I Remember One Time my Dad ...

A Car Wash for a Second Income

My dad was one of those people who believed aspirin, Epsom Salts, Band aids and Mercurochrome were all you ever needed, in case you were hurt or feeling under the weather. If you had those things in your medicine chest, or under the sink in the cabinet, you were well-stocked and good to go.

Dad and Mama were raising six children and since we lived only a block from the hospital, we often had assorted foster children living with us for a short while. It was hard to make ends meet at times, even with Mama working part time.

in 1968, Dad decided to buy and put together one of those do-it-yourself car washes for a partial second income. He felt Mama should quit the part time job at the market. She had enough to do with all of us plus cooking, laundry, and all of the other things that make a household run smoothly.

Here’s where the “One time, my dad …” part comes in ...

The day the trucks arrived to deliver everything to build the car wash, I was living and working a couple of hours away in Columbus. This is how it was told to me later when I came home.

The last delivery was a flatbed truck with a load of I-beams. Just as Daddy walked around to the back to tell the driver where to unload the beams, a cable broke. The entire load came flying off the truck.

Most of the I-beams went left or right of the flatbed and down to the ground, but one I-beam came straight out hitting Daddy directly in the face, flattening his nose and lacerating his forehead and cheeks. 

Mama said since it was a head injury, there was a lot of blood. The truck driver took one look at Daddy and fainted. When he came around, he called for an ambulance, and nervously paced until it arrived.

Our family doctor was there and stayed to ride along in the ambulance. Mama said Daddy was obviously in shock. He was wandering aimlessly all around the truck and he refused to sit down and wait for the ambulance.  He repeatedly told Doc Smith, “Doc, just give me a couple of aspirin —I’ll be alright, really.  You’ll see.”

Doc Smith told him he was sorry, but aspirin wouldn’t work this time. When the ambulance got there, he couldn’t get Daddy to get on the gurney so they could transport him to the hospital.

Perturbed and in blinding pain, Daddy said, “C’mon, Doc, all I need is some aspirin. How many should I take?  Just give me some aspirin, Doc!”

“You would need a lethal dose, Joe, a lethal dose.  Then it would thin your blood so much that you would bleed to death.  Now get on the damn gurney!”

For weeks, with all the swelling, he was unrecognizable and it broke our hearts. His face took a lot of stitches and his nose was packed with gauze for weeks to reset the cartilage and rebuild his nose, but he finally healed.

Ten years later, he had to go back to the hospital to have his nose rebroken and reset. The nose and sinuses had so much built up scar tissue that breathing through his nose was nearly impossible.

Poet/Writer/Author of 5 books.
Quora Top Writer 2018.
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