Real funny story that's not so funny

[grantx5]

Camping in Leavenworth, WA. It's Sunday afternoon, we're leaving Tuesday morning, and I decide to empty the black and grey tanks. We'd been there since late Thursday and it seemed like a good idea.

The good Lord was watching out for me that day. I decided to do the grey tank first for some reason, never done that before but then I'm getting old and my mind doesn't always work the way it used to. I pull the valve handle and down the tubes the grey water went. Started to empty into the sewer outlet as usual when all of a sudden it backed up and was squirting all over the place.

I closed the valve but the hose was still full. Nothing I could do since the liquid was running out of the end of the hose so I left it attached to the sewer outlet hoping the most of it would drain properly, which it did. Well, the drain was indeed plugged, oh no, now what am I going to do.

Cleaned things up as best I could and put everything away. Walked down to the ranger station and told them my story. "No problem." he says, "we'll be there in a bit and get you all fixed up."

An hour or so later a pickup truck with 3 guys shows up and they commence to stare at our sewer outlet for quite awhile. Guess staring at things has the potential for fixing them. Anyway, eventually they wander over to a field area across from us and appear as though they are studying things. Now there are risers in the field so I assume the field is part of the drain field. After awhile it appears they've made a decision and they walk back to the truck.

Now, they don't leave. They send what appears to be the new guy over to one of the risers. The two men left behind are kind of ducking behind the truck but yelling a lot of encouragement to this young volunteer. Well, the young fella reaches down and pulls the top off that riser, not good.

What happened over the next 30 seconds or so is still a blur. I was holding my stomach and laughing so hard I missed a lot but, WOW, did that young man get a face full of sewage. And when I say a lot, I mean it came out the top of that riser like Ol' Faithful.

Took awhile but they came back to me and asked me to move to another site which we did. I asked about the young feller and if he was okay. The guy had a hard time telling me anything through all the laughter.

In the end it all worked out, well, at least for us. Happy camping my friends.

[ve7prt]

You know, when I read this, the first image that popped into my mind was the scene from the movie RV, where Robin Williams gets a black tank shower after the other guy flushes the commode. Mind you, I also cringed reading this, but I did chuckle when the RV image popped up.

Cheers!
Mike

[time2roll]

Sounds like a bit of hazing or some type of initiation for the new kid.
The old men put his health in danger if he had no protective gear.
This should also be reported to the ranger.

Funny in a movie, not in real life.

[DSSAMP]

No S***. I thought it was funny...guess it "depends" lol

[Grit_dog]

Half of you on this thread sound like retired IRS auditors.....must be a hoot around the campfire too....take of your horn rimmed glasses and just laugh once in a while.....if you can.

Probably don't drink out of garden hoses either! I've built/tied in/ repaired enough sanitary lines and built enough turd farms ( wastewater plants) to get a little sht under my fingernails. Pleasant? Nope. End of the world? Nope

[shadows4]

I found it funny, as it happened to somebody else and not me. Lighten up people.

My brother texted me a couple of weeks ago. He got a dose of raw sewage when he pulled the cap off of his pipe to empty the black tank. Said he apparently forgot to shut the black tank valve last time. This was at the dump station. I asked if anyone else saw it. He said yes, a young couple on the other side of the drain pit. He said the young lady trying not to laugh just told him, "**it happens".

[wa8yxm]

The other day as I stopped into a local eatery for dinner one of the employes bumnped his elbow You know which bone.. He commented it was not really all that funny.

I told him why it is called the "Funny Bone" (Humorous actually)

When you bang it (Actually it is a nerve ending you bang) Others find it very funny indeed.

[stumper92]

I found humor in the story. And yes I had a similar occurrence happen to me when I was in high school and worked for a property management company. I was covered in raw sewage because I stood too close to the roto-rooter. I didn't know any better and the other guys let me stand there knowing what would happen. It wasn't funny at the time, but I certainly laugh at it now.

[Tutorman57]

2 years ago I witnessed my good friend drop his new 5th wheel camper on his brand new F-350 tail gate... I felt really bad for him and his wife. about an hour after things calmed down I said to them both " In 3 years this will be funny" 2 years in it's not funny yet. Maybe next year.
I hope the guy had no Ill effects from this happening to him and maybe in 3 years it will be funny for him to. If he got sick from it ,,, It will never be funny. And those guy's were first class jerks for letting him do that with no saftey gear. Like I said I hope he was ok and can laugh it off in the near future. It will make one hell of a story he can tell. But that's just me.

[Crowe]

If I saw it, I'd laugh too. Ignoring something doesn't make it not have happened.

But laughing at it condones it.

[languiduck]

Newbiecampers wrote:

languiduck wrote:
No it wasn't. Some people are stuffy and have no sense of humor. You'll never appease everyone. Was a funny read.

Would you be laughing and think it's funny if someone intentionally geysered you in the face with raw sewage?

I very much doubt it.

Nope, I sure wouldn't be laughing. I'd be pissed and I'd take it up with whoever did it. It was not a very nice trick. But the OP didn't do it, he witnessed it. Nothing he could do about it. If I saw it, I'd laugh too. Ignoring something doesn't make it not have happened.

[Newbiecampers]

languiduck wrote:
No it wasn't. Some people are stuffy and have no sense of humor. You'll never appease everyone. Was a funny read.

Would you be laughing and think it's funny if someone intentionally geysered you in the face with raw sewage?

I very much doubt it.

[Crowe]

Some people are stuffy and have no sense of humor.

Some people have a DIFFERENT sense of humor and don't find this type of thing amusing. Turn the tables and make YOU the brunt and it probably won't be so funny. Not everyone believes that practical jokes, especially ones that can have dire circumstances (yes, someone could die by ingesting sewage), are funny. It doesn't mean they don't have a sense of humor.

[languiduck]

grantx5 wrote:
Upon reflection, this thread was in poor taste. I do apologize to those it offended.

No it wasn't. Some people are stuffy and have no sense of humor. You'll never appease everyone. Was a funny read.

[TugCE]

Same type of story but on Ship. The Black water (Sewage) was backed up for 6 decks (six stories). We traced to block to a 10 inch Check Valve at the Hull in the Engine Room. This was back in the days where you could put untreated black water over the side LEGALLY.

So, we drew straws (this included the Chief Engineer down to the lowest Member of the Engine Room Crew) and the loser had to climb up into a very tight area and open the check valve. Now, the poor guy that drew the short straw was dressed with safety in mind and was covered from head to toe plus he had a SCBA (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) that also covered his face and eyes.

So, I will never forget to scream that came out of this guy when he pried that check valve open and 6 decked of backed up Black Water came gushing out. We lost sight of him until the flow just about stopped! He put it back together and climbed down and said he was going to shower. We had to make him stop until we could take pictures of him before we hosed him off.

This was almost 30 years ago and whenever we get together we still talk and laugh about it! Just to be clear, out of all of the Engineers that were there any one of us would have or have done the same job at some point in their careers.