28 Comments
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Sarah Edmonds Crang's avatar

Horrendous. I just have one question: what were the last couple of paragraphs?

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Zoraida Diaz's avatar

All that for a Pentax!? Pretty impressive!😵‍💫

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Robert  Basler's avatar

IT WAS an SLR...

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Dan Huneke's avatar

I remember that event.

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Vicki Lange's avatar

Glad you lived to write another day.

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Linda Jaques's avatar

Doug and I lived across the street from the art school in 1969. The neighborhood was definitely sketchy, but we were friends with a couple of black panthers who lived next door. At that time they were actively trying to clean up the area. It was an uphill battle.

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Robert  Basler's avatar

I must have left my luxury flat at 17th and Alabama by the time you moved in, Linda. Of course, this was a couple of years before you and Doug moved way uptown and became my next-door neighbors on College.

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Linda Jaques's avatar

That was a great old duplex. That was when we had our St. Bernard, Toby

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Lynda Gildea's avatar

Bob, wow great story! If that were to happen today, I am sure you would be rethinking your decision to fight. Loved your photo 😊

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Anne-Marie Epp's avatar

There you have it, folks: the early makings of a great journalist! Bravo, Bob!

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Robert  Basler's avatar

Thanks, Sis!

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trixiebettsDornoch's avatar

Words fail me.

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Kim Straus's avatar

Wow, you were lucky. Could have been a very different outcome. Maybe one of your attackers is still around and just read this story…

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John C Abell's avatar

Also, for the record, I wasn’t the one who shouted “Don’t cut him.” Sorry again.

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Robert  Basler's avatar

You may recall, the full quote was, Don't cut him, shoot him!"

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Leah Eichler's avatar

Ha!

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John C Abell's avatar

Shit — that was you?! Sorry …

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Leah Eichler's avatar

Crazy story

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Robert  Basler's avatar

But crazy in a good way?

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Leah Eichler's avatar

I mean it’s crazy in it could have been much worse and crazy that I never heard it before.

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Dave Cook's avatar

Retired Marine, but close enough. Nobody likes "ex".

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Robert  Basler's avatar

except if it's a wife, Dave. Ex-wife is okay, but retired wife, not so much...

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Rita Jane Gabbett's avatar

I'm sure I speak for many when I say, thank God you survived. My life would not have been the same. And, no, I ain't sayin if it would have been better or worse, but I think you know the answer. And only you could make us smile through what could have been a gruesome account. Thanks for living to tell the tale.

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Robert  Basler's avatar

Believe me, Janie, I prefer being alive...

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Patricia Coonan's avatar

You are an incredibly lucky person.

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Robert  Basler's avatar

You don't know the half of it, Pat....

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Dave Cook's avatar

See, it's stories like this that remind me of why I joined the Marine Corps instead of becoming a reporter.

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Robert  Basler's avatar

Right, and you are a former Marine, not an Ex-Marine. Or is it the other way around?

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