Childhood Stacking A Pushbike

[anthony]

Who knew... that stacking a pushbike could end so violently! :eek:

I remember two traumatic instances quite vividly as a child, one was me stacking my bike coming down the hill towards our house, trying to jump the gutter into the driveway, stacking it, and it just so happens that the peddle had actually fallen apart and was just an axle, well... that went through my leg. As in... entry and exit, through my calf. I still remember my dad trying to get the bike off of me, as he pulled it my leg would go with. I found that the amusing part considering the pain I was in. Someone held down my leg, someone pulled the peddle axle out, then wrapped it and in the car to the hospital we went. I remember I couldn't walk for weeks, then it took lots more to learn how to walk properly again.

Then I was there for my sisters turn. We were racing down another hill, close to home, all was clear and away we went. A truck decided to turn out of a street and she swerved, I swerved and was ok... she got wobbly, then over she went. We were going fast, fast enough that when she came off it took about 60% of her skin off her body. I remember carrying home the two pushbikes, hers and mine, and my sister tried to help her home. Tough as nails kids... none of this mobile phone nonsense... you got injured, you got yourself to help, simple as that. So away we went, got home and I remember my mother freaking out. I though it helped her looks a bit... a bit of blood never hurt nobody, but WOW did she really do some damage.

Amazing how you think as a kid vs. adult. Retrospect... who knew. :wideeyed:

These are two childhood memories I have that I still today remember, and snap... both obviously quite traumatic. It really is true that we remember things that have a highly emotional value attached, the rest we forget mainly.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Wow what freedom us kids used to have in this world.

I remember going to a park with my brother and the bike I was riding was down on the ground for a bit. When I picked it up, one of the thingys connected to the front wheel was bent at a angle and cut deep into my leg. All I remember was all of this blood pouring out and when I woke up there was this group of people all around me staring at me. I had to wait for my brother to ride home to tell my parents and they drove to take me to the hospital for stitches. A part of my nerve was cut and it feels numb to this day. I have a lovely scar still.

I remember having to learn how to walk again.

We used to ride our bikes everywhere and often our parents never knew where we were.

I have not thought of this for so many years. I remember just feeling numb. I do not remember being scared until it was time for me to get the stitches.

Glad you are ok now Anthony.

 

[kagamine]

When I was about 10 I was really into biking, both mountain biking and of course, bmx tricks. Because really, that's the age every kid wanted to be Tony Hawk. So I'm peddling along our gravel driveway and I hit a rock, a pretty big one apparently, because I fly over the handle bars. I manage to orient myself before landing, I'd already learned by that age how to lessen the impact of a fall. So I land on my hands and knees. In the process getting a huge jagged rock lodged into my knee. I hobbled all the way back up to the house not saying a word, pulling the thing out when I get inside and running a bath to sit in when I see how much I'm bleeding. It's a nice scar. I should have gotten stitches, and I'm lucky my dad's nurse friend saw it a couple of weeks later during one of my visits because it was horribly infected (literally oozing green nasty stuff)

 

[The Albatross]

I rescued my brother twice in bike accidents... then I had two myself, with a 10 speed and was a hood ornament twice basically. The first time I dropped my bike, the second time I didn't and the man who hit me was driving a BMW and came out of the car screaming at me for scratching his hood. I have a bike but haven't ridden it since... no bike lanes, no bike riding basically.

 

[Chava]

That bike incident is quite freaky. It's weird how we just go on as kids, but yes the freaky things kind of stick. I don't have a load of memories, but a non-trauma freaky one of a piece of straw going through part of my hand when I tried to feed a horse. What the?!!

But I remember having a bad cold, acting like it was no big (just tired). My mom didn't like something about my back (bubbles because air sacks had popped and the air was seeping into my back) so she brought me to ER...doctor started crying when he saw me and put me in an ambulance to bigger city an hour away (I remember getting into the ambulance, then I was out of it for many days). I still hate the smell of melted cellophane. :wtf: Anyway, my lungs were collapsing. One collapsed entirely en route to the bigger hospital. What I don't get is why I like inhaling smoke into my lungs SO MUCH (they also weren't working when I was born). That I don't already have fibrosis in there is amazing and I want the will to treat these organs with just a little more love some day! My chronic pain is in my upper back but I don't have any breathing problems. I don't know if this stuff is specifically connected, but if someone tries to touch my back when I'm on edge my whole body cringes and I start hissing like I'm burning.

Serious, freak leg injuries would be really hard on a kid, I imagine. The whole thing of agency and how much kids live through movement. My only biking problem was that I was too uncoordinated to work the brakes or get off the bike (my brother's...too big for me), so I'd go all the way around the block and run right into the house to stop myself and sort of leap off the bike. That seemed totally acceptable to me, and nobody seemed to notice the rubber marks on the house.

 

[anthony]

So I'm peddling along our gravel driveway and I hit a rock

That gravel is sharp stuff. I remember coming off, and still have the scar today, over a set of triples that had just been done at our local bmx track. Same stuff, learnt how to right myself for the least damage, but due to the speed I was travelling, I had to shift from hands to elbows, and I opened one up about 3 inches just from the little gravel used for the track. People were getting all dizzy around me and I remember just asking them, what? The blood and hole in my arm... I thought it was pretty cool, but eventually the blood loss caught up with me and I started to go into shock, went pale and off to hospital for treatment.

The cleaning of the wound was the worst... the needles in the wound to numb it so they could clean it... it all hurt, then morphine kicked in and the world was in balance once again. :cautious: :coffee:

 

[StellaBlue]

I broke my arm doing stupid things on a bike. It was the first day of summer vacation after 3rd or 4th grade so I missed a lot of activities because of the cast. I was in shock at the time, so the only pain I remember was when the doctor set it...he just kind of snapped it into place...I think I may have fainted then.

 

[The Albatross]

I had to lay a ten speed down once and got road rash, taking off most of my right hip. It was awful getting it cleaned and took a long time to heal. I was embarrassed that it would ooze trying to scab up but the area was so big it wouldn't and my dressing had to be changed several times during the school day. I had to do it myself. I ended up finally getting it closed at a friends house who had an ultra violet lamp and her mother put me under it for a few minutes before, after school and before I had to go home.

The scar was big. But it is gone now. I was 11 or 12.

 

[Friday]

Surfing and snowboarding, people. You almost never bleed when you fall on water (wet or frozen). Just stay away from coral and rocks. And try not to smack yourself in the face with your board. Unless you really want insurance to pay for a nose job. ;)

Skaters and bikers are just keerazy people. Shudder. Asphalt, concrete, motorists... Landing just shouldn't always = bad.

Aw, who am I kidding? I've got an injury, maiming, and death waiver tattooed on my back. Good times.

 

[The Albatross]

I think for me it wasn't the injury per se, it was the difficulty with the treatment (it had to be scrubbed various times because of the asphalt) and then it was the embarrassment in class when I'd have to deal with it. I didn't like undue attention from anybody and already had a lot of difficulty expressing a need from an authority figure.

 

[Loloma]

Wow @anthony , your post brought back memories.

When I was about 8 or 9 I borrowed my elder brothers bike and went for a ride. I chose the busiest main road in the suburb we live. I could barely reach the pedals, being so short. I decided to turn off the road, stopped suddenly and was hit from behind by a car. I went flying in the air, braking with my hands and chin when I hit the road.

I managed to get up, grab and bike and somehow make it home. Put the mangled bike in the shed and hid in the bedroom. I was bleeding and in a lot of pain. Hand hand were red red raw and under my chin was ripped open. Next thing I heard a knock on the door. The police had come to interview me. My mother was really pissed off at me.

The guy that had hit me, got away with it. I ended up with blood poisoning and it took months to heal. The scar remains under my chin 55 years later.

 

[kagamine]

I guess wiping out bad is a universal of childhood :P @anthony it's funny what's cool when you're a kid, I told that story a million times at school and actually got a lot of playground cred for it. I don't know, there's something about a good scar story