Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A Tumble From a Moving Vehicle

Vehicles today have numerous safety features that were absent a few decades ago. Present day, the vehicle tells you if a passenger’s seat belt is not fastened. If a door is not securely closed a light will indicate this compromised condition to the driver. Good thing that these safety upgrades, amongst numerous others, are in place. After all, wouldn’t want someone to tumble out of a moving vehicle.


1977

It was Sunday morning and the Klem family had visited an aunt and uncle en route to our weekly visit to grandma and grandpa’s. As us five kids exited the residence we piled into the station wagon, the ‘Steaming Pile’ was this vehicle dubbed for reasons not to be elaborated here. I was second to last, and thinking that the final sibling would simply enter the vehicle after me, I didn’t latch the door.

As things would have it, the sibling entered through a different door. I quickly forgot that my door was ajar, plus I was not belted, and the automobile pulled away from the curb of this peaceful residential neighborhood. These were different times the 1970s, the ‘Click-It or Ticket’ slogan was decades away.

As the vehicle gained speed the door swung open, I had been leaning on the door and I slipped out of the car. Moving my legs as fast as I could, I took a few steps running alongside holding the car door. I looked at my older brother who had been sitting next to me. He looked at me and he got a visual of the terror that was certainly on my face. I was ten years old and my little legs couldn’t keep up, too fast, slipped, tripped, I tumbled to the pavement in the middle of the street. Asphalt. I had been sitting on the driver’s side in the middle row. Luckily, no vehicles were heading in the opposite direction. My left arm was scraped up and bloody, but no major injuries, stitches, breaks, or hospital visit needed.

I recall lying on the couch at grandma and grandpa’s and being offered a 7-Up. I declined because I had this silly notion that the carbonation of the beverage would somehow translate to an uncomfortable bubbling of my open wound. I know, that’s crazy talk.

On the drive home I did not sit adjacent to the door.
-klem

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