Speaking of casts

The cast that I was referring to in yesterday's post was a rather impressive plaster cast that immobilized my entire left leg while my fractured left hip healed. I effectively spent the summer of 1963 in bed, about six weeks in traction in the hospital and another two months in this cast at home. It started just below my rib cage going down my entire left leg. At first it covered my left foot as well, but I soon managed to break the cast just below my ankle.

If memory serves, I got out of the hospital sometime in mid-August of 1963. My parents rented a hospital bed that they set up in my Dad's first floor study. This made it easier for my parents to take care of me. It was still summer. The cast was hot, and it itched.

As I said, I did not have a whole lot to do except homework and watching TV. Oh, and play cards. My Dad taught me how to play poker and black jack. I remember drawing into a straight royal flush in one of my first hands. I remember this because my Dad was absolutely amazed that this happened. A once in a life time occurrence.

I got the cast off sometime in October, and was gradually eased back into walking. Very gradually. By the end of October, I might have been in a wheel chair with restricted use of crutches. I remember sitting in a tiger costume giving out Halloween candy to the trick or treaters. On the day that John F. Kennedy was shot, I had an appointment with my Orthopod where I graduated to one crutch. I will always remember that day. As my Mother took me to the Orthopod, I remember seeing crowds lined up in shop windows watching television.

By Christmas I was walking without anything, not even a cane. After New Years, my sabbatical from going to school ended and I went to the fourth grade. Bummer.