Post your tough guy moments here

[sniffa]

There's several threads/posts going about the "Canadian Bus Chopper" (Bi-Baby TM) and the cowardly reaction of 37 bus riders who didn't save the beheaded Aborigine. Some people think they would have saved the kid, or at least taken down the killer, whether the kid was dead or not.

So, what are your real life experiences that are similar, or even deadly for you?

Here's just a few of mine (some have been posted on DU - mostly in the Lounge, so that why it's here)

- the incident I wrote about a month or so ago about the drug deal gone bad, with three totaled cars, a pound of weed, a gun, and amazingly no dead/seriously injured people involved in it. I initially ran to try and help the old man who I thought had to be dead.

- a bicyclist was struck by a car about 10 feet in front of me. The rider was wearing a helmet, but his brains ended up on the pavement. I immediately ran out into the street to help him, but thankfully, there was an actual doctor who beat me there (as I only have First Aid training I've thankfully never had to use prior).

- I was once jumped by a mob of kids with weapons. My response was to immediately drop to the ground and curl up in a ball while I was pistol-whipped, stomped, and beaten with various bricks, rocks, sticks, etc. I survived that with only large lumps on my skull and severely bruised ribs (I protected my grill throughout).

- I attended the (1996?) Hemp Fest in Boston and it was one of the most violent shows I've ever attended. I witnessed one person break his neck and his head was turned almost entirely around. I cringed, and felt nauseous. At the same show, there was fight going on that I approached to get an up close view of... two guys were wrestling around over some object, and I finally noticed that they were fighting over a handgun and I immediately did an about face and started tomahawking my way out of there as I didn't want to get accidentally shot.

- I once hit the wall on Storrow Drive (below the overpass near Harvard Stadium) as a backseat passenger in a car going well over the speed limit. I blacked out, and was awakened by the driver (who had gone through the windshield) who was covered in blood. Despite his bad situation, he went right into rescue mode trying to get everyone out of mangled car as the car was smoking bad and starting to catch fire. I was the only person in the vehicle who didn't have any injuries, and as I was awakened and got out of the car, I thought I was dead because I felt no pain (and everyone in the car had broken bones and/or was covered in blood). I refused to get in the ambulance as I was in complete shock and took off walking some miles down Storrow.

- an altercation with "one" person turned into about 20+ people trying to pound on me, and I miraculously not only survived, but didn't get much of a scratch as I went all psycho (dirty) fighter before finding safety beneath a car.

- when I was a kid, one bully thought it would be funny to drown me. I still don't know how I survived that as I finally gave up the fight and was inhaling water.

There are much more, but these are some of my "tough guy" moments and my responses - each one different.

Your reaction is never what you'd normally think it would be.