Unforgettable Experiences, share them here!

[abufarsi]

Top of my list was a visit to a durian farm during harvest, where, those fruit too ripe to ship were given away... free... By the time it was over I had durian in my hair!I broke the rule "never drink beer when eating durian", it was a stink fest without peer. People remarked that they could smell durian on me for days after. I WAS IN HEAVEN!

[Marionmsmithjr]

My past experience are the things that makes me what I am now.

I am new to this forum. You do not sound like an insecure person. You sound generous and confident. People are drawn much more to a person's heart than to what size they are. I enjoy reading your messages.

[abufarsi]

YA Crispi,

I have a fire story for you.

Coming back from a church youth ski trip around 9 PM, I noticed a pick up truck turn left in front of me. When I passed where he turned of I noticed that no street was there but the car was almost on it's side and the guy had spilled out into the ditch. The truck was badly wrecked. The gas intake hose was dislodged, and the gas tank was draining out onto the ground... glug, glug, glug. It has a distinctive sound. I went to the crash site and tried to wake the guy, no go. The battery was also dislodged and shorted out and soon the gas caught. For a few minutes the fire was mostly on the other side of the car, BIG FIRE, burned the wires from the power lines far above. Several cars stopped and we watched from the roadside, as the fire consumed the car. When the fire moved into the passenger area, the guy in the ditch clothes started to smoke. So I told the rest of the people watching that I was not going to stand here and see anybody burn. I went down and tried to get the guy, for sure a 250 pounder. I was able to get his feet sort of away but not really the rest of his body. When I bent over to pick him up my pants were so hot that they burned my butt. Finally, I took off my shirt and jacket and placed them over the guy to shield him from the heat. And went up to get some of the onlookers to help, and finally I shamed them into getting the guy. The heck with what you see on TV these guys took him by one foot and dragged him about 20 feet.

After the ambulance came and went I went home to find that I had second degree burns on the backs of my arms and above my belt on my back.

And now for the clinker. All of the guys who were watching me and the guy burn, were off duty police! (2 Monterey county Sherrifs, 2 Hollister city cops, and one highway patrol) They all were awarded medals for heroism.

[Edwin]

I have to be careful with my thoughts and my feelings in reaction to the above story. There are good and bad people in all walks of life. The good people with truly the heroic acts often get no attention. But the cell phones, video cameras, and regular cameras often catch abusive acts by police officers who are paid to uphold the law and protect us. Any one who has watched the news on television, or has followed news stories on the internet has seen the actions of abusive police officers doing reprehensible things to other people. My 80 some year old uncle was a victim of such actions a few years ago. I had a retired police supervisor from this same town on one of my tours, and he was horrified when I told him what these police officers did to my uncle, whom he also knew as well. Because some police officers do these things we must not think that all police officers are criminals, because they are not. They have a lot of power; some of them love power, and they also have something about their make up that takes pleasure in the pain of other people. This is very sad, but at the same time there are wonderful police officers who are there to up hold the law and also to help other people when they have the opportunity.

[crisipicada]

One time, when we marched going to our class from the barracks while I was on training at Manila, my batchmates make fun of me. They said, "contestant number 1". Some laugh and some tease me. Why? Because the way I walk is like joining a pageant since I use to walk that way (since my cousin, as age of mine, where I stay is a model, and since when I was elementary, I join like that). Since then, I refrain from walking like that. But sometimes i am unconscious walking like a model but I am thankful Hmmmm they said, Mae, you are snappy I guess I am not hehe

[Edwin]

Wednesday we left here early to haul garbage to the dump. We live so far away that we don't have garbage pickup. We put it in a building until there is enough to haul. You have to have at lease 290 pounds or you lose money at the dump as they charge a set fee for anything under 290 pounds. We had 530 pounds or so, so we didn't lose any money on it. I had to dump any old freezer, airconditioner, and electric cook stove, so my dumping was expensive. Carol went along and helped me.

We came back to this house where the freezer and airconditioner were, and set about to loading an upright grand piano on a pickup truck. I thought we could do it, but things went wrong. I was pulling it up a ramp with a large ratchet strap, and I used all my slack, so I needed to figure out another way to do it. So I hooked on each side of the pickup with a chain for each side. That made the piano pull sideways. Carol was at the bottom. The piano tipped over and slid down knocking Carol against an eight by eight post, and then on the grown. She laid there for a while holding her head. Then blood was all over her hands. The piano was still stuck on the ramp laying on its side. We got the piano loose from the strap, pulled it onto the ground laying on its back, put the ramp on the ground and headed for the hospital. She had a gash cut in her head 3 inches long, and at the hospital they used staples instead of stitches, 7 of them. Her head has hurt her a quite a bit the last few days, but she did go to church with me this morning. She had to try not to lay on it when she is sleeping, and it bothers her to bend over.

My son-in-law, his son, our grandson, helped me load the piano after up righting it. We figured out a better way to do it, and they were stronger, so that helped. I hauled it up here to our place, then I covered the piano with tarps. It did snow a couple of inches, but the tarps protected it. Carol wouldn't help unload the piano after that bad experience, and I don't blame her. Her brother from the Philippines asked her in an e-mail, why a 70 year old woman was trying to load a piano.

I laid cinder blocks down, backed the pickup on them, jacked up the back of the pickup, and our daughter, our son-in-law and I loaded the piano into the refer trailer. When Carol does not want to hear me play the piano any more in the house I will go out to the refer trailer and play that paino there!

I'm not sure how this happened, but our grandson's mother got rid of this paino when our grandson was a little guy; it was his piano. Well, it ended up in a house that I own, and when a renter moved out, she said that she didn't want the paino any more. I don't think she wanted to move it. I need to talk with our grandson's mother to try to find out how it ended up in this house. They don't even know that I have it. He is about 21 or 22 years old now, so he probably had not seen this piano for 14 or so years. I am planning to take a piano tuner/tech. course, and that old piano will give me something to work on, as well as being of sentamental value since it belonged to our grandson.

[Edwin]

I was going to buy a price and fisher play piano from our preacher that he had at a yard sale. He just gave me the piano. It was a nice little piano, and I got it for our grandson to play with. It had some prerecorded songs on it, and he learned to play some of them just from hearing them. Then his mom got him this piano that I told about in the other post. She said that it took 10 Indians to move it; they are Native American people. He just amazed all of us how he could play. Then his mom got rid of this piano, and as I told in the other post, I have the piano now. She bought him key board pianos, so he has not been without a piano. A few years ago he was still playing the piano, and said that he was trying to write music for musicians. I have not talked with him about that since so I don't what is happening with his piano playing lately. I will have to ask him when I see him again, and I hope it is soon.

[crisipicada]

One of my unforgettable experience when I was in the training center was to do the"save for life" wherein you have to go down to the ground using only rope as the means to save your life. I was so scared. I do not know if I will do it again, It would be very hard now.

[Edwin]

An unforgettable experience for me was when I was learning to fly an airplane. I think I had been with the instructor 10 or 12 hours; I don't remember exactly now because it has been so many years ago, but he decided that I was ready to solo, or fly the airplane without him going with me. He was so gifted that as long as he was in the airplane I knew he would keep me safe, and one time he did bring me out of a very bad position that I put the airplane in. Well I will never forget how it felt to pull that airplane into the air without anyone else with me in the airplane, and bring it around and back onto the ground safely. I know the Lord saved my life several times while I was flying, because I made my fair share of mistakes while I was learning.