Hi everyone,
I just need to explain to you all reading this story that, I first started socialising and drinking at the local pubs at the age of sixteen. Back in those days
I would before going out to the pub I would consume a bottle of Jim Beam , pull a few cones and then hit the pub for the night .
I guess when there I would do the usual things and drink beer ,party , fight , dance and chase girls.
So this particular night Wes and l were going to the Caladonian hotel in Wonthaggi to see a band.
So the night started at my house as usual and we both played pool in the rumpus room and started our usual routine of drinking and me smoking before hitting the pub ,
I guess that I must have had a high tolerance to grog back then , because just after ten we would leave to walk to the pub as the band would start about 10.30 .
It was probably a 1.5 km walk . But back then I used to walk everywhere so it was easy for me , even after those earlier drinks.
The Cally had some good bands on back in the day and there was usually a cover charge and always people on the door to collect it.
My challenge was to gain entry without paying as that left me more money to buy drinks. I had a few methods to try and get in and sometimes the person on the door would just let me in .
So nine times out of ten, I got in for free.
So it was the usual sort of night but one that I had became extremely intoxicated , by the time the pub shut at 1am .
Wes and I decided to walk home and when we walked or stumbled up past Robs Foods the line up of people gathered there was large as this was the local taxi rank. The service was ordinary and it always took forever to get a cab.
We walked or more like both staggered on past Morescos garage and onto McKenzie St , and we both then kept on walking home ,
JP Holden was on the left hand side next to the old disused railway line that still had its tracks on it, at the bottom.
I was so drunk and I was really struggling to walk and at the end of JP Holdens car yard that l reached out and I grabbed the fence post to prop me up and hold me up for a second or two .
Accidentally when I grabbed the post , I stumbled and I then lost my balance and I fell straight down and rolled down the steep hill , that was about six ft high and I rolled all the way down to the very bottom , and I smashed to a halt on the railway line there , and came to a stop .
Ouch , even in the state I was in , that impact really hurt me .
Wes was calling out to me from above as it was pitch black to see if I was ok ,
I groaned something back and started to crawl my way back up the bank to the footpath though all the weeds and brush to keep walking home .
We started off again and I was really struggling badly with walking ,and Wes kept saying come on Curly hurry up ,
I was holding my left hip with my hand as it was a bit sore and also making me limp a bit .
I said I can’t walk mate , and we had made it only about ten metres to the front of Low’s hardware store , where there was a streetlight,
We stood underneath it and Wes said show me , and I then took my hand off my hip and held it out to the light.
It was totally red and covered in blood ,
Wes said shit , and I turned my side to the light and my jeans were also saturated in blood around my hip area,
Wes said give me a look and I unbuttoned my jeans and pulled down my pants down to see a bit of damage and I could see my hip bone.
Around it was a hole the size of an orange.
Wes said bloody hell we best get you to hospital. So I put my pants back on and we headed off limping to the taxi rank on foot as best we could as there were no mobile phones to call anybody back then.
That was super slow going .
By the time we got there it was 1.30 and there was still a big line up waiting for a cab ,
Wes told the person at the front of the line that we needed the next cab as I had to go to hospital.
That person was
Kerry Pigdon and she wasn’t hearing any of that and gave us both a spray saying someone did the same trick to her last week and she wasn’t falling for that again.
Wes looked at me and said show her,
So I dropped my pants in the main St and Kerry and the other twenty people got a look at my wound , and quickly said the next cab is yours Curly.
So up to the casualty at Wonthaggi hospital which is somewhere I visit quite regularly.
I think it was after 2am by then and we had to wait for the Dr , and even with everything that had happened I still hadn’t sobered up much.
At 3am the Dr arrived, it was Bill Howsand, with his hair sticking straight up he looked a bit comical , but he was in no laughing mood he was a bit grumpy because I had got him out of bed.
So alcohol and anaesthetic just don’t mix , so it was just a wash and cut off the loose flesh and stitch up , it was a massive hole and like I said I could clearly see inside it to my hip bone , and he started sewing ,
At first I didn’t feel much but I started to sober up quickly and I think that there was over thirty internal stitches and by that time I was dead set sober and I grimaced as l felt every single one of the outside stitches going in to close up
I wouldn’t really see Bill again for a while but that was for a very special occasion when my second son Dylan was born that Wonthaggi hospital, maybe he was still a bit grumpy at me because I had to ask Bill a number of times but he agreed in the end that it was a good idea for me to cut Dylan’s cord and welcome him into the world .
So I guess that’s another set of stitches for me to remove in a weeks time , as I always pulled out my own , because I tried to avoid going to the dr ‘s as much as I could .
So we caught a cab home , and I hobbled into bed for a rest ,
in the morning I was still struggling to walk and I think that lasted around a week , I had to tell mum the story she would have said you are stupid.,and then I just got on with it ,
The thing was that when I hit the railway line it was just like hitting a bit of steak sitting on an anvil with a hammer
My hip bone was the hammer .
It was a decent scar and a dent where Bill removed the torn flesh , it kinda looked like a shark bite .
I guess I didn’t take too long to recover and get back to the business of growing up .
Cheers
Curlyg