ADN

Reading a topic in the entertainment section, I thought about this...I don't mean to sound like a macho ass, but I've never really been scared before...Scared, btw, means to suddenly become full of fear and terror...I do have fears, but they don't make me scared...I don't know where I get it from, but when everyone else panics, I'm able to galvanize and be calm...

I don't know what that's a product of...Ever since I was a kid, I've watched horror movies...I've always watched TV and been able to reason really quickly...I walked at 8 months flat, and I started reading when I was about 2, to give you an idea of what kind of kid I was...Two of the times that I remember being scared in my entire life happened when I was 2 years old or less...

The first time was when my parents took me to my first carnival...My mom says that I was maybe 2 when this happened, she said probably closer to 1.5...Anyway, I remember walking out of the parking lot, into the carnival between the porta potty...

When we came through, I was excited to be there...But all of a sudden, through my peripherals, I saw the Himalaya ...It was blasting some rock and roll shit, I heard people screaming, I saw the ride spinning, and I wasn't going...My parents tried to coax me, but I wasn't having it...It wasn't until I blurted out, "I gotta shit!" that they stopped trying to make me go and we went home...

The second time was when I went to my first funeral...My uncle Alexander died in 78...So again, I was about 1 or 2...I remember going into the church, and having not ever really been to a church before, I didn't think I liked it...I remember walking through the doors and seeing my uncle's body in the casket...I could see his face from afar, and immediately I freaked out...I remember calling him a Dracula...My Mom took me out of the church and after that, I was OK...

The only other time was ever scared was when I was 7, and watched the first Nightmare on Elm Street movie...I had watched a ton of horror before man, lots of it that I found compelling...Zombie movies, Dracula, you name it...But Freddy was just on another level...I even remember the part...When the girl goes into the alley, and there are all these noises and Freddy shows up with those long ass arms...Man I was instantly mortified..! Of course, I watch it now and its hard to believe that it scared me, but it did...

Haven't really been scared after that...Now, I've had some ''alert'' moments...My first Ouija moment, for example...Like hey, this shit's not for me, I'm out...But not really scared...

What about you..?

Memories of being scared are mostly about watching horror movies as a kid (I will never forget Poltergeist :D )

About six years ago, I was with half a dozen friends of mine playing basketball at a local outdoor double court (two courts side by side). We were playing half-court, minding our own business. Meanwhile, in and around the adjacent court were about a hundred Asian-looking gang-banger types -- short hair, baggy clothes, radiating bad-ass attitude. It was nighttime. In mid game I was standing with my back to the court with all the gang-bangers, and I saw a guy hurry past me on my right. I glanced aside at him, and I noticed he wasn't chasing a ball and was jogging backwards. Puzzled, I wondered what he was moving away from, and I turned around. In concentric circles a dozen loose clusters of gang-bangers were fleeing, and in the center, two of them were toe to toe, slinging punches. For some reason my gaze next went right to one gang-banger who was not hurrying away but was looping back around toward the fight, getting closer to me as he did so. I saw that he had a Glock-type semi-auto pistol down by his hip and was pulling the slide back as he ran. I thought: Uh-oh, time to go. Along with my friends, I ran to the opposite end of the court we had been playing on and took cover behind some thick-trunked trees. At least two firecracker-like shots rang out. By the time I had ran behind a tree and then poked my head out to see how things were unfolding, no one was in sight except for a guy with a red T-shirt lying on his back on the far end of the opposite court, not moving. (According to the local paper, he died in the hospital late that night.) Seeing no one around, I stepped out from behind the tree and walked to the near end of the court, where I had left my cellphone, wallet, etc. (Sounds terribly naive that I left my valuables out in the open, I know). After I retrieved my stuff, I returned to my friends. The oldest among us -- who was in his late 30s and by all accounts had grown up on the rough side of town -- was being almost vociferous in his uttering of shocked-sounding four-letter words. (His later descriptions of the pistol shots made it seem as if they had sound like cannon fire.) I recommended that we make our way under cover of the trees surrounding the adjoining soccer field (the floodlights were off) in the opposite direction from where the gang-bangers had fled. The others agreed, and we made our way in a wide circle around the soccer field to where the others had parked their cars. (I didn't have a car at the time.) It turned out that the majority of these gang-bangers weren't from our town; they were from the adjoining city to the north which is known for being rife with gangs of various sorts.

I wasn't scared. That's mostly because I know that (contrary to the falsehood perpetuated by movies and TV shows) it's nearly impossible to hit someone with a pistol beyond 25 yards or so, especially if they're moving. In hindsight, I couldn't help but be puzzled that my older and much more experienced friend was dismayed enough during and immediately after the incident that he couldn't keep the four-letter words from tumbling out of his mouth.

It would be easy for me to claim that I've never been terrified in my life. But that's simply because I'm 6'4" and 250 pounds, I've never been mugged or been in a fight since middle school, and I've purposely avoided watching horror movies because I'm not a fan of gore and of being scared for no good reason. (I'm also no fan of pulling pranks to try to scare others.)

I'm afraid of people that don't start Ricky Williams in Fantasy football....booooooooooh!!!...and snakes.

Are you trolling in my no troll zone sir..? :curse: