Tomorrow is my brother Robbie's birthday. You have probably noticed that Ronnie makes his way into my blog pretty often. I think there are several reasons for that. The first and biggest of which is that when Ronnie was a kid, he was a little mean and did things to me which were pretty memorable... you know like shooting me with BB guns and such. Ronnie and I are also very close in age, so we spent a lot of time together as kids. Meanwhile Robbie was 3 years older than me, so he had started school while Ronnie and I were still running around together getting into trouble. He moved away from home after graduating from high school leaving me and Ronnie to stay home together and get into trouble. Do you notice a reoccurring theme here? Anyway, there aren't as many Robbie stories but the ones that exist almost always involve an injury, usually to Robbie.
I was thinking this morning of stories involving Robbie that I could relate in honor of his upcoming birthday and since he was for the most part a good kid, there really aren't that many. I am sure that the boys from our old neighborhood, like Ricky, the Phillips' and the Shoemaker's could tell you a lot of stories, but from me you'll just have to hear about the day that Robbie fell on the Slip N' Slide and wound up with amnesia.
It was a Sunday because for some reason, most Meyers injuries that involved doctors or hospitals took place on weekends. During the week before the incident, Nacogdoches had gone through the biggest thing to happen there in years. A freight train had derailed near town. There had been explosions and you could see the glow of the flames that night from our house. The big explosion had broken windows in town and it was a really big deal for Nacogdoches. I mean it was no Space Shuttle disaster, which happened many years after I had moved away, but it was a big deal back in the 70's. I remember lying in bed that night and worrying that the whole town would burn up and we would all die. I was a dumb little kid, what can I say? Anyway, you get my point, it was a memorable event.
Well that Sunday, was like any other Sunday. I don't even remember anything about the day until the incident occurred and I can guarantee you that Robbie can't tell us anything about the day. :-) Somebody was over at our house playing cards with Mom and Dad. It might have been the Bailey's, but I'm not sure, because I don't remember Dee Dee, Donnie and Davie being there and I think I would have remembered that. Robbie and Ronnie came in the house with a lot of other neighborhood kids and Rick Reese. Rick didn't live on Nottingham. His house was behind the Shoemaker's house down a long private driveway on some acreage by itself. So, you just sort of walked behind the Shoemaker's house and through a really small patch of woods to get to Rick's house. Apparently, at Rick's they had been playing on a Slip N' Slide and as you may know there isn't much to a Slip N' Slide if you simply slip and then slide. So, they were trying to "surf" on it. They would go down the Slip N' Slide standing up. Robbie did it and fell down hitting his head on a rock that was under the Slip N' Slide.
When they came in our house they all went straight to Robbie and Ronnie's bedroom and closed the door. So naturally, I assumed I was supposed to be in there and walked in with them. When a brothers bedroom door is closed, it is a clear indication that the nosey sister should enter! They were all lying on the beds and talking to Robbie who was acting really weird. So, Rick went and told my parents that there was something wrong with Robbie. I think my parents didn't believe that there was anything wrong just because everybody including Robbie was joking around and you couldn't visibly see an injury. So we all went back to Robbie and Ronnie's room but Robbie couldn't remember anything!
Eventually, Mom and Dad realized that there really was something wrong with Robbie and Dad took him to the doctor. It turned out that he had a concussion which had resulted in amnesia. To this day, Robbie has no memory of the train derailment that had occurred in Nacogdoches a few days earlier. When Robbie and Dad got home from the doctors office, Dad joked that when the doctor had tested his reflexes on his knee with that little hammer Robbie had kicked over a lamp. Robbie didn't remember doing that and then Dad told him that it didn't really happen. Leave it to my dad to mess with a kid who has amnesia.
Robbie had amnesia again when we were in college and he laid down his motorcycle at University Dr. and the south Loop 224. Christina was at our house when the hospital called and I walked in from class a minute or so later. So, I went to the hospital to get him. He later said that on that occasion when the doctor in the emergency room read off a phone number and asked if it was familiar and it was, he felt like he had just won the Irish Sweepstakes. I can't imagine not being able to remember things.... I mean other than passwords for various travel websites and that sort of thing. It must be a very strange feeling. But Robbie made it through both of his bouts of amnesia with no ill effects other than not remembering a few days during the summer of 1974 in Nacogdoches.
Happy Birthday Rob!
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