80 Life-or-Death Moments When Gut Feelings Became Unshakeable Lifelines
I think the arm wave was their stupid-a*s attempt at “signaling” they were going to take a left. I almost hit them at 80mph t-boned. I would have probably died, and they almost certainly would have given the age of the tin can they were in. I hit my breaks as best I could while maintaining control, and then veered to the right. I narrowly missed them. Honestly the reaction was pure “instinct” it happened within a second or so, and I’m still surprised I pulled it off.
When I was 7 or 8 yo, we lived in the “Jungle” area of Franklin Park, IL at the end of the first 747 runway in the late 1960s/early 70s (when the 747s went over blotted out the sun and you couldn’t hear anything over the engine roar for a full minute- planes are a LOT quieter these days). It was all apartments and it was well known for pimps and d***s and factories. My brother and his friend and I were playing by a factory that was being build out of cement blocks. My brother and his buddy made a fort out of some blocks and they found a piece of plywood to act as a top. One afternoon a serious storm started to blow in and I knew there were tornado warnings. They wanted to stay in the fort for the storm because it would be really cool but after a VERY LOUD and close lightning strike I left and ran for our apartment. The storm lasted ~45 minutes and the wind and thunder were terrible. My brother never came home so afterward, I went looking for him. One of the walls of the factory that was under construction had collapsed and had fallen on our fort! It was flat as a pancake. I walked around trying to see if they were there, but there didn’t seem to be any smashed kids. Then I went home where my brother had just shown up and he said they had gone to his friend’s apartment after I left. I took him to see out fort and we just kinda never talked about it again…
I’m pretty sure I’ve told this before, but when I was 12 I started getting allergy shots. It’s a 5 year program where you gradually build up immunity. Supposedly after 5 years your body will no longer attack those allergens. And the way they do it is start with a really tiny dose, and build up over the course of many months, you get to a peak level, and then stay there for a while, and then you start over at a low level and get to a peak level over time, etc. etc.
Anyway, when I was 16 (so 4 years into the program) I got my shots. And it was at the peak level, which I had been at for a while. You are required to stay 15 minutes in case of a reaction, and then you can go. My dad was with me and after the 15 minutes were up, he said we could go. I felt fine, but had this moment where I suggested we just wait for five more minutes. Within that time, I started having trouble breathing.
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