I had a couple instances where I was kind extrememly pleased to have a knife on me in an urban environment
one we were camped just out of Perth , West Aus, near a river , when three carloads of teenagers pulled up , with a couple serious hardcore lookig dudes among them looking about mid 30s ... they went for a swim , got pretty drunk , and the girls in their crew began making out and carrying on
We were eating late lunch , that happened to be steak Id bought earlier , just as Id decided it was enough , time to pack up and go rather than put up with their racket , .. I wiped my Opinel off and flicked it shut ( I love the sound a well worn opinel makes when you flick them open or shut ) and slipped it back in its belt pouch as I stood up ... as I did it , one of the older guys kinda locked eyes with me , one of them seconds that last for minutes sorta , I deliberately left the pouch open , and he watched me do that , nodded , and began calling his crew into order , within minutes they all had packed up and left , as the last car went past , the one with the girls in it I heard them one saying "why are we leaving , I thought the guys were going to rumble the campers ?"
It turns out that there is a few gang bashings of people who camp there , its a bit too close to some pot farms , so bashing the campers is one way of discouraging anyone finding the farms , and a "good" way for the younger ones in the families involved to let off steam .
another time we had been camping our way around Au again , and were on the last stop of the trip , so we actually paid for a site in a caravan park at Nowra NSW , my cousin and I stopped up kinda late discussing the trip and the things we has seen and done ... we heard a ruckus out in the street , people fighting , then it went quiet , ... barely a minte later a figure aproached us where we stood taking , my cousin was holding is new baby son , the stranger wore a hoody , and had something inhis pocket that turned out to be a sharpened screwdriver , he produced it when he told us it was his intention to kill some white #$%@ tonight , it went unsaid that I am fair skinned and my cousin is "white" ...
I summed up the situation but it wasnt great , I had my knife , the opinel that kinda doubles as a flick knife , I figured I could have it out and use it before he did real damage to my cousin or the baby , but the way we were situated , it wasnt good , the risk of him hurting the baby was too big for me to act from where I was standing .
I decided to try just talking rather than acting .. figuring the guy hadnt just stabbed us , but talked first , maybe keep it going some and get between my cousin and the stranger , then take him down .. I asked him ( in a pleasant casually interested kinda way ) if he was in the fight we heard , he had been , and got flogged , and was going to kill some white #$%@ to fix it ... but he put his screwdriver back in his hoody pocket tho he still held it ...
I was encouraged , it wold give me an extra second or two if it got ugly , and asked him if he really wanted to fix his worries , he stopped his foot jigging and listened , so I offered to show him in the Bible where he could find the answer to his trouble ... I didnt have a bible tho or any idea what to show him if I did ... but it would give me reason to be real close and between my cousin and him ...
he had a serious attitude shift tho , went sort of shame faced and said he should look at it but not to night .. and he began walking then jogging away , stopping long enough to yell back that he was still going to kill some white #$%@ tonight tho ...
I was glad to have had my knife , even tho I never used it , having it gave me a plan b , and a confidence boost that I had a plan to work to instead of having only to rely on wits alone to talk my way out . Having it gave me the confidence to show no fear , and I guess act like I was not afraid but ready to take the guy on if he didnt want to play nice .
After tho , My cousin just grinned and said "that bible thing kinda came out of left field , I was waiting for you to take him down , but that was cool , you did it the lazy way and didnt even raise a sweat "
after the kid ran off , I was sweating and shaking plenty tho ... adrenaline overload I guess
another one of them longest 60 seconds of my life
