For those of you who've been wondering what's wrong with me, this post may answer all your questions. I might have had a screw or two knocked loose on more than a couple occasions.
Helmets are in these days much more than they were when I was a kid. Shoot, I remember my Grandma yelling at my Uncle Robert for not wearing his helmet on his motorcycle! Things were different back then.
We used to skateboard on tiny yellow banana boards, ride our bicycles (or motorcycles), and go cardboard-sledding down steep hills all without a helmet.
My First Slam To The Head! (That I Can Remember)
The very first concussion I ever had (I think) was a bad one. I was knocked out for about a good straight minute. It happened because I didn't listen to that voice we all have in our head. The one that warns us of impending danger when we have a bad idea.
BMX From The Top Of A Steep Dirt Hill
If you aren't familiar with the BMX brand, just imagine a dirt bike. Not a motorcycle, but the kind of bicycle kids (and pros) ride for jumping and doing tricks.
Growing up with square acres of canyon behind our house provided many dirt hills for our BMX excursions. Most of the hills were rideable, even if the heights were intimidating from the top.
The hill I chose to ride down one day wasn't an advisable ride. I knew it, too. It wasn't the first time I sat on my BMX at the top and considered bombing that dirt trail. It was the first (and last) time I sat up there and lost my sense of good judgement.
Down The Hill I Went & Took A Tumble
I nearly pulled a death-defying bombing of a mountainous dirt descent off that day. In fact, it was the very bottom that did me in. The ride down was a nightmare, with enough bumps that I almost lost control.
When I reached the very bottom, the trial didn't offer a smooth transition to level ground. There was a small bump. It was a big enough bump to catch the front tire of my BMX, launching me head first over the handle bars.
I flew a good twenty feet and, luckily, landed on a large mound of soft dirt. Placed there some days before by a dump truck, the mound blocked a main sewage drain and shitty pond water basin. Had the mound of dirt not been there, the crap water would have been my resting place.
Baseball Practice Collisions
A good fifteen years of my life went into playing baseball and in that time, I witnessed some injuries. I've been screamed at by a parent for throwing the ball too high to first base after fielding a ground ball.
It forced the first baseman to step back and reach up high, blocking the path of the runner who hit the ball. The runner slammed into our first baseman with so much force that it knocked him out cold.
That's a scary moment for a parent, and his dad instinctively blamed me out of fear for the well-being of his son. Jeff ended up being okay that day, but it was no laughing matter. He went off in an ambulance.
The Same Thing Happened To Me
It wasn't during a game, but while we were working on catching pop-flies at a practice. Ours was even worse than the one I was inadvertently involved in during the game.
Pop-ups or Pop-flies can be tricky in the game of baseball. They become even more troublesome when the ball is hit over the infield but not far into the outfield. This creates a circumstance where the infielder and outfielder run full speed straight at each other.
And that's how it went down between my teammate Paul and I during said practice. He was playing 3rd bass and I was in left filed behind him. Our coach hit a pop-fly and we ran smack into each other at full speed trying to catch it.
The outfielder has the call-off on that play, but it doesn't help if the infielder doesn't hear you. Or if you forget to yell or don't yell loud enough. After being knocked out cold for more than a minute, I couldn't remember who's fault it was.
Vomiting And Parental Observation
Most parents would probably bring their kid to the emergency room to get checked out. Idk. My dad was a doctor and it was the 80's. I guess I didn't need to go. Perhaps I should have.
One sign of a bad concussion and possible hematoma (swelling from bleeding inside the skull), is stomach sickness. Both times I just recounted were severe enough to make me vomit afterwards.
You aren't supposed to allow a person who has a possible head injury to fall asleep if you can prevent it. So.....my parents stayed up watching me to keep me awake as long as they could. But I eventually fell asleep and woke back up in the morning.
I'm still here today, though the blows to my head could explain a few things this many years later.
Hope you enjoyed the read and as always...
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