My brother and I are 17 months apart. The summer before I turned three I still thought of him as my baby brother. He walked at nine months so by the time of this memory he not only could walk, but could kick a ball. Therein was the rub.
We were kicking a 6" rubber ball around our back yard. It was irritating to me that my "baby" brother could kick the ball farther than I could. I reasoned that if I could kick the ball so far with one foot, I could kick it twice as far if I kicked it with both feet. I happened to be standing on the concrete slab outside the back door when I kicked the ball with both feet. That was the last I remembered. I woke up in my parent's bed. I learned that I had a concussion, but no one would tell me how far I had kicked he ball. I will never know if my strategy worked!
Probably the next summer before I turned four my sister, aged 8 or 9, brother, other neighbor kids and I were playing baseball in the back yard. My sister was not athletically astute. I was being the catcher when she was at bat. She must have hit the ball because she headed to first base, but in the process threw the bat at me. It hit me in the chest and knocked me out. I later learned that I had had "the wind knocked out" of me, not another concussion.
About this time my older brother was in the navy during World War II. I remember spending many evenings in front of the console radio listening mostly to the static on the short wave band. My dad and I would get as close to the speaker as possible to hear whatever we could. I remember hearing a woman speaking rapidly in another language. I understood that there were far away places, and that my brother was somewhere far away. As an adult I wonder if the voice we heard was Tokyo Rose. I also remember hearing President Roosevelt on the radio and wonder if that were one of his "Fireside Chats."
No comments:
Post a Comment