Gabe Breaks his Arm

The Neuterscooter vet called me this morning from the Oregon Country Fair to say they had a long difficult night last night. Her oldest son Gabe, 9, broke his arm, falling from a tree he was climbing at the fair. I guess his arm hit a stump when he fell. An ambulance was called and he now has a cast.

My younger brother broke his arm in similar fashion when he was ten. We were at a babysitters house staying long term. For some reason, our parents would disappear for a couple weeks or longer quite often and we'd stay with various babysitters. To this day we don't know why they were gone so long so often for a period of a few years.

Anyhow, we were in a playground and he was on the metal monkey bars, as was I. He fell and began crying and holding his arm. We went back to the babysitters house and she took him to the doctor's office where his arm was set. He was in a cast and sling for a few months after that.

The injuries I had as a kid were head injuries. When I was a first grader, all eight grades were in the gym playing dodgeball and an eighth grader backed into me suddenly slamming me to the concrete floor. I was knocked unconscious and woke up in the backseat of somebody's car on the way home. In those days, at least in my family, kids were rarely taken to the doctor and this event was no exception. I was merely taken home.

On the next occasion, I don't know how old I was, not very old, grade school days, I came out of the changing room at the community swimming pool and another little girl threw a rock that hit me right in the face. She was waiting for someone else she was mad at but I came out first and so she threw the rock at me. I did not know her. I don't remember if my mother took me to the doctor or not. I believe my nose was broken. I have a deviated septum. And I couldn't go swimming the rest of the summer due to the injury.

The attacker ran off and since I didn't even know her, nothing could be done to find her. Nothing would have been done anyhow. In those days, they would have considered that an "accident" by way of a stupid little badly parented child being mean, but by no means a criminal act. I would never have thought it a criminal act either, although I was badly injured. I'm afraid if the same thing happened today, that kid would have spent years in juvee or at least received treatment as a criminal.

But then these days, mean kids don't throw rocks, they shoot guns.

I hope Gabe heals quickly. These accidents are the stuff of childhood.