Premonitions

On at least three separate occasions in my life I have experienced something akin to a premonition. Now I am not claiming to have ESP or anything like that. However two of the three "premonitions" mentioned above did actually prove to have some validity to them. Instinctually I believe the third one was also accurate but since I cannot prove it I count it as a miss.

Premonition First: one afternoon during our junior year of high school my friend J. and I decided to take a drive. Like most sixteen year olds we wanted to test the boundaries of our newfound freedom.

Not to far from our high school was Santa Anita canyon. The road to the canyon was several miles of twists and turns, which ended at a parking lot with a spectacular view of the San Gabriel Valley. The canyon was popular with teenagers for three basic reasons, the thrill of the drive, partying and of course it was a perfect place to bring your girlfriend on a Friday night or any other night for that matter.

On this particular day I was driving and J. was just enjoying the scenery. About halfway up the mountain my entire being was suddenly in the clutches of the worst fear I had ever experienced. For no logical reason I knew I had to pull the car over as close to the edge of the road as possible and stop. Something like this had never happened to me before but I did not question the feeling. I pulled over till my right tires were almost kissing the clouds and stopped the car. My hands were shaking and J. was looking at me like I had lost my mind but my throat was so dry that I could not even explain what I was doing I just sat there.

My fear grew steadily until off in the distance we both heard the screeching of car tires. Not two hundred yards away from where we were stopped a speeding car came around the corner in our lane. If we had continued forward my car would have probably been pushed over a cliff and fell a thousand feet to the rocks below. The other car sped past us, missed the next turn and went over the edge.

I quickly turned my car around and headed back down the mountain for help. We found a pay phone and J. called the police. As it turns out that there were four guys in the car who had all been smoking pot and drinking. Three of the four survived the accident the one who didn't was not wearing is seatbelt and was thrown from the car smashing his skull on a boulder.

Premonition Second: another friend and another canyon. I was not driving my friend S. was. We had gone out to dinner and since his car was new he wanted to see how it handled on some mountain roads. So we drove up into Azusa canyon, which was not far from where we lived. It was a beautiful night, the windows were down the stereo was blasting and all was right with the world. Suddenly for no reason at all there was a cold shiver running up and down my spine. My mind was filled once again with stark terror. I managed to yell at S. to stop the car. He did and looked at me like I was nuts. In a shaky voice I explained to him that I knew if we drove much further up the mountain something horrible would happen.

At first he laughed at me because he thought I was pulling his leg. Than he saw the look in my eyes and realized I was serious. I told him I know it sounds crazy and you don't have to believe me but just turn around for me. It took a few minutes but S. finally listened to me and headed back down the mountain.

Nothing happened and S. would kid me about it every once in a while but somewhere deep inside there is a part of me that still believes if we had continued up that mountain something would have gone wrong.

Premonition Third: in 1982 my girlfriend at the time and I were moving into a new apartment. I had taken the day off from work to move our stuff. Our new place was about a block from Foothill Blvd., which is a very busy street especially during rush hour.

Two of my friends had come over to help move the heavy stuff and after a long day we were sitting around the table shooting the breeze. Again for no explainable reason I knew something was wrong. Without a word I jumped up from the table and ran for the door. A chorus of what's wrongs followed me and as I hit the landing I shouted over my shoulder that L.(my girlfriend) was going to be in an accident. As I ran down the stairs I heard my somewhat confused friends following me and in the distance the unmistakable sound of a metal on metal collision.

When I reached the corner I found my girlfriends car with the passenger side door caved in. She had been attempting a left hand turn and never saw the car that hit her. Fortunately both her and the other driver were banged up but otherwise they were fine.

So there you have it my three experiences with premonitions. I must have only been allotted a trio of premonitions because I have not had one for over twenty years.