I am an accident waiting to happen! Once when I was about 12 years old I was playing softball at Lion's Park (FAKE). That is the elementary school I went to. The school was incredibly beautiful by the way. Like in the movies. Two stories, K-8, with a gymnasium that doubled as a cafeteria when the tables with their attached benches got folded up into the walls.
I started there in fifth grade after transferring from another school district. My parents used the address of my dad's side business, a location near Oakton Bowl in Skokie, Il. My dad would take the school aged kids with him and leave the younger ones at home with my mom. At any point that could have been up to 6 of the seven of us. It just made their lives easier I guess; they didn't want to deal with the busses and car pooling in the city. By the city I mean Chicago. I grew up in the Lion's Park area. It was all tree lined streets with very few multi-unit dwellings on my side of California. Crossing California. An excellent book by Adam Langer. It's about growing up in the late 70's set in my very neighborhood where the author apparently grew up. Anyone from this area would sure get a kick out of reading it! Policemen, Firemen, politicians, teachers, you get the point, resided there since they had to live within city limits. By all accounts it ways middle and upper-middle class. My mom worked outside the home throughout my childhood to bring in extra cash since there were six children in the family, while my dad ran a full time machine shop, was a full time police officer in the city of Chicago and also had another secret and illegal side business up in the second story of our garage. (More on that in the future!)
My emergency room visit was there in Chicago. I was, as I started to say before I got side tracked, playing softball after school with other kids, no adults around, the good old fashioned way before play-dates and expensive after school activities. I jammed my finger and felt it was bad enough to seek medical attention so cell phone in hand...ok of course I am kidding...so with no way of phoning anyone I figured it was closer to walk to the neighborhood hospital then it was to go home. When I got there I just asked them to call the local police station and get my dad to come right over and give permission to treat me. It worked exactly as I thought and soon enough I was given a cool, shiny splint, the envoy of all my friends for some strange reason, and back to the school yard I went. I loved being dropped off in the police car. I felt totally cool. Much better then getting dropped off in the hearse. We had one of those because we are talking about the B.MV. point in american history. Post station wagon but BEFORE MINI-VAN days. A station wagon wouldn't actually fit all eight of us but a converted hearse did. Seriously freaking weird!
It was still light out and I jumped back in the game and before you knew it, I think because I was pampering my injured hand, I felt a searing pain and yep, you guessed it. I walked back to the same ER, they called my dad again and I had broken this finger while only spraining the initial one. Another shiny silver splint and another ride in the squad car though this time it was back home where now my family had all collected to eat dinner together.
For the record and future reference I have broken my back twice, neck once, both ankles, one arm but in two places, my "eye socket bone" or whatever you call it and multiple fingers and toes. I have had rotator cuff surgery twice on my dominant right shoulder as well as biceps and labarum repair on the same. I have had my gall bladder removed, lasik eye repair, breast reduction and brachioplasty (look that one up on your own if you really want to know)! Countless stitches, burns and have given birth. Today I pulled a muscle in my calf that feels ten times worse then a charlie horse just walking in the dairy aisle of Jewel. I think it hurt worse then all the others!
For real
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