Most of us should be recovering from bulging bellies and
thunder thighs from too much barbeque, potato salad, baked beans, and peach
clobber; from aching pains and soreness from volleyball, pitching horseshoes, playing
softball, and swimming which is really arthritic flare-up and gout caused uric
acid overload from too much watermelon, cantaloupe, and pork.; and from sunburn
from showing too much skin and applying too little sunscreen.
When I think of celebrating a safe Fourth of July, I think
of my cousin, Stevie. My aunt threatened
to lock him in a room take away his Independence Day. Stevie was an accident waiting to happen
during pre-teen and teenage years.
One Fourth he aggravated Grandmoe Chapman’s dog one too many
times. Rover was Grandmoe’s mutt and
trusted “guard dawg”. On this particular Fourth, Rover got even by biting a
hole in Stevie’s lip. This meant a quit
trip to Dr. Joe Moore in Clanton. Stevie
got stitches and a shot.
Another Fourth Stevie was playing with a step ladder. The ladder collapsed almost severing fingers
from both hands. It was another quick
trip to see Dr. Joe for stitches and another shot.
On another Fourth we were working on an old rear engine
Chevy Covair. It had one fan belt that
looped from the top down around the side and the back bottom of the engine
through a series of pulleys.
Stevie and my brothers were watching the belt trying to
diagnose a squeak. They told me to bump
the engine (that’s a Chilton
County turning without
starting). I bumped it and they yelled
for me to stop. Stevie was pointing at a
pulley just as I bumped it and his fingers went between the belt and the
pulley.
You probably have guessed it by now. When I went to see the commotion, Stevie had
two fingers dangling and one finger with a compound fracture. I told daddy we needed to carry Stevie to the
doctor. He asked how bad the fingers
were. I said, “Bad.” I had wrapped them and would not let Stevie
see them. When dad saw them, he said,
“Let’s go.” My dad and I loaded in my
hotrod Cutlass Supreme and raced to none other than Dr. Joe.
Dr. Joe shook his head as he filled a shot. He had a few choice words for Stevie and
commenced to set the fractured finger and sew the other two back together and
hope Stevie did not lose them. Stevie
never cried through the whole ordeal until Dr. Joe stuck his fingers for the
surgery. My aunt had a few choice words
for Stevie when we returned him home.
It gets better. One
Fourth Stevie and my brothers decided they would make their own fireworks. They found out that if you mixed red-devil
lye with aluminum foil and water it created helium. Their scheme was to put the material in a
coke bottle and trap the helium in balloons.
They put balloons on the mouth of the bottles. For fireworks they would remove the balloons,
tie rags on the balloons, and light the rags with a lighter. Rising high over the Chilton County
sky the balloons exploded with brilliant colors.
It was so successful that they expanded their
experiment. More aluminum foil, red-devil
lye, and water would make a bigger explosion.
It did. The coke bottle exploded
and melting aluminum went everywhere.
Stevie received the most. Dancing
an Indian rain dance for relief, my brothers and another cousin tried spraying
water on Stevie’s brightly glowing legs and shorts. Water was a no no because water is the
catalyst to start the chemical reaction.
It spread the concoction and Stevie made another trip to Dr. Joe. At least there were no stitches, only gauze
and cream for burns.
Stevie had one more bad Fourth. Two other cousins and he went to the local
store for fireworks. No more concoctions. The sun was setting as Steve and his cousin
left the store on a Yamaha motorcycle.
They stopped to shoot some fireworks.
Stevie, setting on the back heard the other cousin leave the store on
his 750 Honda. He was winding it
out. This cousin wore glasses and had
difficulty seeing at night.
Stevie screamed, “He can’t see us!” They took off trying to get out of the
way. For a cousin that could not see, he
hit the motorcycle dead center of the rear tire pushing the rear tire into the
engine of the bike and forcing the front tire of the his bike into the 750
engine. Bikes locked together; the trio
slid around seventy-five feet up the highway.
One cousin was bruised, one had bleeding arm, and Stevie had rocks
embedded in his buttocks. He slid on
gravel which ate through pants, underwear, and skin. My aunt had a few more choice words as she
used a pair of tweezers to remove the rocks and then a trip to Dr. Joe where he
placed Stevie head down and filled his rear end with Ivory soap to remove tar,
dirt, and gravel and prep for another shot.
He did not have stitches, but our other cousin had forty-five or more on
his arm.
A prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself: but the simple
pass on, and are punished (Proverbs 22:3 - KJV).
I am glad God watches over us, especially Stevie growing up.
I am your Creator. You were in my care even before you
were born (Isaiah 44:2a - CEV).
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