Lucky/unlucky thread

[Luvtoride]

I’m surprised no one else posted one about 9/11 yet.
I worked downtown about 4 blocks east of WTC and commuted from NJ daily, either via the PATH train to WTC or the Ferry to the pier near it then walked through WTC plaza to my office. This was my daily commute for 12 years at the time.
On that day in 2001, I was hosting a business conference with the managers of my group from all around the country in Manchester, NH.
My wife was driving into work in NYC that morning. She called my cell phone while I was still in my hotel room to tell me the news about “a small plane” hitting one of the towers and to turn on the TV. While talking to her, she was on the GW Bridge she watched in horror as the 2nd plane struck the other tower.
We are both extremely thankful for me being out of town that day ( I didn’t travel often for business) as my usual commute and timing would have put me very close to the disaster of that day.

 

[Dtail]

I’m surprised no one else posted one about 9/11 yet.
I worked downtown about 4 blocks east of WTC and commuted from NJ daily, either via the PATH train to WTC or the Ferry to the pier near it then walked through WTC plaza to my office. This was my daily commute for 12 years at the time.
On that day in 2001, I was hosting a business conference with the managers of my group from all around the country in Manchester, NH.
My wife was driving into work in NYC that morning. She called my cell phone while I was still in my hotel room to tell me the news about “a small plane” hitting one of the towers and to turn on the TV. While talking to her, she was on the GW Bridge she watched in horror as the 2nd plane struck the other tower.
We are both extremely thankful for me being out of town that day ( I didn’t travel often for business) as my usual commute and timing would have put me very close to the disaster of that day.

At the time of 9/11, I was working 10 blocks North. I actually could see the first plane in the building and was wondering did he make any attempt to miss it, but not thinking terrorism. Our building which had 13k people was evacuated after the 2nd hit. Occasionally, I would have meetings in the WTC.
I didn't get home until 6pm that night. I knew 3 acquaintances who were killed.
We had to be at work the next day at an alternative site in New Jersey.

 

[jim584672]

I know someone who was unlucky enough to get a 911 related cancer. Luckily cancer went into remission and the person got 911 victim compensation. I worked downtown during the fume stench and a few of my co-workers have gotten sick.

 

[Luvtoride]

I know someone who was unlucky enough to get a 911 related cancer. Luckily cancer went into remission and the person got 911 victim compensation. I worked downtown during the fume stench and a few of my co-workers have gotten sick.

Jim, both my wife and I are members of The WTC Health Program with various cancers and illnesses related to working downtown in the months following 9/11. Fortunately, these things have been dealt with with successfully and covered by our “3rd insurance “ provided by this program. We still feel very lucky and thankful that these were the “only” impacts of our proximity to the 9/11 tragedy.
Yes, we knew people killed too.

 

[mystang52]

I’m surprised no one else posted one about 9/11 yet.
I worked downtown about 4 blocks east of WTC and commuted from NJ daily, either via the PATH train to WTC or the Ferry to the pier near it then walked through WTC plaza to my office. This was my daily commute for 12 years at the time.
On that day in 2001, I was hosting a business conference with the managers of my group from all around the country in...

I worked on John Street, and from my office window I could see both towers. I saw the 2nd tower get hit. My boss was major-lucky, he had just gotten out of the PATH station. Very minor piece of luck for me: an employee, who coincidentally lived near me, had driven in that day. We were able to get home because I knew of a small bridge at north end of Broadway that was not closed. We had to drive 80 miles north just find a bridge to cross the Hudson, that was not choked with traffic.

 

[braumeister]

My boss was major-lucky, he had just gotten out of the PATH station.

Similar story. I know a woman who worked on a high floor in the WTC, but was running a little late that morning. She emerged from the subway station just as debris from the first plane was falling to the ground, and was about to start crossing the street out of habit, but some guy pulled her back and told her to get back and go home.

 

[jollystomper]

Similar story. I know a woman who worked on a high floor in the WTC, but was running a little late that morning. She emerged from the subway station just as debris from the first plane was falling to the ground, and was about to start crossing the street out of habit, but some guy pulled her back and told her to get back and go home.

Almost a similar story with one of my sisters. She worked in the World Trade Center complex (not in the towers), and woke up early that morning not feeling well. She was to be in a meeting at 8:30am, but called her manager and told her she would be late. He said no worries, come in when you feel better. As she was leaving her house just after 9 he called her and warned her to "don't come here, something bad is going on".

 

[old medic]

My 9/11 luck was a few days later.... We had a group of about a dozen all packed up and set to leave to assist with recovery efforts. At the last hour we got stood down....

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

I posted this earlier on the "Dangerous Toys" thread:

I personally have been shot in the head with an arrow (field arrow, thankfully) from about a 150 yard range. We were out on the woods, shooting arrows at whatnot. We came across a contruction site with scores of large dirt piles, maybe 25 ft high. we started shooting from one dirt pile to the other. Boys being boys, we somehow broke up into two groups behind two different dirt piles, and started shooting arrows at the other dirt pile.

We were not, of course, serious in our attempt to shoot the other group. The big dirt piles in front of us gave us comfort. But then someone in the other group launched and arrow high into the air in our direction, so the dirt pile gave us no protection. We saw it rise into the air, and then it started heading down towards us.

Hmm, that is coming close to us. Finally, it was clear it was going to hit where we were gathered. So we all dove to the ground. Unfortunately for me, I dove into the path of the arrow. It hit me in the head, somewhere between my ear and my eyebrow, making a nasty gash.

Ironically, the construction site was for a new wing of the local hospital. So I sauntered the several hundred yards over to the emergency room, hand clasped to my head, and got my gash taken care of.

I often think, though: Put your finger halfway between your ear and your eyebrow. How far do you have to move your finger to find a place that you really don't want an arrow to have hit you? (Eye, temple, ear, neck....)

 

[Walt34]

1976, while flying in my Piper Tri-Pacer out to Oshkosh, WI for the EAA fly-in there. Somewhere over Ohio cruising along at about 3,000 feet and trying to keep a lookout for traffic but I obviously missed one. A Cessna 150 flew in front of and just below me close enough that I could see the rivets in the skin and two people in the cabin. There wasn't enough time to say "Oh ****" and it was over.

Then I understood how midairs happen.

 

[Lorenzo]

Anyone have some interesting stories of missed opportunities? Not so much stocks you could have bought. More like, I owned 5 Berkshire A and sold when it was $20k/share. Or sold my bitcoins at $20/each.

Could even be a time when you escaped death...

Looks like the replies lean toward the second type of story--a near miss. I don't have one of those, fortunately.

My missed opportunity story would be that I was once invited to become the second employee of an important department of a startup company that went on to become a Fortune 100. I turned it down because I felt it would be returning to the sort of work I had done previously, and I was enjoying my new challenge at the time.

 

[Lewis Clark]

I was off the coast of Bermuda, transferring from a small pilot boat to a submarine. The sub was nearly motionless on the rough seas but the pilot boat was moving wildly on the rough surface. The sub put over a rope ladder for a group of us to accomplish the transfer.

As I jumped to grab the rope ladder, my feet slipped off a wet rung. My hands were gripping the ropes and I was scrambling to regain my footing on the rungs. A wave rolled by, lifted the pilot boat, and slammed the boat against the sub.

Fortunately, I was far enough forward on the pilot boat that my legs were not crushed between them due to the narrow bow of the boat.

So today I still have two legs. And am alive.

 

[GrayHare]

I feel lucky to have been born during the 20th century.

 

[FargoI]

In HS, my older brother's friend had just received his pilot license (I have no idea how old her was ...guessing 18-21). He offered to take people flying if they helped pay the rental cost. Why not As the flight progressed and it started to get dark, there were numerous radio calls...to which he (eventually) responded to one. Apparently is (literal) lights were not turned on and other aircraft were having difficulty seeing him. This in the category of you cant make this Shi'p' up! We landed and he drove me home... periodically I reflect up this as a learning experience. Just one of many remarkable stores.

A more recent incident in returning from emergency management training was being struck from behind while at a stop light. Uninsured, revoked driver hitting my car and subsequently several in front of me. My first and hopefully last ride as a passenger in an ambulance. Highly recommend if you are going to ride in an ambulance, do so as part of the crew.

 

[freedomatlast]

Very lucky to have survived lots of drinking, drugs and high speed street races almost every weekend growing up. Also survived working underneath lots of cars that weren't properly supported and could have easily crushed me. I remember rolling out from underneath one late one balmy summer night just in time, as it gradually slipped off the bumper jack and crashed to the ground. I was a little more careful after that.

 

[jollystomper]

Here is an interesting "was it lucky? or unlucky?" scenario...

In high school I applied to three Ivy League colleges. A day before the decision letters arrived, I was at a luncheon held by the city's Board of Education, for a group of us seniors across the city that, due to our grades, PSAT, and SAT scores, had qualified for some rare scholarship. There I met a pretty young woman who was friendly and outgoing towards me. I was very shy around woman at the time, and her friendliness to me made me happy. She choose to sit next to me during the lunch, and I found out she had been accepted (early admission) to the Ivy League college that was my first choice. Her departing gesture to me was a friendly hug, and the words "I hope to see you on campus this fall!".

A day later, I received my letters... and I was rejected from that first choice. No chance to see her again. But, I was accepted by the other two schools. I have no regrets about the one I chose to attend - especially since I met DW there. Being rejected from that first choice never bothered me.

Now the kicker: after my mother died, we cleared out her house. One of my sisters found a couple of envelopes full of items my mother had saved related to my younger years (school pictures, report cards, etc.). One of the items was a newspaper article about that luncheon, with a picture of the group of us being honored. I showed it to DW and mentioned how nice the woman was - and DW exclaimed "I knew her!"

It turns out that pretty young woman went to DW's high school, they were in the same graduating class, and had been friends - partly because they had a similar ethnic background, and many others thought they were related due to the resemblance between them.

DW jokes that I was lucky to be rejected my my first choice, otherwise I might have fallen in love with her friend. Of course I agree . But, some might say (like her brothers back then, who couldn't understand what I saw in DW) that I was "unlucky". But I will not entertain that latter thought, I choose to live, and live happily .

 

[old medic]

Highly recommend if you are going to ride in an ambulance, do so as part of the crew.

I'll defiantly 2nd that... same applies to a helicopter.

 

[mystang52]

Lucky: I was 8 years old or so, back seat passenger, Mom front passenger and her friend driving. One of them dropped something on the floor, and the driver reached down to get it, as we were approaching a soild stone wall in a T intersection. No seat belts back then. She made a sharp turn and avoided hitting anything. Another second or two I would have been a projectile hitting or even going through the windshield.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

A BP tank truck clipped my Sable wagon rear, pushed me like a bulldozer, and my car slid along the entire driver's side of the tank truck. This stopped all traffic on I-70W in downtown Columbus after the Indiana/OSU football game. Totaled my car, all I had was a scratch on my forehead from my AutoZone sun visor mirror clip.
-my true miracle in 1995 or so.

 

[RunningBum]

I got rear ended in my 72 Ford Pinto and lived to tell about it.

OK, it wasn't very hard, and I'm pretty certain it had been fixed in the recall. Still, it's a good one-liner.

 

[Venturer]

My lucky thread is still ongoing and climbing. I was granted 10 shares of company stock when promoted to store manager. At that time it was worth $6.00 a share. I then joined the company stock purchase plan that took out $5.00 every pay period. This was kept up for 25 years until I retired in 2019. I have never sold any of it to date and hopefully never will. I plan to leave it all to my daughter some day. As of yesterdays close the price is $3,488.88 each.

 

[Chuckanut]

I have been very lucky,visiting places just before something happened
Visited the York Minster-hit by lightning and burned the North transept
Visited Nairobi-US Embassy bombed
Visited Aden-USS Cole bombed
Visited Cairo- Tourist bus shot at
Rented many light aircraft-10 involved in crashes after I flew them

Please, tell us when and where you are going. We can avoid the place for a few months afterwards.

 

[CO-guy]

I’m surprised no one else posted one about 9/11 yet.
I worked downtown about 4 blocks east of WTC and commuted from NJ daily, either via the PATH train to WTC or the Ferry to the pier near it then walked through WTC plaza to my office. This was my daily commute for 12 years at the time.
On that day in 2001, I was hosting a business conference with the managers of my group from all around the country in Manchester, NH.
My wife was driving into work in NYC that morning. She called my cell phone while I was still in my hotel room to tell me the news about “a small plane” hitting one of the towers and to turn on the TV. While talking to her, she was on the GW Bridge she watched in horror as the 2nd plane struck the other tower.
We are both extremely thankful for me being out of town that day ( I didn’t travel often for business) as my usual commute and timing would have put me very close to the disaster of that day.

I'll spare folks my 9/11 story, but I can tell you that a PSA one year after the attack changed my life.

Though hard to explain, when I watched the video below, it was the first time since I was a child that I felt like Mr. Rogers was speaking directly to me through the TV. The next day I applied for a fellowship at the Department of Defense and the rest is history.

 

[Lorenzo]

9/11 changed my outlook on life. A year earlier I had uprooted and moved across the country for my then-wife's job opportunity of a lifetime, and shortly after that we got divorced. I felt lost and didn't know what was important to me. On that morning of 9/11 she called me from some country where she was doing a stint for her company and told me she had just seen the news of a plane flying into the WTC, and shortly thereafter we learned it was an attack. I found her familiar voice comforting. That day, while I stared at the TV news, I realized what was important to me. It wasn't money or having a fun time. It was the people in my life.

 

[Dtail]

I got rear ended in my 72 Ford Pinto and lived to tell about it.

OK, it wasn't very hard, and I'm pretty certain it had been fixed in the recall. Still, it's a good one-liner.

Hey the 64 Mustang had the same issue. Just clever marketing to cover it up.