🦷Flashback Friday – They went to pick up my tooth🦷

I’ve decided to start sharing moments from my childhood. In the very early years, I was quite active and adventurous. I loved riding my bike up and down my street. I always had rules for myself: I rarely rode all the way to the corner and I always stayed on the sidewalk. I was unlike the other children in my neighborhood who rode in groups in the middle of the street like some tiny biker gang.

I was in third grade. It was May and a picture perfect day outside. This bike was my first “grown-up” one after unfortunately outgrowing the purple unicorn bike that I dearly loved. It was pink, sporty and had hand brakes. The hand brake part is important. I was having trouble stopping and would have to put my feet on the ground to completely stop, so I asked my older brother to fix my brakes. He “fixed” them all right.

After he “fixed” the brakes, I decided to go for a ride. I rode down our walkway and headed left. I picked up a little speed. By the time I was about 4 or 5 houses away, something didn’t feel right, so I squeezed the brakes. It would have been better if I stopped with my feet because the bike immediately jerked to a stop and I was thrown off the bike. The force of the abrupt braking caused me to go over the handlebars. I didn’t fall to the side, like I normally did, I was thrown forward. I skidded on the sidewalk, ripping open my face, arm and leg.

The most unlikely person came to my rescue: one of the neighborhood drug addicts. She saw what happened and instead of grabbing my bike and trading it in for crack, she helped me up and walked me and my bike back home. My brother and my sister were outside and saw me bleeding. It was then I realized my mouth was bleeding as well. One of the teeth was gone. (It was luckily a baby tooth.) The neighbor stayed with me while my brother and sister and sister went to find my tooth. My sister came back cupping my tooth in her hand and I remember the neighbor saying, “Oh no, she knocked out her teeth too.” It was only one tooth, so for some reason my family thought that was funny for years.

The next day was a Monday, but I went to school even though my mother said I could stay home. I didn’t want to because it was Career Day and I volunteered to take one of the visitors around to the different classrooms. Yep, I was a nerd back then. Both adults and children were horrified by my face, but I wasn’t backing out of my commitment.

My face completely healed, but I still have the scars on my arm and leg. One more thing: when the accident happened, I had a stolen Freeze-Pop in my pocket. It’s like a Popsicle, but it’s in a plastic casing. My mother only let me have one a day and that was just not enough. It took me years to admit the Freeze-Pop my siblings picked up along with my tooth was mine.

What was the most memorable accident you had during your childhood? Comment below.

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