Have you ever missed a major event that happened right under your nose?
I woke up to a call from my neighbor. They wanted to know why the police and forensic vehicles were directly in front of my house. Apparently, there was a hit-and-run, and I missed everything. I didn't even hear the sirens.
Ha! Yes. We were just talking about this on a FB homepage I belong to. I fell asleep just moments before the first man stepped on the moon. All night my family and I had this on TV and I just couldn't stay awake. I was only 8 years old, but I sure wanted to see it happen.
I did! It was such a big deal in my household since my dad was an editor and actually worked on those proposals that launched that mission. The truth of the matter was, was that there was a lot of boring images from the time they landed until they actually stepped out. I was only 8 years old, so I wasn't used to being up that late.
A double-whammy with your dad being part of the mission. :o That stinks. There is no consolation for that. I'd like to say, "Well, I bet you've seen lots of cool things since," lol but I know that's meaningless. I can almost picture one of my kiddos doing the same thing. They fought so hard to stay up on New Year's, but they were all out cold by 10 or so. Not the same thing at all, but I can picture what you mean.
The good news is, is that I do have a lot of wonderful memories growing up around all that in general. At least I can say I was old enough to remember the worldwide hype and how cool it really was.
Yea me too... one new year's eve/day my neighbours were throwing their annual NTE party and apparently it got a bit nasty after that with people punching each other over an indelicate act by my neighbour's daughter's boyfriend, with another girl. Lots of noise ensued, which woke my entire family, except me.... Police were called, ambulances called and several people were injured. I missed it all! My neighbourhood is usually so quiet and nothing like that had happened before or since.
Many years ago, a big apartment building across the street from ours burned to the ground. People from that building took shelter in our lobby. I didn't know until I went to work the next day and saw the destruction and the ankle deep water in the street.
Only an armed robbery. I walked into a small grocery store to deliver them their newspaper, laid it on the counter and then walked back out. Unbeknownst to me, I walked in between the clerk and a man holding a gun. I only learned about what happened when the police called me in for a statement (the store clerk didn't fare to well).
I was teaching Health in a room off the gym floor. While class went on, a boy in a PE Class went down and they gave CPR until help came but he had died of a heart attack. I knew none of this was going on until class was over and we were coming out of the room.
The cops and robbers were playing Cops And Robbers out in the street and I had no clue until a cop knocked on the door to report that his car had knocked down the fence.
Thankfully I have missed many. As weird as that sounds, here is why. As many of you know, we live on top of a very steep hill. (This is putting it gently.) To get to our house, you have to come up a canyon. You may have seen it if you like westerns or are a history buff. I include this because it was originally cut into the mountain as an old wagon road. Part of this road is so steep, horses were usually blindfolded and chains were used to augment brakes on the descent. Passengers debarked and walked. The only thing that has changed on this road is it is paved, barely. It is still as skinny on the back side and obviously just as steep. Even knowing this road as well as I do, it still can catch you by surprise. AND WILL!! If you look out our front windows, to the right is a very tight and misleading corner. There are no guard rails. One side of the road is "the hill" we live on. It goes straight up and other other side is the canyon which goes straight down. This is a two lane road. When coming down, the canyon is on your right. With no guard rail, if you are going too fast, which many kids do because it is so steep and they think fun to drive, they don't make the turn. This happens about every other year. :( :(. I truly am glad I've missed every one but it is right outside our window and when you look down you can see all the emergency vehicles, Flight For Life, etc. I wish I could warn people. I've never been one who wants to see someone's misfortune. If I do see it, the only response that comes to mind is to call 911 and help any way possible.
This post was edited by Merlin at January 18, 2018 1:07 PM MST
We were dining at friends on the other side of town. Afterwards, expecting to drive across town to our house we were persistently re-routed round the outskirts by clusters of police. We had heard nothing during the evening, but later learnt that two public houses in the town had been bombed that evening, and people killed.
PeaPod is just popping by 