O.T.-What is the most amazing thing you've ever seen in person?(Keep it clean!)

[RUhasarrived]

For me,it was 40 years ago today,May 31,1976.

Inbetween games of a doubleheader at Veteran's Stadium,I saw Karl Wallenda walk on a wire from the right field foul pole to the left field foul as 51,211-I was the last one-watched in eerie silence,save for organist Paul Richardson playing "You'll Never Walk Alone."

As he walked,I had two thoughts:If he falls,I'm not looking,and if he falls,the second game is off.

CNBC's Jim Cramer says that he was selling ice cream at that game.

On the Vet's closing day in 2003,the aforementioned Richardson was playing out on the concourse when I requested the song.Then,telling him why I wanted it played.He just smiled.

Paul is dead.Wallenda is dead.I carry on the memory of that day along with hopefully many other thousands.

 

[FanuSanu52]

Interesting question. I'll have to think about an answer for things I've seen in person, but your OP reminded me of what it'd be for video. World record ski jump off a 250-foot cliff in Wyoming - he seemed to be in good form, but suddenly flipped upside down and landed on his head. Don't even think he got a concussion - just was a bit dazed and had a bloody lip. Some deep, soft snow.

Guy died in an avalanche (within resort boundaries, though resort was not open yet) a few years after.

 

[oldman87]

It involves a stripper and a wine bottle, I won't get into details out of respect for OP's request to keep it clean.

 

[MoobyCow]

Second half defense against UL in 06 :)

Actually, I don't know that I have anything amazing, but I did have front and center seats for a David Copperfield show once, and 200 years ago, I would have tied that f'er up and burned him at the stake.

 

[anon_ivydyf0amkzay]

Flying as a passenger in a 9 C17 formation ...completely black ops (no lights, all NVGs) each of the three C17s in front opened the back of the plane and each dropped a tank...immediately followed by a whole bunch of 82d AA soldiers...that was very cool...

 

[ClassOf02]

I was recently at a zoo in Ohio looking into the primate habitat and this kid fell in.

 

[Blitz8RUCrazy]

The edge of the universe.
Yes it really does exist.

 

[srru86]

No not a happy memory, watching the Twin Towers burn as I took a ferry from Lower Manhattan back to Hoboken.

 

[rutger80]

Does seeing Cathy Lee Crosby and Joe Theisman playing blackjack count?

Niagara Falls
2000+ year old Roman wall in London
Francisco Cabrera's 2 out 2-run single to win the NLCS in 1992
Seeing the old Yankee Stadium for the first time
Seeing Rutgers 24 point comeback at Vandy and 25 point comeback at Maryland
The Anne Frank house in Amsterdam
Chichen Itza

 

[RUchip]

Walking through lower Manhattan on September 14th 2001 and seeing soldiers in tanks and standing on the street corners with AK-47's and seeing the police and fireman drive down the westside highway and people outside with signs and waving American flags all while still smelling the burning from groundzero.

 

[PoorTailor]

Great Barrier Reef day trip last year. Saw amazing fish and coral, 15 foot bull shark, 1000 sting ray migration and a humpback whale and her newborn calf all in the same day.

 

[RU85inFla]

It involves a stripper and a wine bottle, I won't get into details out of respect for OP's request to keep it clean.

I've got something similar. stripper, long neck Bud, twist off cap, Englishtown Raceway, my dad was with me.

 

[R1776U]

Walking through lower Manhattan on September 14th 2001 and seeing soldiers in tanks and standing on the street corners with AK-47's and seeing the police and fireman drive down the westside highway and people outside with signs and waving American flags all while still smelling the burning from groundzero.

Police and military use the m-16 not an ak-47

 

[Upstream]

I've got something similar. stripper, long neck Bud, twist off cap, Englishtown Raceway, my dad was with me.

Is that act supposed to make you want to do her, or make you want to keep your distance.

 

[oldman87]

It's supposed to make you go WTF!

 

[badger74]

Pompeii.
Mt St Helens blast zone.
Joplin Mo 1 week after F5 hit
Post Katrina NOLA

 

[CuredbywinningRU]

Jim Bunning's perfect game vs the Mets as a kid (wow I'm old). Muhammad Ali blowout of Zora Foley in 1967 sitting in the same row as George C Scott and Sammy Davis Jr. (not a great fight, but exciting for a young kid). Living through the NYC blackouts of 1965 and 1977. The massive parade down college avenue and the bell ringing after we went 26-0 in '76. Changing my itinerary so I missed Pan Flight 103 that was bombed over Lockerbie. My bachelor party (unforgettable).

 

[m1ipabrams]

Flying as a passenger in a 9 C17 formation ...completely black ops (no lights, all NVGs) each of the three C17s in front opened the back of the plane and each dropped and M1 tank...immediately followed by a whole bunch of 82d AA soldiers...that was very cool...

Must have been cool, but I doubt it was an M1, perhaps a Sheridan. The 82nd used to have a battalion of them until some time in the 1990s. My cousin was in the 82nd in the early 90s and drove one. They were death traps.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M551_Sheridan

I would say watching one of those drop from the sky on a parachute and then drive away was one of the coolest things I ever saw (I didn't have the great vantage point you did, I saw it from the ground)

 

[Finster Baby]

A homeless woman with newspaper underwear. Don't ask. The folding was beyond impressive.

 

[ManasquanMike]

Is that act supposed to make you want to do her, or make you want to keep your distance.

Was 19 years old. Tijuana, servicemen throughout the strip joint/brothel. Same story with the long necks and over zealous servicemen. My buddy and I couldn't believe our eyes. True story we did NOT see the donkey show unfortunately (or should I say fortunately?).

 

[beaced]

My new born children. They still amaze me all these years later.Their form has changed but their essence remains the same.

 

[JPhoboken]

Watching my daughter being born.

Swimming with and hand feeding sharks in the bahamas, and seeing a 40 ft Whale shark while diving in the Galapagos Islands.

The fog and mist lifting off Michu Picchu

 

[valkabit]

Post Katrina NOLA

I did travel to New Orleans post Katrina, drove down the highway and saw huge tracts of trees snapped off 20-25 feet above the ground, leaving all of the trunks & root systems still in the ground. Takes a crazy amount of force to do that.

 

[CranfordKnight]

Good- Sun rising over the clouds on Mt. Haleakala, looking at the silverswords, and then biking down the mountain.

Bad- Witnessing and driving through this disaster : http://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/11/n...lanes-collide-over-jersey.html?pagewanted=all

 

[Knightmoves]

Sitting in the 3rd base mezzanine at Yankee Stadium and watching Roger Maris hit his 61st home run on October 1, 1961 against the Red Sox. Have never seen my Dad ( may he RIP) get so excited at a sporting event.

A distance 2nd was working out in a hole in the wall gym in Atlantic Highlands and seeing Bruce Springsteen and his trainer working out no more than 10 feet away from me. Was not surprised that he didn't recognize me.

 

[anon_ivydyf0amkzay]

Must have been cool, but I doubt it was an M1, perhaps a Sheridan. The 82nd used to have a battalion of them until some time in the 1990s. My cousin was in the 82nd in the early 90s and drove one. They were death traps.....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M551_Sheridan

I would say watching one of those drop from the sky on a parachute and then drive away was one of the coolest things I ever saw (I didn't have the great vantage point you did, I saw it from the ground)

Fair enough...I know it was a tank...not sure why M1 came to mind...still a very very cool experience...

 

[RUTGERZ_R00LZ]

Interesting thread:

An ICBM launch up close.

Jackie Robinson dancing back and forth between 3rd and home.

A flock of flying fish.

Grand Canyon and Niagra Falls are awesome.

 

[RobertG]

Maybe not amazing but funny and not what you would expect; but a blimp landing at Lakehurst. Was out there testing equipment for the Army when I saw a blimp coming in. People then start coming out of the office building around the field (same field where the Hindenburg crashed) the blimp then makes a pass low to the ground and the people from the office buildings chase after the ropes dangling from the blimp and try to catch it. It's pretty funny watching 30 or so people running after a really big balloon though a field.

 

[yesrutgers01]

Drew Barrymore calling her car service to pick her up as I am laying in bed...

Pre Mrs Yes and she knows about it.

But to top that- watching a son step onto a football field as a pro for the first time

 

[RU848789]

Great Barrier Reef day trip last year. Saw amazing fish and coral, 15 foot bull shark, 1000 sting ray migration and a humpback whale and her newborn calf all in the same day.

What's so "great" about the barrier reef? And what's so "fine" about art? Just kidding - your post reminded me of a great Old 97's tune, called "Barrier Reef." Rhett Miller writes some awesome lyrics, including one of my favorite lines ever, from this song:

So I sidled up beside her, settled down and shouted, "Hi there"
My name's Stewart Ransom Miller, I'm a serial lady-killer"
She said, "I'm already dead," that's exactly what she said

 

[Upstream]

Grand Canyon and Niagra Falls are awesome.

I thought of the Grand Canyon too. It looks exactly the same as the pictures, but the first time I walked up to the rim, I was in awe at how majestic it was.

Niagara Falls I had seen many times as a kid, when I was too young to be amazed. But as an adult, I still find it fascinating.

 

[RU848789]

Mine are fairly pedestrian. Rutgers - Louisville, with my then 11-year old son and I storming the field afterwards, is my favorite sports memory.

Having a "punk rock picnic" wedding with the legendary Matt Pinfield spinning amazing tunes and being surrounded by family and friends was pretty damn special, too.

Watching the amazing blizzard of Jan-96 pile up ~30" of snow at our house (and then shoveling off the flat roof section and repeatedly jumping off the roof into the pile of snow with my then ~3 year old son, giggling uncontrollably).

Saddest thing I ever saw was the 2nd WTC tower collapsing from the roof of one of our buildings at work in Rahway. Only saw the beginning of the collapse, as the dust cloud billowed up quickly and you couldn't really see much, but we all knew what had just happened. Stunned silence.

 

[RedSpartan]

Drew Barrymore calling her car service to pick her up as I am laying in bed...

Pre Mrs Yes and she knows about it.

But to top that- watching a son step onto a football field as a pro for the first time

 

[Caliknight]

The top of Kilimanjaro
The inside of a 6-8 foot wave. Just ever gets old.

 

[JRZEER]

Randy Moss playing pick up basketball at a WVU Gym when in college. Phenomenal athlete.

 

[RU4Real]

About 10 years ago a line of very strong thunderstorms rolled through the county. Within the span of 15 minutes there were trees down and power outages all over town. Just as the storm was ending, we got dispatched to Union Hill Road for "tree vs. car" - as opposed to the usual "car vs. tree".

Upon arrival we found a Chevy Cavalier with the 3' diameter trunk of what had been a 100' oak tree lying across the windshield frame. The occupants were 2 young females, ages 19 and 20. The driver was pinned and the passenger was sitting on the curb, screaming. Nonstop. Just one, long, protracted scream.

The FD and the rest of my crew set to working on the driver while I attended to the screaming passenger. She was physically uninjured, save for a small chunk of her left ear, which was nowhere to be found.

Our "squad historian" showed up and began taking pictures, documenting the heavy extrication. After a few moments he called me over to the car. I left my patient with one of the medics and went to take a look.

There was a small limb of the tree, about 2" in diameter, poking through where the windshield used to be, into the passenger compartment and all the way through the dead center of the passenger seat back, into the back seat.

I went back to my girl and asked her, simply, "How did you get out of the car?"

She replied, "When I saw the branch coming at me I dove out the window."

To this day I'll never figure out the mechanics of how it went down, but the evidence was irrefutable. She had jumped out the window a fraction of a second before the tree limb embedded itself in the exact spot where she had been sitting.

Which was, incidentally, why she had been screaming.

 

[Arizona Knight]

I witnessed an actual authentic Indian ceremony in Oak Creek Canyon in Sedona Arizona. I was probably perched about 250 feet above where the ceremony was happening it was around midnight. Oh and I was on acid.

 

[mildone]

I once saw a hooker snort some blow through a straw using her... nevermind.

 

[Abro1975]

I saw a guy who never held a public office win the GOP nomination for President.

 

[saran]

Aside from the Grand Canyon, Secretariat @ Belmont, B-17s coming down the Hudson @ hilltop altitude etc, the most amazing thing I ever saw was a gooey glob of potato chip. I saw a clients baby (alone) that was was trying to cry but was silent and turning blue. My third whack to the tilted baby expelled the goo. The first two failed attempts had me nervous. When the goo came out and the bay cried I heard angels sing and saw unicorns dance in the room. What a relief.