30 Years in the Bathroom

Thirty years ago, I was just a youngster who wanted to do everything, all sports, playing music, etc. If I enjoyed doing it, it was game.

Then one early summer day in 1981 while heading home from a church work project, something unexpected happened; the motor scooter I was driving made contact with rear of an AMC Gremlin (see photo). In the collision, the result was very clear - the moped and I lost...big time. After surgery and a few days in the hospital, I surrendered a summer of my life to sitting on my back side with my left leg extended in a cast. The cast was hiding 2 screws and 18 staples. My right leg was blessed with 11 stitches from the cut the license plate inflicted.



As someone who was small and scrawny (see photo), it was amazing how much muscle atrophy could occur in just 4 weeks. By the time the cast came off, my left leg was noticeably smaller than my right. I spent the next 2 years trying to continue with the full list of activities, but things were more difficult than they were before the accident. In the spring of 1982 I began running and I found myself enjoying it more and more. Without the accident I don't know if I would have taken to distance running, but fate helped me reach that conclusion.

Artist for Song in Title: The Wonderstuff
note about the song title: In case you are wondering, the bathroom part has nothing to do with any part of my story. In my effort to use song titles to title all of my posts, having '30 years' in the title was too perfect to avoid using.