These next stories happened after we moved to my uncles new
acreage south of Wilmington Illinois. It was closer to Wilmington so we were
able to participate in things like Little League and go to the parks there. The
house was quite large and was two stories with the finished basement. John and
I were in a room. Bob ended up bunking with Keith one of the twins. It was not
as fun without Bob making us like the Three Stooges, who were our heroes. We
spent a lot of time imitating them and watching them on TV. For some reason
after we moved to the acreage I lost some of my caution. I can say I was
reckless but I became less than cautious.
We used to play a game called pickle since there were so few
of us. Pickle was where you guarded a base and someone tried to steal the base
like in baseball. If there were three of us, John, Bob and myself, we would
play with two bases and one runner. The person in one was the one who stole the
most bases since John was so reckless he usually won. There was a farm boy who
lived next door and once in a while he would play. When he played we would have
three bases and one runner. This forms the basis for my first story. John was
the runner and he was on the base or the neighbor boy was. You could not hold
the ball but had to keep it moving so the runner had a chance to start something.
I knew as soon as I threw the ball toward the base John was on he would take
off toward Bob's base. He had a "tell" that I knew from playing with
them so often. He faked like he was going to run toward me but I knew he was
going toward Bob. I faked like I was drawing to the base John was that when
instead through without looking toward Bob's base. Problem was I faked Bob out
also and he thought I was throwing somewhere else and was out looking. The
baseball hit him right in the forehead. The ball bounced off his had strayed
into the air about 20 feet. Bob went down like a sack of potatoes. We all ran
over to him and I was so glad that he was not hit in the eye socket or his
temple. He had a huge bump on his four head but I don't think he was knocked
out. We rushed him into the house and put ice on it. Bob was pretty tough and
never got a concussion from it. I fell really bad but not bad enough to keep up
laughing a little bit. We found the ball and it was never round again.
The next few stories are about me hurting myself. For some
reason I have always seem to be good at hurting myself. One time we're playing
I and go seek and my sister Cathy was playing also. Behind the acreage was a
farm pasture with Barb wire fencing. On one end near some woods there was a
tree the cows could get to reaching over the fence. They had pretty much killed
but there was still enough tree there that I decided I could hide in it. I
grabbed a hold of a small branch to pull myself up into a Y in the tree. As I
pulled myself up the small branch of broke and I fell backwards. The inside of
my right arm hooked on one of the barbs and it slit my arm open. It cut through
the skin and the fat layer underneath and expose a little better by muscle but
didn't really cut it. I started running toward the house for Aunt Beverly so
she could help me. As I ran my sister ran up beside me and said what's wrong
what's wrong. I slow down and showed her and she dropped to her knees
screaming. That part was pretty funny. Aunt Beverly said she could so it up
with her sewing kit. I assume she was kidding. She ended up taking me to the
doctor in Wilmington and we found out he was on vacation. So we had to drive to
Joliet and ended up at the hospital there. I can't believe how long all of this
took to stitch me up. I learned then that that's the worst part about hurting
yourself was the time it took to get fixed. I ended up with five or six
stitches and the worst part was he got infected anyway. It took weeks of
working it out with alcohol every day before it healed up.
Another time John, Bob and I had a contest. There was a tree
on the south side of the house. The house and had rustic wood siding that was
mainly 4 x 8 sheets. The seams were covered by the matching furring strip and
stuck out an inch or so. Our contest was we would leap from where the tree was
and see you could come closest to the house. I always suspected that John set
me up because I won. I jumped so far I hit the house and my shoulder on the
furring strip. My whole left arm went numb from the blow. I had a huge bruise
on my shoulder. To this day I am proud that I won but if not sure it was worth
the victory.
I used this injury to get out of gym class, which I really
hated. These gym teachers had a mean streak and I was a pipsqueak so I didn't do
real well. So I got to stay in the gym while they went outside for class. There
was also another student that didn't have to go to gym because he had a
"heart condition". I think his name was Joey Delvecchio. I was worn
not to play with him because of his heart condition. So I sat on the bleachers
happy to read a book. Joey when I got one of those red rubber gym balls. He
proceeded to chase me around and have me with the ball, over and over. If he
had a heart condition he certainly didn't show it that day. After he made me
cry he must've felt bad and stopped. Then he told me we could go sneak into the
janitor's room. I figured it was just another way that he would torment me so I
said no you go without me I'm staying here. He left and I was so glad. I did
see him again until class was over.
My last story from this timeframe was in relation to the
tree fort we built. There was a cool tree on the north side of the house. We
used extra would from the house being built and made a small platform in the
tree. We nailed boards into the side of the tree so we could climb up. We had a
basket and a rope that we used to pull tools and other supplies up. Somehow
this rope got a knot in it. As I was pulling up the basket the not wedged
between the tree branch and a board we had nailed in. I tugged on the rope
really hard to get it passed the board. Instead of the rope hopping around the
board flipped up in the air and it was like a slow-motion. The nail that was
holding it in the tree and did not sticking into the inside of my rest and
poking a puncture hole in it. It wasn't that bad but it went in about an inch.
I decided I needed to put some antiseptic on it and a Band-Aid. I climbed down
out of the tree and went into the house. I went to the bathroom and washed it
out real good. I put some antiseptic cream on it and a Band-Aid. Then I walked
out and was going to go back out as I went through the family room I suddenly
got lightheaded and then passed out on the floor of the family room. I woke up
and I was on the couch and people were surrounding me asking me if I was okay.
This is one of the strangest things that ever happened to me. Not sure why
there was such a delayed reaction. I'm guessing I had adrenaline that I was
running on and it ran out after I treated my wound.
my next series of stories will go back to around
Memorial Day. That was when the crazy things started happening that I will deal
with in my next series.
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