Friday, January 13, 2006

How Did We Ever Survive?


I usually ask, "How did we ever survive?" in reference to technology. But, tonight I got to thinking about that in a different light: We did some pretty stupid things as kids. I remember it being cool to "jump off the roof." Why? Who knows! From riding our go-cart around town like a car in traffic, to chasing cows, it's a miracle that we survived childhood. On more than one occasion, my near-death experiences included motorcycles. Two funny/how did we live moments come to mind. The first actually includes my little brother, Josh. We were riding a dirt bike in the field behind our house. It was a pretty big bike (a 250 if I remember right). At one end of this huge field was a drainage ditch that we would jump out of, either on the go-cart or on motorcycles. Once, as we jumped my 2-seater go-cart out of the ditch, Josh flew out and in front of the go-cart, where I ran him over! Anyway, on this particular day, my little brother decided to "open her up" with this big bike. It was amazing! He went by with a terrified look on his face, disappeared into the ditch (which was about 7' deep), and when he came out, he was doing an unintentional handstand on the handlebars. He and the bike flew through the air, and landed only long enough to bounce into a barbed-wire fence. Josh got a chunk torn out of his cheek, eyebrow, and lip! After some stitches, he was fine. Tthe amazing thing was, as we sprinted to check on him, Bruce (my best friend at the time) ran straight to the bike to make sure it wasn't hurt! Even more amazing is that Josh didn't break his neck, or any other necessary limbs!
The other incident was a little more personal, and not for those with a weak stomach. I was in the middle of a BB gun war (yes, before airsoft, we used real BB guns and no protective gear). I was actually riding away on a Kawasaki 125 that belonged to a friend named Randy. Randy thought it would be cool to know if a BB could catch me, so he shot me in the back of the head as I was doing 60 mph across a field. I had no idea what had just happened to me, other than a sharp pain in my neck, just below my head. I reached back with my left hand...blood. I didn't panic, though, until I got the bike stopped. After a while we got the bleeding to stop. It was a miracle that I hadn't just dumped the bike. But the worst part was that the wound got infected. A couple weeks later, as I examined the nasty "head" that had covered the wound, I thought it looked weird. I couldn't see it clearly, but I leaned over the sink and squeezed...out popped the BB. Not only had I survived the near motorcycle wreck, but I didn't die from blood poisoning from the copper BB lodged in my neck. I hope and pray my kids are smarter than I was! How about you? What was your "I'm so stupid I shoulda died" moment?

7 comments:

Austin said...

I can relate to jumping off the house. I don't know what my fascination with that was, but we would always do it if my parents were away from the house.

But my true "I'm so stupid I shoulda died" moment was backflips off the trampoline. We always had a trampoline when I was growing up. The first was one of the killer retanugular kind where people would always fall in the holes in the corner, or in between the springs. When I was older, and we had the round kind, I started making a habit of just jumping off of it when I was done. (Keep in mind, this was before some idiot inventor thought it would be cool to put a netted cage around the thing -- keep it dangerous, I say.) It was about the same time I was learning to do a back flip. So, wouldn't you guess that I'd put the two together. Back flips OFF OF the trampoline is just flirting with death.

I never really had a bad spill, but my Mom's heart skipped a few beats each time I did it.

Austin said...

Yeah, I said "retanugular". :-)

Anonymous said...

I stuck some beads up my nose and had to go the emergency room once, when i was little . . .

Lara said...

Ha i ate a whole bunch of vitamins. b/c they tasted good. HELLO? don't make vitamins taste good.

hmm what else have i done... i was running and tripped and had to get stitches on my lip.

uhmm tha'ts about it.
nothing too exciting.

Heather said...

I think that maybe girls might care more about living than guys do... let's see... the closest I've come to dying while playing was probably playing with my cousin when we were younger in the hotel swimming pool. I couldn't swim yet and she couldn't really either. I was holding on to her and she was holding on to the edge and had to go around this guy and we both sunk. luckily, our dads saved us. Yep, that really compares to dirt bikes and ditches...

Katrina said...

I climbed about fifty feet up in a tall, sparse tree in our front yard when I was eight. I couldn't figure out how to get back down, had a panic attack, and ended up stuck up there for two or three hours before my mom and dad got home and talked me down limb by limb. I'm still not sure why I did that. Because I could, I guess...

p.s. Thanks for the shout on my blog. :) I was sick all week, but it's nice to know I was missed...lol.

Anonymous said...

jason's nephew and joshua's son is a walking head injury just like them!! hahaha! an example, when jacob was about 2 and a half, our driveway was short, inclined, and really close to a busy street... we were sitting there watching him ride his tricycle! next thing we knew, he lifted his feet off the ground, and headed BACKWARDS, straight down the driveway, to the street! very scary, as a car was coming! i have never seen joshua run so fast, or my heart stop that quick! joshua saved him ofcourse, but jake incurred a nice little head injury in the process, and lost some skin! he wasn't even scared, until his head started throbbing! poor thing! i guess he gets his daredevil side from his daddy and his uncle!

and by the way, i hear that handstand was a beautiful thing! lots of love jas! alway's, k