{"id":26037,"date":"2024-01-28T23:58:19","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T04:58:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=26037"},"modified":"2024-01-29T00:02:37","modified_gmt":"2024-01-29T05:02:37","slug":"episode-1009-memory-is-amazing-scarfoot-incident-1944","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=26037","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 1009 MEMORY IS AMAZING – SCARFOOT INCIDENT 1944"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 1009   MEMORY IS AMAZING – SCARFOOT INCIDENT, 1944<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
January 28. 2024 <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Alan and Eric Skeoch, circa 1945<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
NOTE:  How can our tiny skulls  retain so much memory?  Even an event<\/div>\n
as tiny as a shard of broken glass slicing my foot has been retained . <\/div>\n
the SCARFOOT incident.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
 THE scar is 80 years old,  Mom, Eric and I were playing Blind Man\u2019s Bluff<\/p>\n
in Dufferin Park,  My eyes were covered .  I did Not see the jagged broken beer bottle\u2026Shards waiting for my misstep.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
It was November 1945 or 1946;  we  rented  a flat at 18 Sylvan Avenue, a huge Victorian house that is now part <\/div>\n
of Dufferin Park in West Toronto.  The war had ended or was about to end. Gangs of fatherless<\/div>\n
teen agers rule the park.  Our house was an out post which Eric and I found fascinating for<\/div>\n
there were always all treasures like this broken bottle gathered up by Mr Haywood, the park maitenance officer.   A nice man who we adored and who kept Eric<\/div>\n
and me from harm.  Except that November afternoon.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I tripped on a tree root.  Blind folded  Fell hard and almost clear but the beer bottle caught the bottom of my leg.  Sheared a slab.   Normally, I would have seen it.  Weapons made by smashing a long necked beer bottle on a cement posted park bench was part of the \u2018romance\u2019 of Dufferin Park in those post World War II days. as were lead pipes, knives and safes.<\/div>\n
The safes, mom told us not to touch for some uexplained reason.  They could make great balloons we thought but we obeyed mom\u2019s command.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
NOTE:<\/div>\n
Easy to make a beer bottle weapon. Inoffensive appearing\u2026 being empted but<\/div>\n
with the flick of the wrist it became a meat grinder . Anyone could make one.<\/div>\n
How did I know this bottle was a weapon?   I did not know.  Maybe the bottle had<\/div>\n
simply been smashed against a park bench.,  Yes, it could have been imagination, It happened 80 <\/div>\n
years ago and memory does play tricks.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\"\"\"\"<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
I SCREAMED WHEN I SAW THE BLOOD,<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cHold still, Alan.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cDeep cut!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe will have to get you to Western Hospital right away.\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cHospital?   No, mom, hospitals are where people go to die!\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNonsense \u2026stop twisting\u2026wrap the wound\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cNo hospital,\u201d  (and I twisted free.)<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan!\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then I began to run,  Heading to our flat at 18 Sylvan <\/div>\n
avenue,..up the steps, through the door, passing Mrs Southwick, our<\/div>\n
landlady who was startled. The house was ancient with lots of<\/div>\n
Victorian decorations that loomed out in the varnished darkness of the stairs,<\/div>\n
which gave me nightmares normally but not tonight.  I fled into <\/div>\n
the bed room and dove beneath its iron  frame\u2026turned over and<\/div>\n
grabbed the iron frame.  No one could get me.   Mom tried.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then dad arrived.  He was working the day shift so got home early.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\u201cWhat the hell is going on here, Elsie?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cAlan cut himself in the park\u2026bleeding,  He\u2019s scared\u2019\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll see about that,\u201d And dad turned the whole bed over,<\/div>\n
plucked me from the iron frame like a ripe grape,,,I remember nothing  else.<\/div>\n
Obviously I was not killed in the Western Hospital.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Mom was the care giverion our family most of the time but dad<\/div>\n
was useful in crises.  Like a bodyguard who was always lurking in <\/div>\n
the shadows.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
HOW MUCH OIF THIS IS TRUE?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Memory is not always reliable.  So I phoned Eric and said<\/div>\n
\u2018Remember Wen sliced my leg?\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cYes..on a beer bottle\u201d<\/div>\n
\u201cThe scar is still there on my instep as a reminder of the past.\u201d<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
He remembered immediately as the internet does.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Task:  Try to remember some incident in your life when you<\/div>\n
were seven or eight years old.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Strange.  I remember the slash\u2026the beer bottle… but hardly <\/div>\n
anything about world WarII.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Do not make beer bottle weapons.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 1009   MEMORY IS AMAZING – SCARFOOT INCIDENT, 1944 alan skeoch January 28. 2024  Alan and Eric Skeoch, circa 1945 NOTE:  How can our tiny skulls  retain so much memory?  Even an event as tiny as a shard of broken glass slicing my foot has been retained .  the SCARFOOT incident.  THE scar is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}