Friday, February 5, 2010

Gnarly Childhood Memory

All though I have many unforgettable memories from my childhood, this experience seems to be the furthest back I can go with details.
I was only 4 years old and loving life on a hot summer day. All day I had been playing in my neighborhood with my favorite cotton shorts on and the one blue and green striped tank top my mom could never get me out of. I was riding my red push-pump scooter up and down the black paved road and waving to every neighbor I saw when I pulled over to let a car roll into my neighbors driveway. Again I smiled and waved and continued down the road while they all piled out of the car, a dad, a mom, a son, and a giant St. Bernard. I had not noticed the dog still wearing his leash bolting towards me as I pumped the back peddle with my navy blue flip-flops. The dog jumped over my extended leg and caught the handle to his leash on the back peddle which then wrapped around my leg. After he gave a hard pull my scooter tipped over and spooked him. He then took off running down the street my body and scooter dragging behind him.
He ran to the end of the street and finally heard his owner and came to a halt. They ran over to help along with five of my other neighbors who had heard my blood curling scream. One of my neighbors, Laura who was a nurse as well as my parents best friend, untangled my leg and scooped me into her arms. I was covered in road rash from head to toe and bleeding profusely from the back of my knee where the leash had wrapped around. Laura knew there was only one thing to do to keep me from getting massive infections all over my body, scrub me down. I will never forget how loud and painfully I screamed that day, and neither will anyone else that was within a one mile radius. She scrubbed me down from head to toe with a nurses course sponge and surgical soap and was crying the whole time feeling so bad for the pain she was causing me.
It took quite a while to heal but eventually I fully recovered and infection free thanks to Laura who still gets teary eyed thinking about my poor road rashed body :(