed everyone.
Ok. I haven't been here in a while. Where the hell is Tam? I haven't really had a brush with death that I know of. Thank God. Damn, you were into a lot as a kid. That's scary. Glad you lived to tell about it.
Wow 50 posts girl you have been busy and thanks for commenting about my blog!
Well I guess this was back in the day when parents didn't care about keeping their kids in a car seat. Well I wasn't even a year old when I was in my mothers arms and (at least this is the story that has been told to me this was like in '81) a lincoln cut my uncle off we were in a VW my dad was in the front passenger seat and my mom and I in the back. Well we flipped several times and my mom ended up landing on me. My mom broke her leg from her hip to her lil toe and I had a broken colar bone. My uncle was all jacked up broken arm, nose and leg. My dad only had minor cuts and bruises. CRAZY huh!!
Please keep your kids in their car seats they do work!!!!
Hi P. That first one has me shook. The way you wrote it, I could see it play in my head.
I've been in 5 car accidents and I was never driving. I have a STRONG feeling that if I am in my 6th one an I'm driving, it will be CRAZY.
Not sure I answered your question but thats what came out.
50 posts, that’s fantabulous. Keep ‘em coming.
The brushes with death I’ve had were always in a car and always in bad weather or when the road was wet. I’ve seen my life flash before my face several times in a car.
Have a great weekend!
Congrats on your 50th post...
Big Up's on #50 Miss P, that's a milestone for sure!
1. my cousin panicked and almost drowned us both
2. a loaded gun to my head
3. at a too $hort b-day party, someone got drunk and started shooting women ONLY...something about his girlfriend was seen with some b-boy, so he got mad...too $hort parties tain't no joke
4. i had just gotten off the Cypress freeway before it collapsed in the 89 Bayarea earthquake
I'm that chick...that is it's gonna happen, it's gonna happen to me. That's my luck. I could go on and on about shit that almost happened to me or DID happen. I think I am jinx'd.
I have too many to even mention.
One time a police officer who ws going to give me a ticket, but after seeing how bad I was in the hospital reconsidered told me that "God watches over babies, old people and fools...wonder which one you are" It was so funny, but from the broken ribs and internal bleeding I couldn't even laugh. Thru the glass in my eyes I was ready to cry cuz I just realized GOD spared me for one more day. The doctor ushered out the officer and tried to remove more glass from my eyes. FUN TIMES!
Holla!
"I have but recently returned from the valley of the shadow of death....
.... I am rapturously breathing in all the odors and essences of life. I've been to the brink of total oblivion. I remember and ferment a desire to remember everything."
My brush with death was the following:
Birth (my own)
Marrige
Divorce (and the hands of the man that caused it)
Beautiful Post Girl. Thank you.
~W
COME BACK TAM!
When i was about 21 I was white water rafteringonthe Cheat River in West Virgina. It was March i think. Very early and still retty frigid, but that when the river runs roughest from the ice melting. They classify rapids on a scale of 1-5. 5 being the most severe. At this time the Cheat had some Class 4 sets going. Only ones on the east coast. You had to wear full wetsuits, helmets, and reinforced "boots".
All of the sets of Rapids are named. I got tossed out in a cclass four set Called "Big Nasty"- it basically looked ike a black whole in the river. Its sucked the raftdown and launched the 6 rafter into the air. I went up about 15 feet and then fell into the middle of the whole.
I can only describe the feeling as helpless. I was whipped down the river and the current was so strong i couldnt get my head above water i was probably going about 30miles an hour under water. The irony is it was only about 3 feet deep.
i was flat on my back taking a ton of abuse from the river bottom. i realized that i was gonna lose it. i jammed my arms down into the river bottom to force myself straight up and because of the immense force of the water- broke both my forearms instantly. i got my head up for a second took on breath and got a mouthfull of water. i could see that there were guys in Kyaks trying to rope me in - but the couldnt get to me. Back under i went...my arms were usless at this point -but i wasnt aware of any pain. i stopped caring.
i went numb completely and everything went white and the sound of the river went away...very peaceful.
i was awoken across the bow of a canoe with some giving me mouth mouth. They said i was dead for about a minute.
Never told that story before.
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