Friday, January 10, 2025

1-10-25: TBT to 1947 at Harman, Virginia: I was 5 years old and had fallen in the creek three times while playing ‘Follow The Leader’ the previous day at Uncle Fred’s farm. 😢
When we returned home to Harman I was unable to get out of 🛌 the next morning. Dad carried me to see Dr. J.P. Sutherland and he called UVA 🏥 in Charlottesville to tell them he was sending them a young patient with a dislocated hip. 💝
Dad took me and Mom to Bluefield to catch a 🚂 to Charlottesville, Mom carrying a suitcase and me.
One thing I still recall about the 🚂 ride was a Conductor kept walking up and down the aisles, going from car to car as I think there were several connecting cars on the train. The Conductor kept hollering “ Cigars, Cigarettes! Tiparillos!” Over and over every 20 minutes or so and scores of people were smoking. And since there was not much air circulation, I had my face pressed against the window trying to get away from all the smoke.💨
I 👀 out the window at the 🌳 and hoped the ride would soon be over.
We were there for a week or two and after X-Rays and such, the doctors decided that my hip joint was out of socket & that my 🦵 needed to be placed in traction for several months to gently pull it back into place. They called Dr. Sutherland and he came to our Harman house and connected a pulley system in a baby bed next to a window. I could 👀 out the window and could be taken out of the bed occasionally, but only for short trips.
Remembering that Dad would pull me down to the Company Store in a little red wagon occasionally
I missed the first half of First Grade and started First Grade after Christmas in 1948.
Mom taught me every day with lessons she devised and when I went to school after Christmas, I knew my ABC’s and could count to 💯 and much more. ❤️
Dr. Sutherland telling me in later years that the only reason I was walking was because of that pulley system, 🥛 , and penicillin. Penicillin had just been invented and he gave me a shot of it every day as he came by our house. 💝

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