When I was in the neighborhood of ten or eleven years old one day Great-Aunt Lottie and Great-Uncle Leonard came to visit. I loved them dearly. Aunt Lottie had the most wonderful tinkly laugh and glorious sparkling eyes. Uncle Leonard was such a kind pleasant man.
It was a ravishingly lovely summer day so my brothers, sister, and I hopped into our Jeep station wagon with Mother, Aunt Lottie and Uncle Leonard. There was not room for everyone inside so E, J, and I sat on the tailgate, with the lift gate in lifted position and off we left for a trip to Raspberry Hill, a little less than a mile from our home.
The road was narrow but pleasant with a wonderful canopy of hardwood trees overhead and a little brook running beside the road, though it was almost reduced to just a wet swath beside the road because it was summer. As we were riding along, swinging our legs back and forth a few inches above the dirt road, all of a sudden Mother went over a bump. With that bump, the accident happened!
The lift gate decided it had had enough in that up position and it smashed down on our heads. Being the oldest, and tallest, but only barely, I felt it first but my brother and sister also were injured. If you don't know head injuries, I can tell you that head wounds bleed a LOT!
Mother stopped the Jeep to check on us. For some reason she thought it would be a good idea for us to get off the tailgate and walk back home to the house, at this point, only about a quarter mile away. Being obedient children, we headed up the pike for home. There was nowhere that she could turn the Jeep around so she and Aunt Lottie, Uncle Leonard, L, and B, the baby, continued on to Raspberry Hill where she was able make the turn and head back home.
As the three of us kids walked toward home, we found that Daddy was in the barnyard, scraping out the barn with the little Farmall Cub tractor. I often wondered what his first thoughts were when he saw his three middle children walking towards the barnyard with blood streaming down our faces and onto our clothes. I do know that he immediately got of the tractor and ran toward us.
It turned out that when we were washed off and put into clean clothing that we really were fine. My scalp lost a little bit of hair and there is a tiny bald spot there to this day. My sister has a little bump to this day. I do not remember what happened to E's head.
Moral of the story: be careful always.
Other morals: you could choose many that would work!
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