Saturday August 18, 2012
Short Story:
Sign Painting and Brother's Broken Bones
Keep in mind as I write these articles they are events
that pop up in my RT*and probably have no other signicantes to anyone except
those involved......it is a true and interesting story.
Article 003
I will now take you back to Sac City one summer day when
I got a sign painting job to paint a street banner promoting a special event in
the small town East of Sac called Lytton. It was an event called Lytton Gala
Days. Don't ask me how I remember that...it comes from my * "remembering
technique"(RT). The canvas banner would stretch across their main street
in the middle of the business district. I was approximately 3 feet high and
maybe 20 to 35 feet long.
I had stretched it out in the backyard on the grass. I
finished laying out the letters "Lytton Gala Days" across the length
of the Banner. I had just started painting the letters when my mother came
running out of the backdoor of our house latterly shouting "My Gosh, Dave,
they called from Lake City and said Jim has broken his arm." My RT* is
kicking in and I must give you some background here.
Editor's Note: (this is a long but interesting
story)
....This probably won't mean anything to anyone except to
brother Jim, but it is an interesting story and "Amazing" that I am
able to use my RT* I remembered a lot
of details from this story so hang with me please! ....
My brother, Jim, 8 years younger than me. became a
very good athlete. I didn't excel in any sport, but I played them all. I
remember making a commitment to myself to to what I could he help Jim excel in
as many sports as possible. As one example, teaching him baseball techniques I
started playing baseball with him in our basement with a tennis ball. I had an
old catcher’s glove and would have Jim pitch the tennis ball as fast and as
hard as he could to me from one end of the basement room to the other for hours
at a time.
We would trade places and I would itch and Jim would be
the catcher. Eventually I was throwing as hard as I could to him. Jim got so he
could stop anything I threw and many times catch the thrown ball also. I worked
with him in football and track events also.
In football Jim went on to become a very good quarterback, in track a
good pole vaulter and in baseball he became an all star player on his little
league team.
Jim's strongest desire was baseball in high school. He
chose not to participate in any other sport except baseball in high school.
This was fine except the high school football coach was constantly trying to
talk Jim into playing on the high school football team.
After many attempts, the coach talked him into going out
for football that fall. He told him that he would play Jim in positions that he
would not get hurt because Jim was looking forward to the upcoming baseball
season. The evening of Jim's last football game of the season my friend, Terry
and I were having a Pepsi in the Buena Vista snack shop. Jim's football game
was played at the BV football field. The game was against Storm Lake high
school. Terry and I had been watching the first half of the football game and
decided, at half time to walk to the snack shop for a drink. I was very close
to the football stadium. as we left I noticed on the game clock we had about 15
minutes befor the second half would begin.
We were sitting in the snack shop when someone came running
in and said, "Dave, you need to get over to the football field, something
happened to your brother."
As we ran back to the football field, I glanced up and
saw that the game clock was stopped about 2 minutes into the 3rd quarter. We
saw a bunch of people in a group with an ambulance in the field. As we entered
the stadium the ambulance was leaving and I saw Jim and my mother in the
ambulance. Jim had a big grin on his face and was waving at me.
We immediately went to our car and followed the ambulance
to the hospital. When we arrived we were directed to the floor where Jim was
being examined by a Doctor Shay. Dr. Shay was a somewhat strange but caring
doctor. Jim expressed a great deal of pain from his broken ankle as Dr. Shay
attempted to remove Jim's football stocking. Dr. Shay was trying to remove the
sock by sliding it off Jim's ankle.
In a very short time Jim expressed his anger from the
painful technique by loudly saying "Cut the “@$!&*$%” sock off with
your scissors!" Jim told him and
said that he would buy the football team another sock.
After Jim's ankle was repaired and a metal pin place to
hold one of the bones in place Jim was admitted to a hospital room. From the
time he regained his consciousness from the surgery, Jim was asking when he
could go home. You see, Sac City varsity football team played a game on the
following Friday, four days away. He was
told to relax and wait for the doctor to release him.
Friday came and Jim asked to talk to Dr. Shay that
morning. At noon he was given permission to prepare to be released. I don't
know what he said to the doctor, but it must have been conversing. That evening
I took Jim, on a pair of crutches to the football game. We had to park a fair
distance from the field so Jim had to slowly use the crutches to maneuver to
the seats.
It was a long trip back to the car after the game and Jim
was pretty tired. The next morning he complained of a sore throat and to make a
long story longer....he came down with mononucleosis. I remember I had to crush
ice for him to suck on cause it was hard for him to swallow as he lay almost
motionless for the best part of the next week recovering.
When he got better, we were told by the medical people
that it was probably the best thing that could have happened to him. It have
his ankle sufficent time to really heal. Had he not been down and off his feet
he might have suffered complications from his over-activity.
As a result of the fractured ankle he was not able to go
out for basketball that he was really looking forward to doing. (He was an
exceptionally good basketball player also) As it turned out he got to play in
the last two basketball games of the season.
Next came the track season. We had purchased Jim a glass
pole for his pole vaulting. He had btoken the junior high record in pole
vaulting the year before. He had gone to a track meet in Lake City about 30
minutes from Sac and he was determined to do well in the pole vaulting. His
foot and leg were pretty well back to normal excerpt he was still a little slow
on his run.
That is the time my mother came running out of the back
door screaming that Jim had broken his arm.
Actually it was his wrist. He had made two attempts to clear the
starting height and missed then on third try he cleared the height but when he
came down he landed on his wrist wrong and it broke.
The school didn't make any money that year on the Logan
family. Jim had a broken ankle and now a broken wrist.
That really upset him because he was looking forward to
the baseball season coming up next. He was in a cast and decided that he could
only coach with the cast on so he coached a little league team.
* (RT) Remembering Technique
