...and we all fall down..

After reading about slugger's trip down the stairs...thought I'd make mention of a few falls I have endured:

Childhood: fell down the basement steps of my great aunt's home in Sedalia, Missouri, even though there was a railing. I still remember the musty smell of the basement and the dirt on my upper lip.

Junior high: backed up and fell into a manhole, but thank goodness, one arm and one leg remained above ground and my friends helped me up and out!

High School: took a tumble down the marble (?) stairs about once a week it seemed after English class. These were the days of 'platform' shoes/heels with dresses and knee socks - oh my!

Played "Lady Stumble" in my high school's rendition of "The Canterbury Tales from the Wife of Bath" and guess what?? I had to stumble/fall and generally bounce around in a full length 'princess' dress with two left shoes.

Adulthood: While camping in what seemed to be the middle of a monsoon one Labor Day - in a pop-up trailer near a lake at my sister-in-law's farm, just the other side of a dam...we thought we would float away. The next morning brought tons of mud, and of course, the need to make a trip to the bathroom. Not wanting to bother my sister-in-law and family in her trailer, my daughter and I decided to walk up to the house, just the other side of the dam. Yes, it was muddy, and as the alternative restroom facilities were considerably wet, bushy and prickly, the trek to the house seemed a minor inconvenience. Off we went, avoiding puddles and ruts of water, up one side of the dam which seemed to be drying off in the morning sun. Down the other side and through the gate, past the cows and cow patties, and to the house where we shook the mud from our tennis shoes and utilized the facilities. Heading back we followed our previously trekked path, but when we topped the dam, my foot slipped a little. My daughter was just about to the bottom when she heard me yell out "Help me, Lindsey! Help me!" I fell into the mud and slid down the dam towards the barbed wire fence on my side, landing about 6-inches from the wire. I was covered in mud - to say the least - as were my clothes, shoes, hair and all. Lindsey was laughing so hard and I was laughing too, trying to gain a footing to stand - though I really don't know why considering the condition I was in. We made it back to camp and gave everyone a great start to their day. I showered in my sister-in-law's trailer, while my mother in law rinsed out my clothes...but my shoes...my shoes were a loss and will be forever called - "My Dam Shoes". My brother-in-law claims the local college sent out its museum studies group in a helicopter for what appeared to be an imprint from a wooly mammoth on the side of the dam.

I have taken a fall: on freshly waxed floors - in a dress and heels - with no one around thank goodness; on a tile floor in a restroom at a retail store; on a linoleum floor at my son's daycare, with the kids all laughing and wanting me to "do it again"; near a dock when my sister urged me to get into her boat (from a little bit above on the land) - so I just sat/fell back - and she yelled out loudly - 'that's enough beer for you' so the guys on the other boat would laugh; in my parent's front yard, just stepping off the porch; in the parking lot of a store, tripping over the bold red cement markers put there so you won't trip!! That's all I can remember at the moment...but enough, don't you think??? No wonder I bruise easily - in anticipation of a fall, no doubt. I can proudly say, though, that I have had no broken bones. Guess I bounce.