"Let's Read" - Lengthy Scary Stories Podcast - Sharing My Own Scary Stories - Part 5

This will be my last scary life event posts. It is a compilation of situations that happened at different times. 

When I was ages 8-11 we lived in a big mansion downtown. We had to take the public bus to school and sometimes would walk the mile or two home to keep the bus fair to spend at the candy store. More than once, I would have cat calls, cars driving around the block a few times making me scared, or whistles from workers as we passed. 

When I was waiting at the bus stop at the corner of our street, a man drove around the block and then came back and being in the driver side, he had to look down to see me and get eye contact. I could clearly see he was trying to get my attention and I thought maybe he needed directions. Once he had eye contact, he looked down at his crotch and you can guess what happened next. I was terrified to take the bus myself after that for awhile, so would only go when my sister was with me. 

A few years later, we went to another school downtown as they were busing us to an old Jr. High because they were building a new school. Because of that, we had a school bus that would drop us off about 2 blocks from our home. My older sister was well developed and the bus driver would always be flirty to us, and I thought he was nice. But, it started to get creepy and since we were the last drop off on the bus, we were alone with him. He let my younger siblings and I off, but then quickly closed the doors and kept my older sister on the bus and made crude jokes and she was terrified. After that, I ended up letting her off first and he tried the same with me a few times, but we would cluster in a group to get off so he couldn't do that anymore. 

Around this same time, another situation happened that precipitated our family moving from down town to the suburbs. We had some friends that had all girls living two homes away. One of the daughters was really beautiful and was a few years older than my sisters and I. This night, she walked into our home without ringing the bell. We thought it was odd, but before we could even talk with her, I look up and see two men looking at me through the foyer window. This old mansion had a front door that opened into a little coat area with hooks to hang coats and then two swinging doors that would keep the cold air out of he house. These two men were staring at us through the swinging doors, they were IN OUR HOUSE. I was so scared I didn't know what to say. Thank heavens, my father and older brothers were in the main living room and when the men saw my sisters and I staring at them they stopped opening the swinging doors. They were scary looking and aggressive in their entry. 

My dad asked them men if he could help them, they said they didn't realize it was a home, but thought it was an apartment house. My father asked them to leave. We then found out that our friend had left her house and these two men were parked in front of her home. She was going to walk the block down to the grocery store but they started asking her questions and she got uncomfortable and said she forgot something and went back into her house. She waited for a few minutes and looked out and didn't see the men, so she went out and started walking down to the store when she realized they had just backed up and hid behind the bushes on the far side of her house. They started walking behind her closing the gap so she acted just like she was going to our house and she was so worried they would take her while waiting for us to answer the door, she just came into the house hoping the men would stop. 

Obviously, these men were quite aggressive in the hunt for her as they hid and then walked into our home to get to her. It was only a short time later that there was a woman raped around the corner from our home. My parents realized that living downtown with newly teen girls was probably not the best situation. A month or two later, we moved to an upper class neighborhood in the suburbs.It was a week before my 12th birthday. 

If you read my post yesterday, you can see that living in that suburb area was not as safe as they had hoped, but for sure was safer than us living downtown. 

The last story I want to share is one when I lived as and exchange student in New Zealand. I lived there starting the week of my 16th birthday for a year. Here is a post about another scary encounter while living in N.Z. where I felt God watched over me and kept me safe. While there, one of the Rotarian's owned a hardware store downtown. They offered me a job working in the store dusting the items on the shelves and in the front window so I could have spending money. I worked at the store one day a week after school. 

There was an older boy working there with a football player body type. He had red hair and freckles. He would flirt with me as he swept the floors and moved heavy items. His flirting was fairly flattering at first, and he asked me out. I told him I would talk to my host family and see if we could pick up some food and hang out at their home. They had three children around my age and someone was always home. I shared I would let him know the next week and we could do it after work that night if all was good with my host family.

I went to work that next week and the boys flirtations turned very suggestive and dirty after I told him we could go to my host family's home after work. He did things like putting the broom between his legs and undulating on it and making comments about us "being together."  I had the worst stomach pain come on all the sudden and I went and spoke to the owners wife who usually gave me a ride home. I told her I wasn't feeling well and wondered if I could leave early? She told me I could try to get a ride, or if I waited about 20 minutes, I could go with her. I told the boy we would have to postpone our date until another time as I wasn't feeling well. 

I got a ride home and NO ONE WAS HOME! For a few hours, not one person in the family of five was home. That had never happened before. I didn't usually watch TV as I usually did homework, wrote in my journal, played the guitar, or hung out with the family. Since I wasn't feeling well, I laid on the couch and watched TV. I freaked out when on one of the very few channels they had in New Zealand at the time (early 1980's) was playing a story on rape. They shared that most rape victims know their attacker and many times it is in their own home. I started shaking as I realized at that moment that if that boy came to my house that night, I would have been attacked. It wasn't something I felt, it was something I KNEW. I have ever only "been" with my husband as I feel that intimacy is something special that should be saved for marriage, so I was very naive compared to the teens in NZ as many of the girls my age were sexually active there. From that point on, I realized that I had to trust my gut and be careful about dating as I hadn't dated before going to NZ. From that point on, I took precautions to make good sure I was only in groups for dating which kept me safe through the years after while I dated. I never worked at the store again and had no contact with the boy as he attended the boys school rather than the public school and I was so grateful that I didn't have to face him at school.

I had a friend that was raped in NZ when she went to university in her dorm by a guy that seemed "nice" offering to walk her home to keep her "safe." When he saw that her roommate was not there, he came back and knocked on the door, and when she opened it, he forced her in her room and raped her. She never shared it with anyone there, but felt she could share with me because I was home in the states by then. I had another friend who was at a party and was raped in one of the bedrooms. Sadly, both women's lives were thrown off trajectory from these events. Neither reported the attacks. 

I realized from these situations, and in listening to the "Let's Read" podcasts over the past few weeks, that I have really been watched over by my guardian angels! Any one of the situations I have posted about in the past five days could have changed who I am as a person or even ended my life! I did have two situations while having a sleep over with my friends older brothers that made me a bit strict on sleep overs with my girls and their friends. One of my friends also had a situation with a father of one of her friends at a sleep over, so I feel like I was on track in not allowing my girls to do sleep overs if there were older brothers, and would usually have their friends sleep at our home. 

There are also situations when you invite people to stay in your home, or when the attacker is an extended family member, when you are visiting them, which is a hard thing to prevent, so I just have to know that God is in charge and realize that I have been very blessed in my life to be protected from some potentially horrible life changing events! I wish I could say that everyone else in my family was protected from any harm, but sadly, we live in a world where some people CHOOSE to do evil, even to those who are supposed to love them! Sometimes we are given situations as a trial. I just wish that our society made it easier to report and prosecute these offenders. Until the victim is heard and protected, things won't change. 

Please stay safe and have a blessed day!