Wishes do come true.

I have spent most of 2 days sorting and tossing through all kinds of pictures, old newspaper clippings, awards, crayon pictures and gobs of other stuff. Oh and yeah, I have a dusty mold headache today. I did toss some stuff out. I don't need pictures of a 50 year old tree in a yard that I don't know or the backs of people's head or cats and dogs of 50 years ago. Gone!

This pictures shows my Daddy (will have a better one later) and the newspaper clipping from my mother's 1954 graduating class from Union High School. I also have a picture of her being the Football Queen as a sophmore and Band Queen as a senior, somewhere. I had them laid out to scan and promptly put them in a box. Oh well. There were just so many memories to be found in the mounds and mounds of crap that has piled up in my little room.

I also found a picture of Johnny Weissmuler. You remember him don't you. He played Tarzan.
When we were young my father was the sporting goods manager of the Oertles in Tulsa and was able to get Tarzan to come for a gig and sign autographs. I have that somewhere too. I found this picture among the millions of memories. That's him with the leopard banded hat on.
Now on to a neat find with some painful memories. The story behind this is that on Friday night while my sis and I were laying in bed trying to go to sleep we were quietly talking and I told her, "I wish I could break my leg so I could walk on crutches." That is a true story. The next night, my aunt GiGi, was baby sitting us, mainly for B&D. She was only 4 years older than I and more of a big sis. I was in the 6th grade and the big thing at school was to play hopscotch. I had the bright idea to make a hopscotch broad in our living room out of newspapers and my daddy's socks. My turn came and I tossed whatever it was we were using to mark the spot. It turned out to be a huge jump. I jumped, landed on a newspaper and WOW, who would have thought newspapers were so slick. I slammed into the end wall. Instant pain. GiGi was shocked. They all came over to check on me and the pain was nothing I had ever experienced before. GiGi called Grandma and she said it was probably just sprained. She suggested that I try to stand on it. Hmmm, when I stood my foot turned out, the opposite way. I started to go into shock. B&D were crying and so was GiGi. They tracked my parents down who were playing bingo at the school for a fundraiser and they rushed home. My big strong Daddy came in, scooped me up and loaded me into the backseat of the car. Back then the way to get to the closest hospital was down 71st Street and it was mostly country then. We drove and I was starting to chatter as the shock set in. I can remember when we hit the "city" there were a few street lights that went flying by. We arrived at the hospital and they x-rayed my leg with a brand new x-ray machine. I was the first it was used on. They came in and Daddy was by my side rubbing my arm. I was in so much pain. They told me that they would have to set it and would be giving me something to put me out. I was looking at my daddy crying, "Daddy, I don't want a shot, I don't want a s......" That is the last thing I remember till the next morning in a room. The pain, oh my gosh the pain. Now they do surgery but back then, NOT. The casts then were of real plaster and heavy, heavy. I broke both bones just above the ankle and cracked the large bone just below the knee. Hit that wall hard I'd say. I was in a cast clear up to my groin for 4 months. Actually, I went through two of those kind of casts and eventually went to a walking cast for a couple of months. At home I slept on a cot in the living room, using a bed pan and many sponge baths. I was out of school but my teacher came and tutored and kept me up with the class. When I did go back to school I used my Great-grandmother's wheelchair. Daddy rigged a wooden tray that I kept my leg in so it would be elevated. He also made a wood tray on top for a desk. It was a bad time for me because I was just hitting puberty and I was left out of the time when kids play softball, basketball, etc. Not like today when kids start that stuff at 4 or 5. It was horrible and the most pain I have ever, ever been in and I've had two babies.

So remember, wishes really do come true. And for the record, those crutches hurt like hell. So much for wishes.