4th of July Festivities and a Broken Bone

36 years ago today I was back home after the ER visit.  Diagnosis:  Broken collarbone.  It wasn't until about 25 years later that a chest x-ray showed I also broke one of the ribs that attaches to the sternum.  Ah!  That's why there's a big "knot" there.

36 years ago I was 10 years old.  I wanted to get one more motorcycle ride in before we ate burgers and dogs at our 4th of July gathering.  (Are 10-year-olds allowed to wander alone in 300+ acres to ride a motorcycle today?  Maybe in rural areas?  It seems like a different world now where that doesn't seem likely.)

I was going too fast up a steeply banked turn and went over the handlebars...apparently.  I don't remember that part but I see some parts of it as if it were yesterday.  I regained consciousness when I thought I heard a motorcycle and I remember being afraid it was going to run me over.  I also remember it was very hot and I had to walk home.  I couldn't take my helmet off because I had no use of my right arm and I was holding it with my left.  My head was on fire from the heat and I was thirsty.

I eventually saw my 11-year-old brother who was walking to find me.  I learned later they thought I was gone too long.  (I wonder how long I was lying in the dirt?)  The only thing he wanted to know was, "WHERE IS THE MOTORCYCLE?!"  I told him and he went to get it.

I didn't cry this whole time.  I just wanted to get home.  When I made it up the last hill and entered the far end of the backyard I saw my dad.  I uttered words that people teased me about for years to come.  "Daddy, carry me." 

My father looked at my collarbone and told me it was broken as he could see it hanging down.  He picked me up and carried me to a chair on the patio.  Someone - I'm not sure who - took my helmet off.  I remember how good that felt; it was instant relief.  My hair was soaked.

I think I must have said that I was really thirsty because my paternal grandmother went in the house pretty quickly to get me some water.  She came out in such a hurry that she spilled the water all over my shirt.  It actually felt good.  I remember she said "Oh shit."  I think I must remember that because I had never heard her curse. The second time she made the trip to the kitchen I was able to actually drink the water.

I rested just a few minutes and my dad said it was time to go the hospital.  When I was getting in the car I remember a family friend called Skippy saying, "Wow, if I were 9 I'd be crying right now."  I remember feeling proud and then saying, "I'm 10."

I only cried a little when they set my collarbone and put me in a figure-8 brace.  They gave me some Darvon for pain at the hospital.  That eventually proved to be more painful than the break.

I threw up all night.  Apparently the Darvon was too strong or I had a sensitivity to it.  For some reason I slept on the sofa that night.  Maybe because I started to get sick before I went to bed?  I remember my poor father trying to sleep in a La-Z-Boy so he could keep an eye on me and help me when I threw up.  He had to work the next day and he was up with me much of the night.  

I eventually went back to the hospital because I was so ill.  Although, I think it was actually the next day that I went.  I remember a very startled doctor looking at what I threw up in the basin.  He obviously thought it was blood but it was cherry Kool-aid.

I started riding motorcycles when I was about 6 years old.  I loved it and was very good at it.  Probably the best I've ever been at anything.  I also felt free.  I could always jump on my 'cycle and go fast, be in the woods, or challenge myself to some feat.  Perhaps what I loved about it the most is that it allowed me to wander.

I'm remembering that 10-year-old and the motorcycle tonight.  The motorcycle was just destroyed in a fire this past year.  My family held on to it all of these years.  It was special to me and my brothers as we all learned to ride on it;  I wish I had a picture.  I remember going out to the shed out back at my mother's to look at it every now and then.  It made me smile.  It was so small but it went so fast.  I miss it right now.  Or, I suppose, I really miss all that it represented and still reminds me of. 

Happy 4th of July.