While Dad was on military assignment in Korea, Mom, Vic, Dennis and I stayed with my Grandma Matlock in her house Mancos, Colorado. This is a story Mom has related to me when I was two years old or so.
It seems in Mancos the only doctor was a chiropractor. A man of some medical training, but not fully prepared for the visits I made to him.
One day Mom was doing the laundry and I wanted to be a good helper. I was my usual curious self and I was looking up under the washing machine trying to figure out what made all the noise and why the crazy thing vibrated the way it did. The actual engine that makes a washing machine a washing machine has fan belts and pulleys of course. Having the mind set that I did, I decided to see if I could stop the machine by stopping the fan belt, so I grabbed a hold of the belt in an attempt to stop it. Not being fully schooled in the laws of physics I immediately learned the pull of the fan belt was stronger than the resistance of my fingers and the belt pulled my hand up and through the pulley severing off the top of the ring finger on my right hand.
Mom immediately halted her washing duties, put the top of my finger back into place as best she could and hurried me over to the chiropractor to see if his talents were good enough to sew the top of my finger into its natural place.
Although he was not a true medical doctor he got many calls like this for his services. If the situation was one he thought he could handle he made use of his talents and rectified the problem. If it was beyond his talents he would tell the patient (or my case--Mom) they needed to go see a more qualified medical person. Now I ask you, how hard can it be to sew the top of a toddler’s finger back into place anyway?
Mom had washing to get back to and didn’t need any further delays, so Dr. Chiropractor got his sewing materials together and spliced the tip of my finger back into its proper place. After all these years there is still the scar of the stitches to go along with the scar of my severed finger. I think he did a mighty fine job because I have full feeling in every part of that finger and it grew back together nice and straight. Thanks Doc.
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4 comments:
The kids will get a good laugh from this one! Very funny! Scary, but funny all the same.
I was going to say, "I know you have all 10 fingers on both your hands so something went right!"
I hadn't heard this one before...what will the next story be??
Ang
I am glad the belts to washers are now covered.. Otherwise, we might be telling this story with a few other curious boys.
That washer did a lot of work for the family, but it was also dangerous. It nearly drowned Ron, (with help and advice from you and Dennis) and it nearly scalped me. I was watching the wash one day when my long hair got wound up in the wringer, clear up to the scalp. Mom was on the other side wringing out clothes. As soon as I screamed she unwound the wringer and I got my hair back, but I stayed far away after that. It could explain my aversion to putting my head down in the washer to see if I have gotten all the clothes out of the bottom.
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