Of course we have all one of those conversations where
someone says something to you, and it sticks in your head for days on
end.....like now, when I really should be going to bed, but I currently have a
traffic jam in my head!!! So here I am 29 + 10 + 1 ( yea do the math or stop at
the 29 - that's what I do), and an innocent comment that a total stranger made on Saturday morning, has my wheels
spinning in overdrive, like I am 5 years old again!
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| 5th Birthday .. I think I am holding a cat hostage! |
Most people that know me, know I had hip surgery as kid,
where they broke both of my hips to turn my legs around, and I was in a full
body cast for months ( seemed like forever) and if you've seen me in shorts, a
bathing suit or those awesome micro minis ( that I use to have the body to rock
in high school ) then you know I also have scars, large dimple looking scars on
both sides of my hips. I was almost 5 and in a full body cast, from my chest
down to my toes, with a bar in between my legs and pins in my hips to keep my
legs straight, and I had a little red wagon that I traveled in, flat on top of it. I spent weeks at All Children's Hospital ....which funny enough is where I now work.
I remember certain things clearly, like my cousin "M" and her
friend "S" pulling me in my little red wagon to go Tricker Treating on Halloween, I
was dressed as a sweet little baby doll, I was transformed into a live screaming doll.....with real tears,
because when the neighbor, " Crazy Eddie" jumped out of the tree in a
gorilla suit ....and my 2 trusty babysitters RAN.... YEP they ran and left this
poor, defenseless child, in her full body cast on her wagon, screaming at the
crazy man in the gorilla suit!!!! Who took off his mask, to help calm me
down..... it didn't work ... I don't remember ever going Tricker Treating (Or anywhere else alone) with those 2 again,
that's for sure!!! I also remember same loving cousin, with her older brother
"B" putting me in a sleeping bag, and one being at the top of the stairs, while the
other was at the bottom ......and having me slide down.... More like a thump,
thump, thump (they of course do not remember those adventures). Or being propped up at my 5th birthday party or
Christmas eve, because I had 2
positions I could be in, I could stand or lay down....I eventually learned to scoot
across the carpet on my belly at my great grandmothers house by pulling on the shag carpet. I remember laying in the back of a truck on blankets the entire
ride to the mountains
I guess you can say it built character ..... because obviously I am full of it!!! HAHHAHA
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| See the dimple peeking out? |
I don't really
remember how long I was in the body cast,
I do however remember the day I was freed from it ......I was screaming
"leave me in it" as I thought Dr. Hobbie was chain sawing me out of
it!!! I may not be good with names, but you tend to remember the man's name that broke both your legs, slapped you in a full body cast and was now trying to saw me in half ... Yep that was Dr. Hobbie.....(he has to be like 100 by now - because I can picture him in my head plain as day and he was like 100 then)
I'm sure in my 5 year old mind, it was a way bigger saw than in
actuality and he may have only been 90-ish. But hey, my story, my memories!!
Once freed, I had to learn to do
everything all over again, walk swim, bike etc. I even mastered the art of twirling my baton, skating across the brick rode! That was cut short when I fell , broke my arm and a car ran over the TOP of me ... didn't hit me, ran over the top of my body...I know what you are thinking ... How on earth did I ever survive Childhood?? Pretty sure Mama Pepper wonders the same thing some days.. ......or how SHE survived my childhood!!!
I also now had these 2 long
scars on my hips, with dimples. Not sure I realized what they were until I returned to school the next year, Mama Pepper thought it best I repeated kindergarten ... something about "learning to share again" .... Hey you spend months in a cast and you will also NOT want to share your toys (or cat) with people who can walk away from you and not give it back!! What was I gonna do chase them?? I remember kids
being kids ( translation....mini asshats) and saying " Ewww what's
that?" Or " Ewww what happened?" or wose "Eww Gross", these statement in some form or
another has followed me the entire 29 + 6 years ( I know again with the math) I have adored these scars on my
hips. The doctors had once said, she will never have scars from this, she will
grow taller and the skin will stretch and you won't notice them. HA - I stopped
growing in 6th grade - so much for growing taller I have been 5' 2 and 1/2 on big hair days that is....
One summer, I remember going to my granddaddy and crying
after we had been at the beach, and i was greeted with " Ewww what
happened to you? Why do your legs look like that?" He told me plain and
simple as I sat on his knee and twirled
my finger around the salt rim on his Old Milwalkie beer (just so I could taste it) "There are all
types of people out there, if people want to talk about you, point and
stare, then give them something to talk about. Be proud of those battle scars
you wear, they make you unique and you." .........Okay, seriously that was SO not the answer I wanted at 9 so we also devised several tall tales
about what happened to me .....like I
was attacked by a shark, bear, a shot gun .....I mean really I have 2 scars on both of my outside hips .....it's
possible that's what actually happened!!! And to a 9 year old way more exciting
then hip surgery!
I realize that my scars are so very minor and do not even compare to so many people in this world, but nevertheless, I can't say that the comments or questions have ever
stopped about my scars, even Prince Charming when he was little utter those
very same words to me - it's what kids (and adults) do.
I can say that my conversation when I was about 9 years old with my
granddaddy helped me FINALLY pass my speech class in college, when we had to
give a speech of something either completely true or completely false about
yourself. And fool the class ..... After all I had the proof I had be shot and the bullet ejected right out the other
side of my hip! I so nailed that speech, granddaddy would have been proud! I'm
just glad no one was smart enough to ask me if I had holes between my thighs
.....and not just the outside!
Truthfully, I don't even realize they are there anymore,
unless it's cold or rainy out, then my hips ache only to remind me. Or when
someone points them out and to say " What happened to you?".
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| See this is where the 12ft shark got me! those are teeth marks ..... I promise! |
Funny how an innocent conversation with a stranger, in a waiting room ,can
bring up a life time of memories, and feelings and all she said to me after
noticing my scars was " Oh
wow, you know you can have that fix and get rid of that", it took me a
minute to even realize what the hell she was talking about, until she started
explaining how they can stretch the skin, and pull this and that and blah, blah, blah. I looked down at
my legs and for a split second, I felt like that little girl with the mean kids
pointing and saying "Ewww - what's that". Cutting her short before
she had me signed up for plastic surgery, I just smiled and said "And why
would I want to go and do all that? These battle scars made me who I am today -
why change now?"
Don't get me wrong - there are plenty of things I would LOVE to fix and get rid of on my body ~ I mean don't we all??? I'd like to be 40lbs thinner, my arms and thighs to be firmer an ass you could bounce a quarter on, boobs that are back to the prefect perk I had at 19... But as far as the dimples I have on my hips...... Nah - if I got rid of them....... I'd run out of stories to tell ......and then things would just be boring!
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