One sunny, late summer day, between first and second grade, I made my way over to Buckshot's house to hang out with him. Neither Buckshot nor Elvie were home, so I just wandered around waiting for them to come home.
Behind Buckshot's house was a dirt road leading to a grain elevator. Local farmers would load their big trucks with wheat, barley, oats, flax etc. which they had grown during the summer and then would sell the grain at this elevator.
With time on my hands, I thought now was the time to do so. I instructed Tony to sit outside one end of the culvert, while I went to the other end. lying on my stomach, I called Tony to crawl through the culvert. He whined, and nervously moved his feet, but he wouldn't enter the culvert. I called again. But Tony steadfastly refused to enter the culvert.
When the front wheels of the truck rolled across the loose dirt and the top of the culvert, I could feel the metal bending and the earth moving ever so slightly. I again got afraid. I wanted to be home! But then the rear wheels passed over the same spot, and the moving and bending increased. I started to panic ! But the truck continued to slowly move away, and I was able to calm myself!
I started to move backwards, but found it more difficult than crawling forward. So, I resumed my forward crawl. When I reached a point about half way through the culvert, I heard and felt another truck approaching. I could tell it was moving slower than the first. I waited, as first the front wheels, then the back wheels passed over the top of the culvert. The movement of the ground and the culvert seemed less than with the first truck. I was relieved! But, what I didn't know at the time, was the movement was less because I was in a position midway between the wheels on the left side of the truck and the wheels on the right of the truck.
I soon made my way to where the culvert was flat on the top. When I tried to move my head through the reduced area of the culvert, I couldn't! It was too big! It wouldn't fit through! I felt ill! I thought I would throw up! Then, I discovered if I turned my head sideways, parallel to my shoulders, I could squeeze through. After squeezing my head through the narrow spot, I inched my way forward. Finding that I had to take very shallow breaths as I entered this restricted space, progress was very slow.
Then I heard another grain truck approaching! It was moving even slower than the last one! I tried to hurry, but it was too late! The weight of the front of the truck, pushed the culvert down on my back and forced the air out of my lungs, and I felt pain! Pain and panic!
The front wheels of the truck moved ahead, and I felt relief from the pain, but with the panic and the shallow breathing I was out of breath! Before I could move over an inch, the back wheels moved to the flat area of the culvert. The air was immediately squeezed out of my lungs and I again felt pain! This time the squeezing and the pain didn't go away! The truck stopped at this exact spot, and was waiting in line for the other trucks to move ahead.
My panic increased as the pain slowly decreased and my vision became gray and turned to black! I was unconscious! As I was starting to become aware again, I could feel something warm and wet on my cheek. It was Tony! He had sensed the trouble I was in and crawled in to help me by licking my cheek! Slowly I pushed Tony backwards, and myself forward, until we were safely out of the culvert.
I don't know how long I was unconscious that day. I suspect, not very long. But that was the first of many, many times during my life, and all will be documented on this blog.
My first post
My second post
My Life Begins - I Almost Killed My Mother!! #1
My Life - Neighbor & Tomato Plants #2
My Life - A Boy and a BB Gun #3
My - Life a Boy and a BB Gun (continued) #4
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade #5
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade (continued) #6
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade Continued #7
My Life - "Buckshot"! #8