EPISODE 916 ; FOOTBALL DAYS…. ERIC GOT SPIKED…DEEP HOLE IN HIS LEG FILLED WITH MUD….TERRIBLE THING TO SEE
alanskeoch
Nov. 18, 2023
This is my brother Eri…14 months younger than me…we are close , like twins,…did things together. He was right handed though
which made a hell a of difference in life.
Eric’s 1955 Football jacket…his number was 29, right end. which meant he could catch afoootball pass from the quarterback while
my job was to bash the guy opposite me, the defensive guard. Quite a different job. No glory
MUD GAME AGAINST RIVERDALE…TURNS TO HORROR
It was a mud game. Late October at Millen Field in East end against Riverdale C. I. THE Riverdale boys were tough. We expected
the game to be very physical the moment our team arrived at the ramshackle changing room bisected into
two parts by a flimsy sawdust board dividing wall. Big hot in the wall where a Riverdale guy poked his head ans yelled,
“’We will knock the shit out of you Pansies,” or some comment like that. We were no better as we were determined to
‘Get Banana nose,’ the less than flattering term for their quarterback. Enemies ar war…with one big difference in weaponry.
Mud spike.
“Boys, I want you to wear mud spikes today, better traction in Millen Field.”
And so we hsdto unscrew our normal spikes which were about an inchi long and replace them
with 2 inch mud spikes. Better traction for sure. Like running with studded tractor tires.
It was still raining and had been doing do for a couple of days. Ugly day.
I remember the mud slurry went over my boots in places. Mud did not bother me much. Getting dirty
was expected of football players. We were not pansies.
The game was tough Body against body. Most plays were ground plays. Very little passing. Lots of
body contact. I read somewhere that the impact of an offensive Guard like me against my opposing defensive guard
was the same as the impact of an astronaut breaking the gravity barrier into outer space. Heroic effort.
My brother Eric must have been a defensive right end in that game. His job was to ‘Get Banana Nose’ or the ball carrier.
He had to charge full speed into the mayhem after the ball was snapped. The Riverdale quarterbacks nose did not look
as long as I expected. But he did look tough.
Something unusual happened. Eric was helped off the field….Limping.
A couple of mudslpikes had cut the calf of his leg. Hard to tell how deep because the
exposed flesh was covered in mud and the dirty white powdered chalk used mark the field into five yard intervals.
He limped to the bench. “I am OK…just a scratch’ LIKE HELL IT WAS A SCRATCH.
This was no scratch…Could see the mud handing from the hole.
As for me I was suddenly overcome with a feeing of weakness. My brother was hurt and I felt the pain.
It was hard for me to go on the field with ouroffenive squad. I was not looking for revenge.
I think that is why brothers are separated in wartime. They might look after each other. Lose their concentration.
Maybe the separation is so that one might be lost but not all would be lost.
I got over the shock next play when I saw Eric coming back on the field as defensive end. Must just be a scratch…not serious.
So we finished the game. I am quit sure we won. As Burf said, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”, Foptball was not just s game,
it was war.
The terror set in after the game…after our team shower. No! There was no shower. And Eric’s wound was not superficial. It was deep…perhaps an inch or more into
the calf of his leg. The hole had filed up with mud…stopped the bleeding. Mud mixed with blood becomes mud. Why was he not in
pain? Adrenalin.
“Get your mom or dad to take Eric to the doctor,,,this wound could be bad.”
Mom took control immediately.
Dad was on night shift…gone to work. Mom ran our house anyway.
“Alan, you come along. We will see Dr. Greenaway right now.” Family doctors were accessible in the 1950’s.
Doctor Greenawy cleaned the wound, applied some alcohol in the wound, stopped the bleeding. D.r Greenaway
was concerned.
“Who willl watch Eric tonight?”
“lan will….The boys sleep in the same bed.”
“Then, Alan, I want you to take this syringe..this needle. If Eric begins to act strangely…to have a convulsion
tonight, I want you to give him this needle. It is very important. Can you do that?”
“Ye,sir,,,I think I can.” knowing full well I would get mom fast. She slept in the couch in our
one bedroom house. Dad sept in our bed when he was on day shift at Dunlop Tire Corporation. All
very efficient. All very close. All very natural to us. Doesn’t everybody live that way? We lived on top
of each other. My boyfriends each had their own rooms. Soft life for them. I rarely did homework…no room.
It was a long night for mom and I. Maybe for Eric too. But morning came and no odd behaviour.
Eric was alive. I think he e ven played football later in the season. We were not pansies.
Grea chsnce for a cruel joke on mom.
“ERIC’S HELMET IS SMASHED , MOM”
7) The next football season, 1956, we played a cruel joke on Mom. It realy was not funny.
but to us it was a hoot…really funny.
Mom loved
us and did not want to see us hurt. Dad was the same. Touch my kid then answer to me. Physical world we lived in.
Eric and I played cruel jokes on them both. Careful with dad because he might overreact. But mom was fair game.
Mom has been gone a long time butI often Eri and I remember this joke. It is not funny but we thought it so.
We returned form a football game in Russ Vanstone’s Chev. He dropped us at the door. We lived on
the second floor and there was a long staircase upward. The plan was cruel. I knew mom would
ask about the game and sure enough as soon as I started up the stairs the asked, “How did the game go?”
“Eric got hurt mom,” and I threw his crushed footbsllhelmet up the stairs.
Russ had accidentally back the Chev over the helmet. Very funny, don’t you think?
I came up the stairs alone but Eric was not far behind. I think mom laughed when she
got over the shock. zoo hugs and kisses. The joke was not so funny to mom.
alan
Post script: Much more to come…Wrong Way Cush and Jarring Jach Osmond and
my operation at St. Joseph hospital where people go to die.
POS SCRPT: I remember when the scab and hardened puss came out of Eric’s leg….not
pretty.
Here are some family pics that might sue your Mom made all our winter clothes out of old coats.
Eric, our farm cousin Ted Freeman, Alan….much later in life.
Mom with her two boys wearing cut don costs