This isn't really creepy, but it still gives me chills to think back on.
:::Buffalo, New York: sometime in the early 90's: I was 17 years old:::
My very first car was a beat to hell 1982 Nissan Sentra that I bought from a co-worker for $700. It looked like someone had opened-fire on the driver's side door, it had rust from front to back, and the engine looked like someone had thrown a lit match under the hood and walked away.
BUT!!! It ran!! The first winter I owned it I quickly realized that Bertha (the name I gave her) did NOT like the cold. The carburetor would freeze any time the temperature dipped under 30 degrees, and I'd have to drag a hair dryer out to the garage and warm it up before she'd start. The biggest problem was the door locks would freeze open and so once I got inside I would have to bungee-cord the drivers side door (across my lap) to the passenger door. I hope that makes sense! Otherwise the doors would be flying open at random.
Anywho, on this particular day I was driving to work on the 400 and I started to make a right onto a frontage road when I hit a patch of black ice. Bertha began making a fierce left turn while I pumped the brakes and took my hands off the wheel (all the things you're supposed to do). All of the sudden the bungee cord snaps and I am literally falling out of the drivers' side door. I remember feeling like I was on a roller coaster, my belly flopping around while the rest of my body felt weightless. Just as I see the road below me, I was flung back inside my car into an upright position with what felt like an arm pinning me to the seat as Bertha slowed to a halt in the middle of the road (facing the wrong way, but heck, I was alive and not in the ditch!)
I remember sitting there looking at cars whizzing by in front of me, and all of the sudden I had the urge to scream. At that moment something whispered in my ear, "ssshhhhhhhhhhh" and I immediately calmed down. AND, get this, when I started my car back up the doors closed and stayed closed. I never had to use a bungee cord again!
Something powerful saved my tush that day!
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