Originally Posted by
seypat
In the early to mid 70's I got one of those yellow Huffy Scouts from Santa. Rode it many a mile! It was a nice upgrade from walking. One day I was booking it across a golf course at high speed between tee shots when the left brake lever slipped off and went into the front spokes. It jammed in front of the fork. This tore all of the spokes out of the rim and they wrapped around the front hub like a spool of wire. It happened on a gravel/dirt cart path. Instead of a crash, I just came to a sudden stop as the fork/hub dug into the ground. Very similar looking to when a camel goes down on it's front knees first to let the rider dismount. I had to pick it all and walk about 2 miles home.
Thinking back now, that bike and I went through a lot together. That was the grade school/preteen years. Around that same time period I had another accident that could have been fatal but wasn't. I was coming home from a friends house when a driver didn't look back left again, rolled through a stop sign and hit me. Both me and the bike went under the car. Luckily, he was crawling and got stopped quickly. I turned my head around and the right front tire was not far behind my head. The driver and some bystanders got me and the bike out from under the car. I was okay, so again, I picked up the bike and walk about 2 blocks home. I had a studdering problem at the time. When I got home and walked in the house, I was shaking so bad that my parents knew something was wrong. I couldn't do anything but point and studder! We got in the car and went back to the scene and they got the story from the bystanders. This was before the time of ambulance chasers, so nothing became of it.
Another time my brother and I were coming home from baseball practice with my mom and younger brother behind us in a car. My brother was in front on his red and white 10 speed. He was looking around and didn't dodge a soda can. He doesn't do a front end over. It was more of a skid and barrel roll. We get his bike into the car and my mom takes him to the emergency room. He had to get some stitches in his head. I rode back to the house. How we made it through those years I will never know. It seems like someone was going to the hospital at least once a month. How my mom was able to keep her sanity is another mystery.