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Oh yes, it is Halloween, isn't it?

Yes I forgot while working on the last post. And I've even been listening to the "Scarefest" on XM 27, Cinemagic and sometimes to the Halloween only channel for this 'holiday', GORE 134 also on XM.
Interesting, but I've not been a fan of this date for decades.

It was Wednesday October 30th, 1973 and I was on my way home from High School on my little 300 dollar Honda 175, my first motorcycle. Around 4 in the afternoon and as I'm going up the hill on the road into the main part of town and towards home in Yucaipa, at the top of the hill is a cross intersection, seventh street. Now it's all widened, has stoplights and everything, back then it was a blind cross way stop. In front of me appears a car, scoots across no problem, but right behind it was a white station wagon. That driver either didn't see me or misjudged my closeness, in any event, it ran the stop and pulled out right on the tail of the front car and I hit the wagon broadside. I hit just in front of the drivers door. I only have a memory of just before the impact. Then waking up as I was loaded into the ambulance, then while being X-rayed at the hospital, then when being taken home by my grandmother. Three days of semi-consciousness, then double vision and related problems for several years. Had I not had a helmet on I would not be typing this post to you readers. But I did, so I am. Aren't you lucky? I know I am!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lasting effects? Lost most of my sense of smell, it has to be really stinky or perfumy for me to smell it. My Tinnitus could also have started there, I just added to it when I started to ride motorcycles again two years later and since. I had double vision and severe occasional headaches for many years. Headaches are gone now and except for the double vision when I'm really fatigued I guess I'm pretty norbal.

So that's one big reason.
Others reasons were from over the years, I was almost always wearing a costume, my uniform. But I also never liked the black cat stuff of Halloween, the chicks and bunny stuff of Easter, and the Christmas puppies and kittens.
And those of you, you adults that really like it? Sorry, I think it's a kids day and it should stay that way. I've known some people that REALLY get into it though. And to each their own. It's not for me.

So I didn't forget the day after all!

Type next time, Tad

Comments

Joe Foerster said…
Wow Tad! I had never heard about the accident in 1973. All the time I was looking you up I was kinda half thinking that maybe something had happened to you and that's why I don't remember seeing you the later years in High School. What a terrible experience. But, I remember riding my Honda 350 and some of the really scary close calls and one minor accident I had on that. Thank God you didn't have anything worse happen... though that was bad enough. My dad was really against me riding and I had to apply a lot of pressure to get him to agree to it. But both my brothers had had bikes growing up and I played that card very hard. ;-)
June 4, 2015 at 5:00 PM
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