Fear Of Height, and going over tall bridges???

I really should a got that being raised 3 mike west of tuckerman

 

I once retroactively experienced a fear of heights, long before I ever became a truck driver. I was a teenager and I hailed from a hard-partying generation (CHS, Class of '79), and one night some rich kid down in the Coronado Shores (ten 150' condo towers on the beach in my home town) invited us to come over and party on Friday night, since his parents had left for the weekend. I didn't even like this guy, or ANY rich wank, since I hailed from a broken military home... but my friends talked me into going down there, and what the heck, it was all the beer & free booze we could drink, plus weed & whatever else.

So we get there, and the guy lives on the 9th floor... every tower in that complex has concrete ledges on every floor, these ledges extend beyond the windows, balconies, etc., and are used by maintenance personnel & window washers, 10-4? Now, those workers wear harnesses and rappel gear, using thick industrial line for the purpose, so they're protected... long after hours, and with nobody around to stop us, my friends & I stepped out on the ledge which bordered this rich punk's flat (or his parents' flat). Wasn't long before we were cruising along this ledge and goofing off, even though a slip & fall meant certain death.

I ain't joking either, that ledge had slick beveled edges (45*) and there was NOTHING to grab and stop yourself if ya slipped & fell... one slip and a guy would've gone right over, fallen 9 stories and SPLATTERED all over the concrete terrace below. You can probably imagine my consternation when a friend told me the next day that I had been RUNNING along that ledge while TOTALLY HAMMERED... I mean, that revelation SCARED ME, ya know? In retrospect, I don't think I have EVER been closer to death, and that includes all the technical rock climbing and other extreme sports I did LATER in life, not to mention trucking & the Army.

As soon as I heard this revelation from my friend---I couldn't remember doing the deed, but this guy was no BSer---I vowed to NEVER go back to that flat, as I had already dodged a big-time bullet. I mean that too, I never went back, even though I was asked afterward... the thought of running along that ledge while HAMMERED was just too much for me. And I've always been pretty good with heights, but later, during my climbing days, I learned to have a healthy respect for such heights, ya know? Plus I was usually roped up & using gear, a different story altogether. MAN, the thought of that night still scares me...

This is no BS tale, those of you who've seen my pics know I'm a climber, or WAS, anyway. Lemme tell ya something else: my brother Pete (one of seven brothers, one sister) used to work as a doorman at one of the towers, and one night a resident in a neighboring tower decided to commit suicide by jumping off a 12th-floor balcony. The guy SPLATTERED on the concrete terrace below, and upon hearing the sirens & commotion, my bro secured his door and walked over to see what was going on... he said the guy's head was nothing but a broad stain with skull fragments hurled in every direction.

According to the Oriental Zodiac, I was born in the 'Year of the Tiger'---so I like to think that I have nine lives, but I definitely burned up one of those lives that night I dodged a bullet on that ledge. Jeez, it gives me the shivers to this day, knowing how close I was to death, but so drunk and stupid at the time that I didn't realize how close I was... when you're young, ya think you're 10' tall and bulletproof, aye? I've dodged other bullets since that night, but none so darned close, and I understand how you guys who do NOT like heights feel when you're dealing with them. Gravity is a hard taskmaster, that's for #### sure...

 

Not quite Campbell Station then

 

When no recent flood had taken them, there used to be 3 or 4 old houses down on the MO side where you landed and went left.
If recent flood, there could be 3 or 4 new houses along there. This occurred annually in the 50's.
During the lapsed time between floods, a toss up... Bare ground or stacked building supplies..
(Strange.. Why didn't you keep on # 3; down the steep asphalt, on snow/ice/rain.clenching and calculating, whether that train would
appear crossing the bottom just as you reached the point of decision to still be able to stop. Then surviving that, could casually whack a left when leaving Cairo and slither up over the Ohio into KY.- Tight width, steep with snow/ice in winter.)
This was the old hog haulers route from National City, IL to Bryan Bros in West Point. Inquiry if KY weighing you crossed at Chester and run MO. If not,
IL#3 to Cairo,. At lands end south of Cairo, take a left on to 51 and over the Ohio River and on the S. Fulton, KY, pickup 45E on down tru Milan, Jackson Corinth to West Point.
(Back hjen. KY and VA did not honor a tandem axle trailer. You just had extra weight with one. Tricky...)

 

Sure, just collapse in a faint on the floor and coming too, yell for someone to use the base controls to let you down.
Too scared to turn loose of what you have grabbed to lower yourself. It is hell to glance around and "lose the horizon", since you have gone higher than your
surroundings.

 

They have been seen before:

https://phys.org/news/2006-01-whales-texas-ship-channel.amp

This article was from 2006, where as my sighting was in 2018

 

That's awesome! Thank you for sharing.

 

Anyone else ever had an airbag deflate or in one memorable case their truck slide sideways a bit into a pothole they parked on the edge of when the pavment gave way in their sleep and wake up flailing because you thought you falling? Or is that just a me thing?

 

I did in my old truck, When the bags fell after I was a sleep. I woke up in a panic thinking the truck was falling off a bridge. Jumped up and grabbed the seat and hit the brakes. opened the curtains to see I was still in the same place. I had just started my driving career a few weeks before that.

 

I've awakened at night to poke my head out the curtains, seen a truck to either side pulling out, and practically had a heart attack thinking my OWN truck was rolling, lol... can't tell y'all how many times that happened over the years.