Something no one knows about you

[Julie (Cramer) Pulley]

I think we may have all done this exercise at one time or another but I
was reminded of it the other day. If you feel so inclined, please tell
us something you've done or happened to you that no one knows for the
most part. Hey what the heck...I'll go first. I once took an overdose
of pills. You heard right. Drugs. They had a wonderful scent about
them and were small and pink, and I'd taken them before and loved the
taste. There was an inscription on the bottle but at the time I could
not read it. These days I know it said St. Joseph. You see, I was two
at the time. Funny thing, I do recall seeing the bottle sitting on my
bed (or crib as the case may have been) beside me while my mother
stepped away. After that the events must have been so traumatic that
I've forgotten them although my brother tells me that he watched me
take them. Some of you know Gordon and could vouch for the fact that
he'd do that, totally ignoring the rule that it was a BAD thing to do.
My mother tells me later that they rushed me to the hospital whereupon
they tried twice to make me vomit. I declined. So my stomach was
pumped and I survived.

Next?

[Jerry Hall]

If we qualify this as "Something few know about me and would not be
willing to admit they knew" I used to manage the Marionaire for a
couple of summers when I was in college. Now I know that some of you
know this because I saw you there but I'm sworn to secrecy as to when
and with whom.

Interesting facts:

1. Despite having shown TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE several times, I've
never seen or heard any of the thing. I turned the speakers off and
relied upon the friendly honks of the patrons to let me know if I had
messed up the splicing. Squeamish or a fine critical sense? You
decide.

2. This was not the notorious Blackford drive-in but we did show a
series of almost pornographic cheerleader movies. No, I didn't watch
them either. Not so much a matter of conscience as I was too bloody
busy with a full house and people trying to sneak in etc.
Some wiseacre from a previous venue also spliced in a really explicit
scene into one of the films, apparently Scandinavian. However, the
whole thing was at least as comic as erotic because in their
excitement they spliced it in upside down. Just imagine. Yes, I took
it out.

3. I once had the AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON all over the floor
with a full house. Only funny in retrospect.

4. Did you know that people carrying guns, quite legally and openly,
is frightening when it is dark and you have hundreds of dollars on
hand.

5. I don't think some of my patrons were watching the movies.

[Packard, Steven R.]

Now THIS is interesting, and not just because it's an example of someone
using "wiseacre" in a normal sentence. I didn't know that was done.

This is an excellent example of a response to the request for a little-known
fact about us, or for info of what we've been up to since high school.

I always thought it would be interesting to work in a movie theatre, except
it might ruin movies for me that I haven't seen yet, but perhaps
inadvertantly see the middle or ending of them during the course of my job
at the theatre.

Good anecdotes.

[Julie...@aol.com]

Jerry, this was great.  In fact it reminded me that not all the movies there were about cheerleaders.  I distinctly recall one about a Pinocchio guy or something to that effect.  I should probably stop right there.

[Jerry Hall]

[Jerry Hall]

Yeah, I've never felt comfortable writing expletives. Kind of like
Jay's "hen".

[Steve Packard]

I finally thought of something to respond to Julie's request for
sharing something about ourselves that no one else knows about.

Gary might not even know about this, although perhaps most of you could
have predicted it: I was once locked in restraints in a County
inpatient mental health ward.

In 1971 there was a big earthquake in Sylmar in which Olive View
Medical Center was destroyed. Patients were "temporarily" moved to Van
Nuys and Olive View was there while the new hospital was being built.

There were problems and many delays. So when I started working in
Sylmar for Olive View in 1985, the construction was nearing completion.
I worked for Administration, which involved very odd jobs, one of
which was to participate in a drill that simulated moving all of our
Inpatients from Van Nuys to Sylmar when we re-opened. It was our job
to discover flaws in the movement plan.

Someone thought I'd be the perfect candidate to be the token psych ward
patient, so at around 8:30 I was "admitted" to the ward. It was a big
room with maybe 2 dozen beds lining the walls.

To be true to the spirit of the drill, they treated me as any other
patient, and the other patients weren't told that I was an employee.

I was brought in at around 8:30, had my shoes and belt taken from me,
etc. I was admitted to a bed and put in restraints, and they went over
some paperwork with me that they do when admitting someone. That must
have been for the benefit of the other patients, because that had
nothing to do with a movement drill -- except they needed MY paperwork
to be transported with me when I was moved.

The plan was for me to be wheeled out at around 9:00.

So I'm getting a bit nervous when I see that it's around 10:00, I'm
still strapped down, the workers are doing their job and taking care of
their own business, while some of the patients are roaming around (only
a couple of us were in restraints, the rest could walk around and visit
amongst themselves within that large room area), checking out the new
guy.

A couple of them struck up a conversation. I tried not to look
nervous, and I tried to be polite enough to not get anyone upset, yet
not be interesting enough to encourage them to stick around and chat
more. (Luckily, the latter has never been a problem for me.)

Anyway, as I recall it was well after 11:00 when they came to move me
to a stretcher. They explained that they were taking me to a new
hospital, etc. They strapped me on the stretcher and took me to the
ambulance.

I had the advantage that I KNEW I was an employee and that this was a
drill, and that even if it wasn't a drill, I'd be winding up at a new
hospital 20 or so miles away. Even so (and maybe it was partially a
result of unexpectedly being left in the psych ward for over 3 hours)
it was rather unnerving to be strapped down, and only have a very
limited field of view (primarily straight up, with fluorescent lights
whipping by).

The ambulance ride was uneventful, and I enjoyed being able to have the
experience without pain involved. But I had the same anxious feeling
upon our arrival, from the ambulance back to the new psych ward.

I thought that was pertinent info to give the people running the drill,
saying that if I, playing a role, was anxious, then they need to be
prepared for their patients to be much more so. As I recall, I was
figuratively patted on the head and moved aside.

At any rate, that was an odd experience that I've had the good fortune
to avoid repeating.

Steve