Chicken
Scott Mclean
This stage of my life will take a while and quite a few stories to get through.
This was the age that Steve and I had a lot of our adventures during. In other words, a study in rampant stupidity.
I have stated before how Cowiche Creek was one of our main playgrounds. We sometimes played chicken with our bikes on Pioneer Street. Mom witnessed this one day and told us we would be grounded from the creek if she caught us doing it again.
That was a dire threat for us but the operative words were if and caught. We decided we would only play chicken while Mom was at work.
It had never been an issue other than a few scrapes because Steve always chickened out. Until this one time! Our old bikes at the time had 1 speed and fenders. The resulting crash ended up with me having Steve’s fender scooping under a decent sized flap of flesh on my right knee.
Steve freaked. Not so much from the bloody gash in my knee but from the idea of not going to the creek.
We went home and I rinsed out the wound with a garden hose. This next part will tell you how much we valued our Creek time.
Mom had some sacking needles in the basement. These were long, curved needles used for things like gunnysacks. I took one of those and some 8 pound fishing line and stitched the gash up. I’d like to say I never made a peep but I was 11 and probably balled my head off. We then poured hydrogen peroxide on it because in those days it was the cure for everything.
Mom noticed that I limped some that night but we told her I tripped coming down from the canal. She should have known something was going on when I didn’t wear cutoffs the rest of the summer.
Taking my beautiful stitches out a few weeks later was an adventure in itself.
We didn’t often fool Mom but she didn’t find out about the knee until I was 18. An orthopedic surgeon was looking at my left knee and remarked that whoever worked on my other knee did a crude job of suturing. Mom gave me one of those we’ll talk later looks and on the way home the truth came out. A little late to ground us from the creek so mission successful.
I warned you about the rampant stupidity! See ya!