I believe I mentioned previously that we, the youngest three of the 7, Pat and Tommy and I, were latch key kids. Both of our parents worked and thus we were left to entertain ourselves until one or the other came home from work.
We were watching an old Tarzan movie on television one afternoon after school. I decided that it would be cool to swing from a vine like Tarzan. In a row house in Baltimore (where we lived at the time) there were no vines, but there was the cord on the venetian blinds in my brothers’ room.
First, let me tell you a bit more about venetian blinds. They were the precursor to the mini-blinds we have today. The main difference was that the slats were made of metal. SHARP METAL!!! This was also well before we learned that things were bad for children. So, a blind cord was not kept out of my reach. I wonder, at times, how we managed to make it to adulthood, but I digress…
I grabbed onto the blind cord and tried to fly through the air like Tarzan on my venetian rope. As you can imagine, I don’t think I got off the ground very far before the blinds came-a-tumbling-down. I ended up with a cut at the corner of my eyelid that required a trip to the emergency room and several stitches.
On the way to the ER my Mom took every opportunity to remind me that I “could have lost an eye”, “be blind”, “cut my jugular and bled to death”…and on and on… All I knew is that my head was throbbing and the washcloth was getting redder and redder…”Are we there yet, Mom?” If she stopped yelling at me and drove the car we would be there already!
We went into the room for the stitches. When I was little I thought all of this was too cool, but I have grown to loath the needles and the medical personnel. They brought in 5-6 HUGE orderlies to hold down this 6 year old little girl for her stitches. It was beside my eyeball after all! My Mom told the doctor, “you won’t need all of that she will be fine!” 
The doctor, the nurse and all of the orderlies looked at her like she had 4 eyes! They draped up my head so that all I had was a peep hole to watch it all happen.
The orderlies each took and arm, a leg, and one put his hand on my stomach to get ready to hold me down. The doctor went in with the needle to numb it. I watched in awe. The orderlies eased up a bit on the kung-fu grip. They then started to bear down again as he threaded the needle for the stitches. Again, nothing. I watched it go back and forth.
When I was finished the doctor gave me a handful of lollipops and told my Mother that I was the best patient ever! I still have the scar today! It seemed so huge back them, but it virtually non-existent now.
I lived!
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June 6, 2008 at 11:40 am
Mary Ann
What a fun story! I’ve never had stitches or broken a bone, so I somehow feel that I escaped childhood too easily…
June 8, 2008 at 5:52 pm
*Heidi*
THat is a funny story! I think you must have been one touch cookie, I mean little girl! The only stitches I had was when my dad drove on the far {too far} side of the road and came over a little hill and WHAM! He hit a parked car. I went flying into the seat in front of me in the station wagon (with all 9 kids) and hit my chin on the seat, there was metal that was barely covered and this caused a deep cut on the bottom of my chin. I had stiches and today I still have that scar. I think the seatbelts were under the seat. We NEVER wore seatbelts.
June 11, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Sandy
This is not funny but I laughed anyway! It was the way you told it! I also pulled down a set of those metal menace blinds. I was supposed to be taking a nap. Mother laid down by me on her bed and went to sleep. I was humming and squirming around and playing peek-a-boo with the blind slates when I saw my father coming down the walkway towards the house. He traveled a lot and I was so excited to see him that I squealed and squirmed part way into the blind, turned to run for the front door and yanked the whole thing down on top of my sleeping mother.