by "Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
Published 03/15/2017 at 14:56
by "Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
Published 03/15/2017 at 14:56
No Tags
STARS: 4
I was thinking about this and thought I would share.
This was the early 90s, so stranger danger was very much a thing, but my mom grew up in the 50s, so it didn’t really factor into her thinking. In fact, as a child, a always half suspected that she wanted to abandon me, because I would frequently be looking at something in a store only to realize she had disappeared. I very quickly learned to go up to the customer service desk in whatever store I was in and ask them to call her over the loudspeaker.
At any rate, when I was about ten years old, I went with my mom to the mall. While she was in Macy’s, I decided to take a walk to the other side of the mall to go to Sears. After getting bored with playing with power tools or whatever I was doing, I decided to go back to Macy’s. Rather than going back through the mall, I decided to exit out the back door of Sears and walk along the outside of the mall.
After I rounded the first corner, I noticed the sound of a car driving very, very slowly behind me as I was walking down the sidewalk. Rather intelligently, as soon as I reached the next entrance, I went back inside Sears and the car drove off. Being a fairly smart child, I decided that my best course of action was to get back to my mom as soon as possible. Being a very stupid child, I decided that the fastest way to do so was to go back outside and cut through the parking lot, since the shortest way between two points is a straight line.
So I went back out the door and started walking through the parking lot. I made it about half way through the parking lot when looked and saw the same car idling by the mall’s main entrance. They evidently saw me as well, because they suddenly took off towards me in the parking lot. I started running with the sound of the car going flat out behind me when suddenly I heard a huge crash and screeching tires. I never stopped to look; I just kept running until I made it inside, but I imagine that they must have t-boned a car pulling out of a parking spot.
I don’t really know exactly what that was about. I’ve assume that it was probably some dipshit teenagers fucking around with me. It’s always stuck with me, though, because it was the only hairy situation I’ve been in where I wasn’t at least somewhat at fault (mostly because I have a bad habit of escalating altercations).
"PotbellyJoe and 42 others" (potbellyjoe)
03/15/2017 at 15:00, STARS: 2
In another universe you did get kidnapped, WHY DID YOU GO BACK OUTSIDE?!
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
03/15/2017 at 15:02, STARS: 2
I WAS A STUPID AND LAZY CHILD AND I DIDN’T WANT TO WALK THROUGH THE WHOLE MALL.
"TheHondaBro" (wwaveform)
03/15/2017 at 15:02, STARS: 3
I clicked this post expecting a gusset. Am disappointed.
"PotbellyJoe and 42 others" (potbellyjoe)
03/15/2017 at 15:03, STARS: 2
Well, your alternate you paid for that decision. Was it worth it?
"Future next gen S2000 owner" (future-next-gen-s2000-owner)
03/15/2017 at 15:03, STARS: 1
My MIL was out walking with my wife and her sister a long time ago. SIL was maybe 2 and my wife was 7-8. My wife was ahead and got to the bottom of a hill. A stranger was talking to my wife, then MIL saw what was happening and apparently started running with the stroller screaming and the guy took off running.
Crazy. I have no doubt my MIL would have beaten that man senseless.
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
03/15/2017 at 15:04, STARS: 4
THIS IS WHAT DARWIN WAS SUPPOSED TO FIX DAMMIT
"Chariotoflove" (chariotoflove)
03/15/2017 at 15:05, STARS: 5
Okay, seriously, you just made me resolve to hold my daughter that little bit closer next time I see her. Yes, I’m going to hover for a while, and she’ll just have to deal with it.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
03/15/2017 at 15:07, STARS: 3
Alternate me is probably right handed and tall. Alternate me can go to hell.
"Funktheduck" (funktheduck)
03/15/2017 at 15:10, STARS: 0
Alternate you was in hell. It got kidnapped. Kidnapped kids aren’t usually treated well.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
03/15/2017 at 15:12, STARS: 2
Yeah, but this is an alternate universe. Alternate me probably ended up with some sweet Richie Rich type life. God, I hate alternate me so much.
"Takuro Spirit" (takurospirit)
03/15/2017 at 15:16, STARS: 1
I used to ride my bike EVERYWHERE around Milwaukee when I was young. I’d take whole days worth of snacks and water with me and just ride to wherever....
Only twice though did I nearly get bike-jacked.
Once was near my apartment and some kid started chasing after me and yelled for me to stop and give him the bike, but I pedaled my ass out of there and too my friend’s apartment because his dad was huge AF and a mean motherfucker.
The other was literally IN THE HOOD (but on a main street that started and ended in nice parts of the city) and a group of teenage to early 20's started to chase after me after one of them said “Nice Bike” to me while I was stopped at a red light.
Thankfully that Huffy had 5-speeds and I easily outran them and ditched them by riding through parking lots and alleys.
Come to think of it, my parents weren’t around much, and pretty much let me do whatever I wanted.
"OPPOsaurus WRX" (opposaurus)
03/15/2017 at 15:17, STARS: 4
O man like a week ago my sister-in-law was outside playing with one of my daughters. Few minutes later shes inside but the child is not in sight. My mother-in-law goes fucking nuts setting off my wife. they are running around screaming cry and saying call 9-1-1. I decide to use my brain and look where they typically hide. there she is, hiding in the pantry. Why? her and the SIL had been playing hide and seek and my SIL had to go to the bathroom so she had my daughter come inside too. SIL never thought to mention the whole hide and seek thing. My brother-in-law and I promptly went to pick up another 6 pack
"PotbellyJoe and 42 others" (potbellyjoe)
03/15/2017 at 15:18, STARS: 2
There’s more than a few alternate yous , so I’m sure they have done many interesting or terrifying things based on which way a decision would take you.
Just be thankful you’re not some other you that has it rougher, like kidnapped you.
"Honeybunchesofgoats" (honeybunche0fgoats)
03/15/2017 at 15:24, STARS: 1
Being a latch key kid is the best.
"E92M3" (E46M3)
03/15/2017 at 15:54, STARS: 4
I only had one stranger danger when I was young. My friend and I were at the bus stop (elementary aged), and a car with 2 guys in it pulled up. They asked if we knew where somebody (name that wasn’t familiar) lived. My friend approached the car, and about the time I saw the passenger had a knife in his hand, I yelled for my friend to run. I was further back on a hill, so I saw it from my vantage point, he couldn’t. Before I was finished with the word RUN, the passenger had already opened the door. We booked it through the woods behind our houses that we knew very well, and got home in record time. I sometimes wonder what would of happened if we were both closer to the curb that morning.
"AMGtech - now with more recalls!" (amgtech)
03/15/2017 at 16:19, STARS: 1
Yeah but it’s kind of amazing so many of us survived
"Tazio, Count Fouroff" (tazio0625)
03/15/2017 at 18:38, STARS: 1
Thank God you’re OK
Probably the person who got T-boned thought they had horrible luck that day, never knew they potentially (quite probably, actually) saved your life...but which of us wouldn’t be willing to have a parking-lot crash if it saved somebody from some gruesome fate or other, especially a kid??
When you get to Heaven — hopefully in the far distant future, if that’s your preference lol — maybe considering looking them up and telling them the “rest of the story”?
It’s funny, we think we know about our lives and the world (thinking about the driver who got hit) and maybe we never have a clue...
Seems like there was a movie kinda like your post, Mystic River , about 15 years ago or so, where the boy didn’t have such a fortunate outcome :(