I've had many close calls.  Most were my own stupid fault and a few were medical in nature.  It's a major miracle that I'm still here at age seventy. 
     IMO the closest I ever came to dying was when I was in the army.  This would be 1977 or 78.  Back then I drove an AMC CJ-5.  Great Jeep.  While I was home on leave Dad removed the back seat and built a very large tool  box to put in its place.  The box was big enough that someone could sit on it and hold onto the roll bar.  The law wasn't that particular about seatbelts back then. 
     It was a warm beautiful day.  I left base with two buddies.  This was long ago and I don't remember either of their names.  One, a blonde haired kid, was sitting in the passenger seat and the other, a guy with curly brown hair, was sitting on the tool box and holding onto the roll bar.  We were headed for a quarry lake in Kentucky.  It was about thirty miles from base.  We had a lot of beer and a little pot.  We were drinking on the way there.
    When we got there I drove the Jeep up a steep hill in four wheel drive to get to the quarry.  We popped up onto the hilltop and landed right in the middle of a bunch of Black people dressed to the nines having a baptism.  We apologized for the interruption, quickly backed down the hill, and found another spot.
     We spent the day swimming, diving into the quarry from high above, and drinking too much beer.  I drank about a full case by myself. 
      It was a fun drive home.  We all felt good after such a pleasant day plus we were drunk.  We were singing The Ballad of Jed Clampett at the top of our lungs.
Suddenly without warning a deeply rutted, freshly plowed farmer's field jumped out in front of me.  Stupid field.  We were going about sixty miles per hour.  Back then Jeeps had a smaller wheel base than they do today and were consequently less stable.  We were getting tossed around wildly by the ruts.  We went up on just the right wheels, then the left, then back to the right ones.  I was sure we were going to flip.  I wondered if we'd feel a lot of pain or just die instantly.  Suddenly the Jeep righted itself and stopped.  I looked at the guy next to me.  He said "We almost died."  Then the strangest thing happened.  We started laughing uncontrollably.  The poor guy in the back had been hanging on to the roll bar for dear life.  Had we flipped he would have been dead for sure.  When he saw us laughing like that he said "You ))*&^^% are crazy!  I'm walking home!"  it was a hot Summer day and about twenty miles to base.  After the near death experience I found myself suddenly as sober as a judge.  I calmed Curly down and assured him that I was now fine to drive, which I was.  The Jeep was undamaged other than my foot wiping out all three pedals on the floor in an adrenaline panic.   I didn't even realize I'd done that until after the fact.  I was able to drive home on just the pedal supports.
     Drinking and driving is stupid but when you're twenty two or three you sometimes do stupid things.  I almost killed myself and two other guys but it just wasn't my time.
    So do you have a near death experience to share?

I cant name all the times I've almost died.

But one time that sticks out is being with some guys and we were driving in Ohio. It was winter and I and another guy were in the back seat. The guy next to me was just nuts. He was the crazy guy in the group.

We were driving on the highway going at least 60mph. The crazy guy next to me screams out, "Hey black ice!!!" and then right as we hit it he pulls the emergency brake. And then we start floating and gently spinning as we are flying down the highway. Luckily the guy driving was from Utah and had a ton of experience driving on ice.

I dont know what he did but he managed to get us mostly straight again right before we hit the end of the ice. As soon as we hit the asphalt again the entire car shook as we hit the rough road at 60 mph not going completely straight. The car shook so much I think if we were a few more degrees off straight we wouldve flipped.

My adrenaline was pumping like mad. My whole body was lit up. It all happened so fast.

Morphy wrote on Jan 18^th, 2025 at 8:16pm:


The guy who pulled the brake should have walked home from that point. 

  I also have a black ice tale.  This took place around 1982, shortly after my army days.  I worked the graveyard shift as a security guard at a Certainteed fiberglass plant.  I had just finished college but hadn't landed a career type job yet. 
     One Winter night I was on my way to work.  The roads looked dry and safe.  I made a right turn and started to accelerate when I found myself on black ice.  I was in the same Jeep as the above drunk driving tale.  The Jeep began to fishtail as I fought for control.  The rear swung to the left, then to the right, then back to the left but it just kept going around.  I was in a spin.  There was absolutely nothing I could do so for the first and only time ever in my life I gave up the steering wheel, laid down across the front seats, covered my neck and the back of my head with my arms, and waited for the crash. This was going to hurt a lot.
      Then I was stopped.  I sat up and found myself in the middle of someone's front yard. I couldn't believe that I didn't hit a phone pole.  Luck was with me that night.

^Also being a baby got viral meningitis shortly after being born; apparently almost bit it and have a bunch of scars, from where they stuck tubes in me, to show for it. Almost drowned in a pool in Mallorca at age 3-6 around there. Almost been hit by cars more than a few times because I bike and people around these parts can't drive for poopy (last time was last summer when a guy in a BMW decided to turn right from out of nowhere in a roundabout as I was biking to the beach to swim/sling). You guys have WAY better stories clearly.