I intend to live to 160 so middle age is a long way off.

I watched on the subway one day while a well dressed woman with an attitude stuck her foot in between the doors expecting the conductor to open them and let her in. Unfortunately, he had already run his check and started the train. She would have been killed had a man not grabbed her and run the length of the station avoiding posts and people. He was an undercover cop trained to respond and watch for the exact scenario. The rest of us stood dumbfounded and a little gleeful that she got hers.

My sister in law got the tip of her boot stuck in a broken escalator tred on another subway line. A man managed to grab her and get the boot off (she never figured out how - it zipped). She would have lost her foot had he not acted so quickly. Then he just walked away. She hobbled on one boot.

I saw a little girl fall down between the station and the train on Amtrak. Again, a fast thinking man grabbed her arm and pulled her up undamaged while I stood by horrified. Guess I wouldn't have jumped down to save the young man.

But I did once save a baby's life. I was walking on the street and saw two women pushing a stroller coming towards me. The baby just didn't look right. He was holding a Pepsi can. After they passed it registered that he was choking. Sure enough he had chewed the pop top off and it was lodged in his throat. They thought I was nuts when I turned and ran after them shouting "The baby! The baby!"

Another time my friend stood on a corner waiting for the light to change when a garbage truck went by. Somehow it caught a young woman who was standing on the corner with her boyfriend. Before anyone could react she was decapitated. New York can be a strange place to live.

Sorry for the babble.

I once watched a program about "heroes" and every one of them said that they reacted without thinking through the danger they were putting themselves in. They were all embarrassed at the attention. I think there is more to it than that. SOmething overrides their sense of self-preservation. For now, call it heroism.