Polar Bear Club

[LadyJeanne]

A CSI NY episode started tonight with a scene where a bunch of people run into some icy cold water on New Year's Day - the annual Polar Bear Club festivities.

I did that one year - NY Day road trip from Chicago to Milwaukee, and a noon dip into Lake Michigan. Cold doesn't begin to describe the shock. We had to rush one of my friends to the hospital on the hill above the beach because she'd run into the water with her shoes on and didn't have a spare pair so her feet went numb. The emergency room was prepared for all the Polar Bear casualties and had basins of water ready and waiting to thaw out frozen appendages.

I wouldn't do it again, but it sure was a hell of a lot of fun.

What nutty things have you done?

 

[BlackShanglan]

Just a note - it is technically possible to die this way if one is foolish enough to go for the dive. When I was in England some years ago a man died diving into a pool in Scotland - the water was much colder than he guessed on a warm day, and his body went into a sort of shock. Being in several feet of water and essentially unconscious did the rest.

(One wet horse-blanket!)

Shanglan

P.S. - I can't think of anything really nutty that I've done. I'm deeply embarassed by this. I'm sure that there must be something that I've forgotten. Otherwise life is too dully pedestrian to bear. I have handled strange pit bulls into my yard, but that was just to get them safe so that animal control could come for them. Still, there's nothing quite like the look one gets from a nervous pit bull.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Yeah, we just weren't really thinking about things like death. Or proper footwear. We were 19...'nuff said.

I think I might still rather dive than try to handle a pit bull. THAT takes skill.

 

[Belegon]

I climbed the outside of the dorms at my college to crawl in a third story window. It was made of uneven brick cast rough to look like raw stone and was actually quite easy. As long as I did not think of what would happen if I slipped. Obviously I was too young and brash to think about such things (anyone who wants to insert "stupid" here, I will not argue it with you...)

I doubt I could do it now. Not the physical part, I know I could do that. I just don't think I could tell myself the risk was worth the look on the guys faces when I crawled in the window. At the time, it felt worth it.

 

[Weird Harold]

P.S. - I can't think of anything really nutty that I've done. I'm deeply embarassed by this. I'm sure that there must be something that I've forgotten.

I have just the opposite problem -- choosing just one nutty thing from all of he things that I'm amazed I survived unscathed as a child.

Since I just told my grandaughters about this one a day or so ago I guessit will have to do:

I once made a six-foot tall kite out of aluminum rods and aluminum foil and flew it on the wire from a couple of autombile generator coils -- about 18,000 feet of 16 Ga copper wire.

Why I wasn't struck by lightening has to be pure luck, because I manage to get almost all of the 18,000 feet of wire fed out before it finally broke and sailed off into the sunset.

The next day, there was a small mention in the paper about the Air Defense Squadron scrambling for an unidentified radar return (from the base about 200 miles south of my home town,) but I don't really know if they shot down my kite or not.

 

[LadyJeanne]

I just don't think I could tell myself the risk was worth the look on the guys faces when I crawled in the window. At the time, it felt worth it.

What if it were the window of a room full of scantily clad AH ladies? Would you climb up?

 

[Belegon]

What if it were the window of a room full of scantily clad AH ladies? Would you climb up?

well, yes. but first I would try the doors...

 

[LadyJeanne]

The next day, there was a small mention in the paper about the Air Defense Squadron scrambling for an unidentified radar return (from the base about 200 miles south of my home town,) but I don't really know if they shot down my kite or not.

Oh, but, can you just imagine the looks on their faces if they had?



Love it!!

 

[Weird Harold]

Oh, but, can you just imagine the looks on their faces if they had?

I sweated for a couple of days expecting someone coming to investigate the waste of government resources and/or a bill for wasting their time.

That's still the best Kite I ever made -- I could never get more than about six rolls of kite string up with anything else.

 

[cantdog]

As a fireman, about the numbest thing I did was when the train plowed into the side of the gasoline tanker truck. The gas was gooshing out of a rip in the side of the tank, and the wheels of the engine were still turning on the steel rails when we came up.

Interestingly, we had to come up on foot, because to spare the risk to the equipment, the policy was to park it back at least 300 yards! The men and women, of course, went right up to the fucker.

Nobody knew how to shut off the engine, and the engineer dude had run off, 500 yards, to a bar, where he was throwing back a shot and asking the barkeep to call the fire department. We had to send a guy to find him and ask him how.

The dumb thing I did (I was on the ambulance) was run back to the rig and get a few oilskin-covered pillows (actually, I guess it was a sort of macintosh cloth, plasticized for easy cleanup). The two of us went in between and plugged the leak by stuffing pillows into the gash in the truck. I had gasoline all up my sleeves. That shit stings; it burns the skin. Both of us had to return to the station, wash off, and put on fresh gear. This happened directly under an overpass, a bridge. People, crowds of them, were stupidly standing on the sidewalk up there, leaning over to gawk. Of course, a certain number were smoking!!

But it slowed the leak to nearly nothing.

 

[Belegon]

pretty brave if you ask me Cant...


now go ahead. say you were just doing the job you were paid to do. I've heard it before.

it doesn't matter if it was your job or not. you acted to protect others. accept the credit you deserve...

 

[cantdog]

I should have got a damned medal, I suppose. I don't think they give them out, though, unless the News catches you exiting a structure fire with a child in your arms. It made a difference but it was damned ill considered.

 

[oggbashan]

I swam in Trafalgar Square's fountains on several New Year's Eves. That was long ago, before they shut the fountains down for New Year. It is actually quite difficult to swim because the fountains are so shallow.

My stupidest (out of a long, long list) act was at the end of a beach party in Devon. My partner that night was a substantially built nurse from the local hospital. (Does quick conversion with calculator) She weighed over 165 pounds. I had drunk a significant amount during the night. So had she.

At 6 am she was coherent enough to announce that she was due to be on duty at 7 am. The fire on the beach had been built too close to the easy way up the cliff and the partygoers had added more fuel so it was impossible to pass. The next way up was about 300 yards away. 'No problem,' said I. 'We'll go up the cliff.'

She was too drunk to stand. I put her across my shoulders in a fireman's lift and carried her up eighty foot of cliff. I called a taxi from the telephone box in the car park, poured her into it and sent her off to work. (No. She wasn't on duty at 7am. One of her friends saw her arrive back at the nurse's home, reported her sick, and took her place on that shift. Friends can be great.)

I returned down the cliff to the beach. I was presented with a can of beer by one of the off-duty firemen present at the party. He said:

'I can't believe you did that. We rescue more people from that cliff than any other local cliff. It is slippery shale, unstable and has an overhang at the top. Yet you carried a hefty wench up it as if it was easy.'

I've been back to that cliff. Sober I wouldn't attempt it - let alone carrying someone. Over the past xx years several people have been seriously injured trying to climb that cliff.

The nurse? When she recovered from her hangover she didn't remember me, or the party.

Og

 

[NoJo]

What nutty things have you done?

I was never much of a risk-taker. I've done crazy things that weren't dangerous. The two crazy things I've done that were life-threatening were both due to my stupidity and ignorance. One was overdosing on Quaaludes and beer, the other was agreeing to go out hunting with a Vietnam vet with a 44 magnum.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Cant gets a Medal of Bravery, Og gets a Medal of Strength and Dexterity, and Joe, a Metal Plate in his head.

Nice.



Anyone else?

 

[Dar~]

The stupidest thing I have ever done was to unknowingly date a rapist. looking back I realize it was stupid, but he never tried to rape me. He had plenty of opportunity though. Three years after we split up, he got arrested and charged with 17 rapes leading back to a few years before I met him. Big surprise to me. He is still in prison.

 

[rgraham666]

The silliest thing I ever did was jump from a tree on to a moving car. A country road at night, top of a hill, no streetlights, so the car was only moving about ten miles an hour.

I knew I was in trouble when I noticed the cherry next to me on the roof of the vehicle. If I could reproduce the jump I made then at the Olympics, I would still hold the world's record.

Luckily, the people I was with distracted the cops by running noisily into the woods. I stayed very, very still until morning

 

[tolyk]

Just a note - it is technically possible to die this way if one is foolish enough to go for the dive. When I was in England some years ago a man died diving into a pool in Scotland - the water was much colder than he guessed on a warm day, and his body went into a sort of shock. Being in several feet of water and essentially unconscious did the rest.

This can happen without the polar bear club

If it is really hot outside and you go into a very air conditioned house and stand in front of your air conditioner to cool off.. well, your heart goes into shock from the extreme change. My ex knew a 22 year old guy in great shape that died of a heart attack due to that.

 

[LadyJeanne]

The stupidest thing I have ever done was to unknowingly date a rapist. looking back I realize it was stupid, but he never tried to rape me. He had plenty of opportunity though. Three years after we split up, he got arrested and charged with 17 rapes leading back to a few years before I met him. Big surprise to me. He is still in prison.

Wow. Your lucky star was definitely watching over you!

You must have been horrified when you found out!

 

[LadyJeanne]

The silliest thing I ever did was jump from a tree on to a moving car. A country road at night, top of a hill, no streetlights, so the car was only moving about ten miles an hour.

I knew I was in trouble when I noticed the cherry next to me on the roof of the vehicle. If I could reproduce the jump I made then at the Olympics, I would still hold the world's record.

Luckily, the people I was with distracted the cops by running noisily into the woods. I stayed very, very still until morning

Uh, was any alcohol involved in this little adventure???

 

[sophia jane]

The stupidest thing I have ever done doesn't come close to some of yours , but for me it was pretty stupid.
A few days after I got my driver's license, I drove by myself in an older car from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma. Since then, driving on the interstate terrfies me. I am still shocked I survived that trip.

SJ

 

[rgraham666]

Uh, was any alcohol involved in this little adventure???

Of course. Sixteen years old, bored as only a teenager can be and showing off to let every one know how 'cool' I was.

I think we've all been there at some point in our lives.

 

[LadyJeanne]

The stupidest thing I have ever done doesn't come close to some of yours , but for me it was pretty stupid.
A few days after I got my driver's license, I drove by myself in an older car from Pennsylvania to Oklahoma. Since then, driving on the interstate terrfies me. I am still shocked I survived that trip.

SJ

We're glad you did - we'd have been deprived of your porn and poetry, otherwise!

I like interstates...long stretches of miles where it's just you, the open road, and one skyscape after another. Well, and a bunch of truckers, depending on your route.

Driving in Boston and New York, on the other hand, terrifies me. Chicago and LA, I can handle, but NYC and Boston fall into a whole other death-defying category.

 

[LadyJeanne]

Of course. Sixteen years old, bored as only a teenager can be and showing off to let every one know how 'cool' I was.

I think we've all been there at some point in our lives.

Not me, nope...well, maybe once...or twice...oh, never mind.

 

[sophia jane]

We're glad you did - we'd have been deprived of your porn and poetry, otherwise!

I like interstates...long stretches of miles where it's just you, the open road, and one skyscape after another. Well, and a bunch of truckers, depending on your route.

Driving in Boston and New York, on the other hand, terrifies me. Chicago and LA, I can handle, but NYC and Boston fall into a whole other death-defying category.

Yeah I can handle the long stretches of nothing; but I can not drive in a city or in heavy traffic. And it's been over ten years.

SJ