Jager said he had taken his test for his first driver's license in his grandfather's great huge Caddy.
It was a time when the license was typed up and given to the new driver instantly.
Jager, armed with his new license, asked his grandfather if he could borrow the car for a little while.
The response was a firm "NO".
Well that and all this news coverage of the Corona virus took me back to one Christmas when I was a youngster.
I had wakened one morning with a severe bellyache and found when I stood that I couldn't straighten up.
Dad said I was faking it to get out of going to school but Mom insisted that they take me to see the local doctor.
He did some tests and found that my white blood cell count was sky high and that I probably was suffering from appendicitus.
There was no hospital in our small North Dakota town but there was one in another town about 30 miles away.
Now Doc Flath was a single man all his life and he indulged himself with Cadillac automobiles.
So he loaded me into the back seat, mom rode in front in the passenger seat and we drove to Powers Lake.
That was my first ride in a Cadillac and, except for the pain in my gut, I loved it.
When we arrived at the hospital I was surrounded by nurses who had needles in both of my arms simultaneously.
I was in surgery within minutes and my severely ruptured appendix was removed.
I spent a week or so in the hospital as I recall and then was sent home for bed rest.
My bedroom was on the second floor of our house and there I was confined.
I had some kind of drain tube protruding from my body and the doctor would come to our home frequently, pull a section out and snip it off.
It sounds ghastly but I don't remember a lot of pain associated with it.
I was still recovering when Christmas arrived that year and someone carried me downstairs to lie on the couch for the ritual opening of presents.
I look about as bleak in this picture as my grandfather to my immediate right.
My uncle Zenas, who had come from San Francisco, is on the far left next to Mom, and Dad is on the far right next to the Christmas tree.
I'm not sure what my gift(s) were but it may very well have been a magic set.
I was into magic at that time and my first time out of the house after my ordeal was at the annual show put on for the kids of the town by a visiting magician.
By the next summer I was all healed up and, wearing a cape and top hat made by Mom and "with nothing up my sleeves", putting on my own magic shows.
And I was smiling!
Ah, the recuperative powers of youth.
My uncle Sam came to visit us in New Jersey when I was 14 years old. He had just purchased a brand new Edsel. Without my Dad knowing, he handed me a cigar and the keys to the car and said "take if for spin around the neighborhood, kid...and try the cigar. As I drove slowly around the neighborhood, I waived to my buddies and felt pretty darn cool. Unfortunately, after smoking my first and only cigar, I was green in the face when I pulled into our driveway and proceed to throw up for the next hour behind the house. Not so cool afterall...... but still quite the memory thanks to my infamous Uncle Sam!
ReplyDeleteCould have been a close call. WHy do dads always think kids are faking it? My son had a broken arm for two days before mom decided to see a doctor. Good think that moms always know.
ReplyDeleteMy Grandfather had a Caddie. I loved riding in that big land boat. Air conditioning, power steering, brakes and I just had to play with the power windows!
It probably got about 6 MPG.
When I was around 10 years old I got Scarlet fever a few days before Christmas and we were quarantined with even a sign out on the fence for the people to keep away. There were not many pics taken that year!
ReplyDeleteYou lucked out, big time. I'm guessing you had the beginning stages of peritonitis, from the ruptured appendix. IV antibiotics, I imagine penicillin in those days, saved you. And getting it out in time.
ReplyDeleteGlad you survived.
That's quite an experience to have. It's nice that your memory of the appendicitis coincides with a very happy memory of being driven to the hospital in a Cadillac. It must have been quite a ride.
ReplyDeleteAnd your dad wanted you to go to school.
ReplyDeleteYou poor kid! My father once said that it wouldn't be Christmas without one of the kids being sick!
Being senior citizens, we finally bought a red Cadillac, used one but in great shape. Since this will probably be our last car, it was worth it.
Should Fish More has it right.
Most ambulances were Caddys in the good old days, you ducked that bullet. Anybody got Jag E type story? I've got one.
ReplyDeleteThese days, one night in hospital and home on oral antibiotics. Should Fish is right, you likely were on the verge of sepsis, which is why you were so deathly ill.
ReplyDeleteEver read the Steve Martin memoir, and his early days as a magician? Born Standing Up.
I think I was about 8 or 10 when that happened to me. Old hospital, old ways, I remember waking so sick from that operation. I was also in that small eastern Oregon hospital for several days. Big deal at the time. I think today it would all be just an office visit.
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