25 Years Ago

My Step-Mom helping me open a present (Christmas 1980).

(And why is she wearing my peach Adidas jacket?)

So 25 years ago, close to right now as I type, I was about to be in a major car accident. I was 19 and doing typical stupid 19-year old stuff. I had finished my freshman year at UNC-G that spring and spent the summer living with Mom in Texas and working as a groundskeeper at her country club. And if you are a Texan, yes that was the summer of the heat wave. Days and days and days of temperatures over 110. It was HOT. I kept putting off telling my Mom that I was not going back to UNC-G. When I finally told her, late in the summer, she was not pleased. We started arguing a lot, so I did my normal exit strategy and went back to N.C. to live with my Dad. I got a job at a nice Italian restaurant thanks to my best buddy Bill. So I worked late nights, slept all day, and partied on my days off. Typical 19-year-old stuff.

===

Well I had December 23rd off and Mazzone was having a big party. Mazzone was a guy I knew from home room. Our school sytem had a 20 minute home room period each morning for the purpose of checking attendance, listening to the daily intercom address by our principal, and passing out stuff. The home rooms were all in alphabetical order, so you had the same people year after year. Mazzone was hilarious and did a dead-on impersonation of our principal who was morbidly obese and had a particular voice. The story was Mazzone's parents had moved back to New York and their giant empty house was on the market, so Mazzone was throwing this big party there.

===

I woke up late as usual as I had closed the night before at the restaurant. I showered and went to the mall to get a knock-out outfit for the party. I finally found this one-piece black (with a small random print) rayon number that was almost a cat suit. I knew it was hot as soon as I tried it on. I wanted to turn heads. I had lost my license and needed a ride to the party and spent the afternoon on the phone with people begging for a ride. HSB (high school boyfriend) was the easiest mark, but I still had to work at it as we were not on the best of terms at the time. Finally the ride situation was worked out. HSB's best friend - MV (who I had also been involved with twice - long story, a post unto itself) was going to drive his VW bug. I got dressed in my killer togs and went to dinner at Darryl's, which was THE cool restaurant in Durham at the time, with my Dad and Step-Mom. We had a picture taken there and I wish I had a copy. We got back home and I waited for my ride.

===

I seriously thought they were going to be A-holes and not show up, but they finally came. HSB was still being rude on the ride to the party, but I was determined to just have fun. The actual party was one big buzzed blur. I remember bits and pieces. I remember how the concept of a giant fancy house being empty was so cool at first, but you know what? Sometimes you just want to sit the F down. Room after room of carpet and walls can wear on you. I DO remember getting lots and lots of compliments on my outfit. Finally I reached staged GTFOOH. (If you don't know what that is, the first word is "get" and the last word is "here.") I frantically went from room to room asking, "Have you seen HSB or MV? I ended up in the front yard which also had a huge crowd and finally someone said, "They just left." I ran out to where the car was and they had just gotten in. I was pissed!

===

Well I got into the back of the VW bug and now old HS boyfriend is being very friendly and cuddling with me. My best bud Bill was in the passenger seat and MV was driving. We dropped Bill off at his house, and HSB got out and moved to the passenger seat. I knew it was a good 15 minute or more highway drive back to our part of town so I dropped my shoes and curled up in the back of that bug. The last thing I heard was HSB saying, "Oh no, she's going to pass out."

===

I seemed to have a lot of strange dreams of people talking to me over a radio and asking me questions. I remember repeating over and over my name, address, telephone number and social security number. But I thought it was all in a dream. I woke up in a large bright room with a big silver dome over me. I recognized that dome from television shows. My first words were, "Am I in a hospital?"

===

A nurse said, "You were in a car accident." My first thoughts were that MV and HSB might be dead. I was terrified to ask, but I had to. She told me they were in the hospital with me. I was SO relieved. I glanced over at my left arm AND FREAKED OUT! I calmly asked her, "Why do I have two elbows?" She told me my arm was broken. My humerus, the long bone between the shoulder and elbow was broken in half and was laying on the table at a crazy angle. She saw it was freaking me out and put a sheet over it. My next memory was my Dad and Step-Mom walking into that huge room. I remember saying, "Don't look over there. Seriously whatever you do, you do not want to see THAT." I guess the doctor came in and sent them away. Then he proceeded to twist and bend my broken arm while I screamed and screamed and called him all sorts of foul names. Then he put it in a cast. I think I passed out before the cast part.

===

So I woke up about noon or so on Christmas eve in the room in which I would spend the next 10 days. They told me my arm was broken (I remembered that part) and my pelvis was broken in two places (this was news) and that I had chipped a tooth. Later that afternoon, I asked a nurse why my leg went "kathunk, kathunk" every time I flexed my foot. They brought a portable X-ray machine into my room, X-rayed that part of my leg and then told me, "Yeah, that's broken, too. Don't flex your foot like that anymore." It was my left tibia, the slimmer bone behind the shin bone.

===

My sweet Step-Mom showed up with a two-foot half Christmas tree that hangs on a wall and had Snoopy ornaments on it. That was sweet. We had hordes and hordes of high school friends visiting us those first few days. HSB was treated and released the first night with stitches in his head and a dislocated shoulder. MV had to have emergency surgery to get car paint chips out of his left leg which had a compound fracture, so he was there for about 8 days. On New Year's eve, the nurses wheeled him into my room and we watched the countdown on TV together and threw ice chips around the room.

===

By the way, here are some facts about the accident. WE were the victims. We were on a five lane highway/road with the middle lane as a both way turn lane. It was foggy and we were going slow, thank goodness. A guy passed out and drifted across three or four lanes to hit us head on. MV (our driver) tested negative for alcohol. The other driver? Drunk.

===

It's hard to believe that was a quarter of a century ago. I wonder if they were thinking about it today, too.