Surviving in the Walker Household

As many of my friends and family know, I am a story teller! Whenever there is a story to tell or an adventure to share with others, I am the one that wants to tell the tale and usually act parts of it out! Moving up North has given me a chance to tell all of my favorite stories to people that have not heard them before! The majority of these stories come back to my childhood and crazy things that my family have done. Recently, while I was sharing a story with a friend, she asked... "How did you survive your childhood!"

As I thought more about her question, I realized that the only way you can survive in the Walker household is by being a Walker! Being tough and self sufficient runs in our blood and some of the decisions we make in the heat of the moment would be looked down upon by others.

Here is an example... When I was still a young chap, it was all or nothing! There were no middle gears for me. Mama and Daddy had to either drag me or hold me back. While my sister (I call her Tootie) was still in college I was always most excited when she would come home to visit! Mama and Daddy had stopped telling me when she would be coming because I would get very annoying with my constantly asking, "is she close??"  (On a side note, it is kind of strange to see how the tables have turned. While I was in College, it was my nieces and nephews that impatiently awaited my visits. I know how they felt!)

One day I was in the basement, in my dads office. I am sure I was playing office and annoying my dad who was trying to get some work done. I hear Uncle Mason upstairs call out to Mama, "Cay, Ann Grey is here!" I go from 0 to 60. I run up the stairs as fast as I can! I rounded the corner and then ran straight down the hallway......

First I need to provide some background... Our front door also has a storm door. This story took place when most storm doors had glass, instead or Plexiglass. During the warmer months we would leave our front door open and only use the storm door. The house was older and the latch on the door was a little tough to latch so most of the time we would leave it unlatched. Now back to the story...

I am running full speed down the hallway and I can see my sisters car through the front door. I push the door like I normally would, but the door is latched shut. Instead of the door swinging open, I went through the door! Hands and face first, through the glass I go. Only half of my body makes it through and I fold over on the glass and just hang over the bottom of the door. Luckily I had on overalls (Dad raised me as a tomboy, so I was always wearing coveralls) so the glass did not cut or puncture my abdomen. But my head, face and arms were covered in cuts and glass.

I do not remember the next few minutes very clearly, but I know that my Daddy picked me up and took me into the kitchen. Mama and Tootie had cleared everything off of the kitchen counter so Daddy could lay me down and put my head in the sink. He proceeds to run his hand through my hair that is full of glass and blood and tries to shake all the glass out! I can hear Mama telling him to not do it but he says, "No, its fine, honey!" There was one big piece of glass in the very top of my head. Dad just grabbed it and pulled it straight out! Mama keeps saying we should go to the hospital but Daddy insisted that it was not necessary. After much cleaning and glass removal, I walk away from the accident covered in band-aids, Merthiolate, and Neosporin. 

(If you do not know what Merthiolate is... My dad considered it the miracle drug! We pronounced it Mathilade and it was a orange liquid that is placed on cuts and scrapes. My dad put it on everything, including on the dogs. That meant that he and I also had orange stains all over our clothes. Mom just loved that!)  

We never went to the hospital but I still survived! In the end, I walked away with 2 scars and a story! One of the scars proves that I was very lucky! It is on my right wrist and very close to the Radial Artery. I am sure most parents would cringe at how my Daddy handled the glass, but like I said, only Walkers can survive in the Walker Household!