Reader Friday-I Saw What You Did

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Tell us something cool about yourself that no one else knows…or, very few people know.

I’ll start.

My car wasn’t as cool as this one… 🙂

I once drove in a stock car race. It was fun! I got to go really, really fast around our local race track and I didn’t even crash. My three young kiddos watched from the bleachers with my parents. My drag-racing, desert truck-racing Dad was the instigator. In the blood, I guess.

 

Would I do it again? No sirree Bob! (Well, maybe…)

Your turn! Do tell, and have you written about it?

 

30 thoughts on “Reader Friday-I Saw What You Did”

  1. Tell us something cool about yourself that no one else knows…or, very few people know.

    I once addressed an EPA conference on half a working day’s notice. The conference, “Forum on Innovative Hazardous Waste Treatment Technologies,” was held at Atlanta, Georgia, Monday, June 19, 1989, 500 in attendance,.

    Friday afternoon, my boss said he expected me to give his speech the following Monday. Saturday, I met him in Beverly Hills to pick up the plane tickets, etc.; Sunday, I flew to Atlanta; Monday morning, I received the last group of slides at 10:10 a.m. I spoke at 10:30. It went very well, an attendee told me. The boss owed me one, so I took Tuesday off to fly to Florida and visit my aunt and uncle, the last time I saw him up and around.

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    • Wow! The mere thought of being placed on the spot to speak publicly like that is horrifying. Congrats to you for being willing to tackle it head on! Pretty awesome.

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      • Thanks, BK. A friend at work had talked me into joining his Toastmasters club long before the conference. And I’d been president of a Los Angeles singles club, so I was used to speaking to a room full of people. This was just a bigger room. And seeing my aunt and uncle was providential. He died in October of the following year.

        Things have a way of working out.

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    • Good Friday morning, J…

      Wow, I don’t know if I could even speak one sentence of a speech without preparation. And you didn’t even have a teleprompter I’d wager, working or not working! 🙂

      Thanks for sharing your story with us this fine Friday!

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      • No teleprompter! I don’t know if there were such items in ’89. I did have a copy of the paper and some notes, plus the slides to keep me oriented. And two years of Toastmasters experience, 20 years earlier!

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  2. My life would be quite boring by most people’s standards. I’m not a bungee jumper, etc. About the closest thing I can think of is about 35 years ago, I had signed up to go on a wagon train trip in the southwest. But on that trip, they didn’t have too many people sign up so instead of wagons, we simply did the trip on horseback. One of our trips was riding in Zion National Park, etc. in Utah.

    While on that riding adventure I was off my horse near some water and got into some quicksand—it was not dramatic–I didn’t have to be hauled out by a rope because I didn’t go that deep. But I’ll always remember it because I didn’t even know quicksand was a thing in that area. And I’m not sure if most people realize you could deal with quicksand in those parks–I never hear it mentioned.

    I’ll also remember it because if you’ve read any westerns, you’ll recall having read a phrase along the lines of “letting the horse pick his way across….”. Animals have a sense for those types of dangers and we should trust their instincts.

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    • Good morning, Brenda…

      Traveling by wagon train…now that sounds like fun to me–however, sans the quicksand of course.

      On horseback? Not sure I could even get on one these days. My gramma had horses, but they were mostly of the stand-around-in-the-corral-waiting-for-food breed.

      Thanks for coming by this morning, and hope you have a great day.

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  3. In the early 1970s, I rode in the front cockpit.a of Stearman biplane (1930s vintage). The pilot controlled it from the rear cockpit. We wore leather flying helmets and goggles just like Snoopy.

    We were flying in formation with another Stearman that his buddy owned. Pretty soon the two of them started “dogfighting” like World War 1 fighter pilots, looping and rolling. I think it was fun but I was desperately trying not to get sick in the pilot’s beautifully restored plane. Wish I’d taken a Dramamine first.

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    • Debbie, what I said to Patricia! It sounds fun, I guess, but my feet belong on the ground these days…

      Does this experience show up in any of your books?

      Thanks for stopping by!

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  4. My “you wouldn’t believe it” moment was this week when I went up in a sport airplane and thought I’d lose my breakfast when the pilot banked sharply right without warning me. But I’d do it again in a heartbeat and may next week.

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    • Patricia, you are way braver than I am!

      I don’t like to fly anyway, and the thought of being in a small plane…hmmm, no! However, having said that, when I was 10 my 2nd cousin’s dad took the two of us up in his plane. I got to sit in the co-pilot’s seat and he “handed over” the controls to me. I was made of steel at that age, I guess. 🙂

      Thanks for telling us your secret!

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  5. Some people know this, but in college at the end of a 3 semester stint as an exchange student at the University of Costa Rica a friend and traveled by bus, big red backpacks on our backs that identified us as gringas, through Central America to return to the states. This was during a period of great unrest in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and El Salvador. When we arrived in Guatemala City we heard gunfire nearby so we stayed on the bus until Antigua. We hadn’t made arrangements for hotel stays anywhere. When we arrived in Mexico City we found hotel rooms so scarce, we had to share a single room with a stranger who’d been traveling on the same bus. It was weird and a little scary but safer than being on the streets after dark. I considered it then and now one of the most amazing adventures of my young, frequently misspent youth. I saw so much and learned so much, I’m glad I didn’t let fear or basic common sense stand in my way!

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    • Hi Kelly–thanks for your story!

      I just have one question: you didn’t mention what your parents and other family members thought of the idea. Just wondering. If your parents were like me, they’d pat you on the back and say something like “write when you find work”.

      In fact, my second-born called me from the NY college he was attending and told me he was quitting and moving to France to live on the beach and open a bar. I knew right away he was serious, and I wanted to reach right through the phone and throttle him. But…I said, “Well, son, have fun with that. Please keep in touch.” He ended up not going. If I’d over-reacted, he probably would’ve.

      Hope you have a great day!

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  6. I went zip lining in the canopy of a forest (jungle?) in Africa. Once you step off the first platform, there’s no turning back and once I pushed aside the thought that I could die if I fell, I just enjoyed. Five platforms, five moments of stepping out into space with the ground 40-50 feet below, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

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    • Hi Becky!

      There’s another scary thing I’ve never done. My kiddos have, but I’ll just watch, thank you very much. It looks fun…but…

      Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day.

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  7. I went to Vanuatu to visit my daughter and her family who were serving as missionaries. We drove to a remote tropical lake – beautiful, blue, and crystal clear. My daughter challenged me to climb up to a platform and use the rope swing to drop into the lake. I did, and my hand slipped off the huge knot, resulting in a spiral fracture in my ring finger!
    Didn’t know it was broken until I got home to the States.
    Would I do it again? Oh, yes, but without the broken finger.

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  8. Highway 79 runs along the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Hannibal. I was on a week long bicycle ride. My riding buddy suggested a spot we could go “pretty fast”. There is a river overlook on the top of a hill on 79. We took a break at the top of the hill and checked our bikes and started down the hill. It is about two miles and very straight. As we got faster, I could feel the wind start to drag on my back. Then the wind filled my back pockets. A little adjusting to keep out of the wind, I stopped looking at my riding computer and concentrated on the road. Our other buddy thought we were nuts and came down the hill at a more normal speed. She said we swerved over the yellow line near the bottom. Pretty much rolled rest of the way to Hannibal.

    How fast? The last number I saw was 51.5 mph. My tires contact area was about the size of a quarter. My mother was not pleased about 15 years later when she found out.

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    • Gosh, Alan! We’ve ridden bikes the last few years, so I can imagine…

      My mother was not pleased about 15 years later when she found out… 🙂

      I remember a time when I and my siblings sat around the table with my parents (we were adults–well, sort of…) and regaled them with stories of what we’d done when they weren’t looking, working most of the time to put food in our little rebellious mouths. I can still see the look of horror on Mom’s face, and my Dad’s hand twitching–no doubt wishing he could slap our backsides a few times.

      Thanks for your story this morning!

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  11. A warning first. If you use a Mac, don’t update to Tahoe yet. It is a crazy pile of bugs.

    Some nut in a car tried to kill me when I was walking across the Duke West Campus near the medical centers. I escaped by running into some parked cars. Fortunately, the nut didn’t get out of his car. Pre-cell phone so no cops involved. This is also the place where I saw some guy in a lab coat taking a caged monkey for a walk and another guy wearing only a hospital gown making an escape.

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    • Mornin’ Marilyn!

      Thanks for the tip about Tahoe…

      What a harrowing experience for you. Glad you made it out alive!

      Wonder about the monkey, though. 😵‍💫

      Have a great weekend!

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  12. I was fortunately enough to make it to the finals in Houston at the Johnson Space Center for astronaut selection in the 1980s; my right eye wasn’t good enough – and I didn’t make the final cut, but it was quite exciting to go through the testing, and to have had the opportunity, and be on site.

    About Tahoe: I’ll wait a bit before I allow the install – if I haven’t already set it to auto update. Thanks.

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