I had my share of accidents growing up.
There was the time I was riding my Schwinn home from my after school job and didn’t notice the storm drain in the road that propelled me ass over tin cups when the front tire hit it. End result was a chipped tooth, a bloody face and a day off from school.
I can’t forget riding my bike right through the storm door as someone opened it while I was cycling through the driveway. If I remember correctly, that also was the first time I dropped the f-bomb. In front of my mother. The crack of the wooden spoon on my ass was worse than the pain of driving through the door.
I’ve got a scar on my shin that I got when I slipped and fell on a neighbor’s porch and had an intimate encounter with wrought iron. It still bother’s me when the moon is in the quarter phase and the humidity is below 32%.
Kids didn’t wear helmets, knee pads, elbow pads, mouth guards and other safety gear when they took their bike out for a spin. We did wheelies, jumped curbs, carried another rider on a set of “pegs” and if we smashed our head off the pavement, we got up, cried, cussed, and went back to riding. Today, parents call 911, the ambulance comes and the kid is monitored for a concussion for the next ten days.
I ate my share of dirt and probably had the dirtiest hands in the neighborhood, but I survived.
I stepped on my share of rusty nails and got an equal number of dog bites. Funny thing, my parents never took me to the hospital for a tetanus shot when I stepped on the rusty nails, but when a dog bit me – I was in the ER faster than you can spell J-E-L-L-O.
My high school was over a mile away from where I lived and I either walked or rode my bike to school every day. There wasn’t a school bus that offered door-to-door service like there is today. I remember trying to keep my hands and face warm as I biked though the snow and freezing temps. Today when the thermometer dips below 10 degrees, they just cancel school.
I probably sound like my father right now, boring you with tales about how he walked to school in six feet of snow adding layers of cardboard to the inside of his shoes because he couldn’t afford a new sole. But it’s funny how times have changed.
Think back to when you were a youngster. Did you parents make you dress up like a football player to go for a bike ride around the block? Probably not. You turned out alright, didn’t you?
I guess we were all a little tougher back then.