I was relatively injury-free as a child except for a few times where I hit my nose (more on that in a later post). I loved wearing dress shoes when I was a kid, despite the fact that these shoes had no real traction when walking. My grandparents’ house was two houses away from my home, so my brother Adam and I walked a lot back and forth with our grandmother since she was our primary guardian during the early years of grade school.
Once, I was walking from my grandparents’ house back to my house alone: not quite sure why I was walking alone considering I was still under the age of ten, but it wasn’t like the neighborhood was dangerous. The only road I had to cross was a small side street, Madison Street (or, as the sign was misspelled for many years, ‘Madsion’).
I was wearing my dress shoes during this time and had just crossed Madison Street when suddenly I slipped right outside the fence of my house. I immediately felt a sharp pain in my foot and, according to my sister Lisa, I was screaming so loud that she ran out to find me on the side of the sidewalk crying and screaming. I couldn’t walk right, so she helped me limp my way into the house.
I don’t recall what happened next, but I do remember I had to go get x-rays and the doctor said I had sprained my left ankle. I had to get a cast: since it was around Christmas, I chose a green cast with little Santas printed all around. I stressed over what I was going to do in school since I had to use crutches: the first day I went back to school with my cast, I remember my dad carried me into the multi-purpose room (where all students sat and waited for class to begin) on his back, and I felt embarrassed for some reason. After that day, I got used to using my crutches.
Showering was also a hassle with the cast on: since my parents and my grandmother were paranoid about my cast getting wet, they took garbage bags and put my leg into one while I sat in the bathtub letting one of the adults bathe me.
I don’t remember how long I kept the cast on, but I know that after I got my cast off, I never wore dress shoes again.