Trample Under a School Stage

When I was in high school I was part of a stage crew for a school play  which involved a jazz dance scene with 5 girls. One of the props was a  spiral staircase which extended down through the stage floor and was  secured to the floor beneath the stage to prevent it from twisting  around. The upper part of the staircase was simply held in place to  prevent it from moving side to side. During the dance sequences, the  girls would walk or run up the staircase and/or swing off the staircase  either one, several, or all the girls at the same time depending on the  dance. During one of the rehearsals, I decided to loosen the staircase  under the stage, lift it up and slip under it, placing the metal support  pole squarely on my stomach so that I could feel the weight of the  girls as they went up the stairs. I wasn't able to see very much of what  was happening on stage since my view was limited to only a crack or two  in the floor. The staircase itself was probably about 75-100 lbs. I  knew from the music when to expect the first girl to climb the stairs so  I waited in anticipation. The girls were quite thin, no more than  120lbs each so I figured I could handle 5 girls at once with no problem.  The music began and the first girl jumped onto the stairs and I felt  the pressure immediately and a slight twist in the stairs as her  momentum caused the stairs to turn grinding the skin. Soon after, the  second and third girls jumped on and I remember the pressure was much  more than I bargained for. There were 3 girls on me, more than 300 lbs  plus the staircase itself. I began to panic at the thought of two more  girls getting on the stairs, and i wouldn't dare yell to anyone for fear  of embarassment. Being a rehearsal, it made matters worse because they  kept stopping the music to make adjustments or corrections in the dance  routine. I remember I couldn't breathe. I mean I was really getting  crushed under the stage and the worse was yet to come, which it did. The  4th girl jumped on the stage and the girls were dancing and twisting on  the staircase with me under them. The bouncing was killing me. I was  about to yell when the last girl got on the stairs right at the end of  the routine and I felt like the metal support post had gone through me  and touched the floor. The music was so loud that no one could have  heard me even if I was able to yell. You simply can't talk when your  stomach is compressed like that. I couldn't catch a breath at all and  the dance seemed to go on forever with all the girls jumping and  bouncing. I remember thinking what a mistake it was to do this. The  pressure was killing me, nearly 600 lbs of girls plus 100lbs for the  staircase all concentrated on a 4" hollow round support column on my  stomach. I had to be turning red and then blue from lack of oxygen. When  the music stopped, the girls just stayed there waiting for further  instructions from the director. The director came on stage and talked  briefly with the girls and told them to set up for a second dance. As  they came down the stairs the bounce was the worse but as they got off  the stairs the release of pressure was such a relief. After the last  girl got off, I knew I had only minutes to slide out before the next  sequence. I was terribly weak from it all but I managed to lift it and  slip out. I quickly bolted the stairs back to the floor and just sat  there for several minutes before even trying to move. I had rolled my  shirt up and placed the support beam on my bare stomach and there was an  enormous round indentation just above my belly button about 4"  diameter. But my insides were hurting a whole lot, I felt sick, wanted  to vomit, and my chest was heaving as I was still trying to get my  breath. I would have bet anything that an organ had burst inside me  since the pain was so bad. I finally crawled out from under the stage  and sat in the audience and watched these cute girls dance on stage, the  same ones that nearly impaled me under their combined weight and would  have never known it. After about 2 weeks, the desire to repeat this was  there again, I still get a rise out of thinking about it. I'm 48 years  old now and i relive that scene every day. I LOVED IT. By the way, this  was a Catholic HS and back then, all the girls were dressed in skirts  and flat black shoes and knee highs. I would give anything to go back in  time to that day.