16. Highway rest area. Never a good idea.

I had a bathroom emergency while on the highway, so I stopped at a rest area. There was one car in the parking area, but I didn’t see anybody when I went into the bathroom. So, I’m taking care of my business, and I hear this whisper say “Let me suck you off”.

I was only 17, and apparently naive, so I just assumed some couple had been hiding in one of the other stalls when I came in. As I’m hurrying to finish my business, I hear it again, and when I looked over, some bearded dude was sticking his head under the bathroom stall and watching me. He wanted to blow me. I freaked out, left as quickly as I could (he tried to grab my junk when I walked by him), and called the cops in the next town I came to.

17. “You might have saved me”

I told this once before, but it fits this thread well.

I was working at a manufacturing company that was sold. The new owners came in and laid off about 30% of the workers. I was not let go, but a guy in my department (we will call him Dave) was. Dave was shocked to be fired because he was certain he was too valuable for them to lose. He was very angry when they let him go.

About a week later he calls me while at work to thank me (this is pre-cellphone so he called me on the company line at the extension for my department). I had recently taught him how to run a new machine and him knowing that was helping him get some decent job prospects. He said he wanted to take me out to lunch as a way of saying thanks.

A few days later we went. He picked me up at work during my lunch break and we drove down the street to this deli. For the first half of the lunch he was pissed off and venting about being fired. I understood his anger and just let him vent. I tried to say the right things and encourage him by telling him he would likely end up with a better job soon.