6:43 p.m. | 2003-04-19 That Time I Almost Killed My Younger Sister. It was a lovely Saturday afternoon back in 1972. I was 8 and Younger Sister (YS) was 2. YS wanted to go to the playground and I volunteered to take her. My parents practically kicked us out the back door. With 4 kids underfoot, they were always thrilled to get us out of the house. So, off we went. All the away across the street to the park which had a playground. You have to remember that back then, parents were more afraid of the cold war than kidnappers or child molesters. Playgrounds were �safe� back then. Of course, the equipment was made out of solid steel and the ground was covered with gravel, asphalt or concrete. We didn�t have the nicely rounded plastic play structures surrounded by nice soft bark chips to gently break your falls that you youngsters had. No. We had steel slides that burnt the shit out of you in the summer and ripped your skin off in the winter. Lots of sharp, pointy edges and big old bolts jutting out to rip open your skin and make you bleed. And, good lord, most of my brain damage stems from crazy antics and misjudgments made while playing on steel monkey bars mounted in asphalt. But, I digress. When we got to the park, YS wanted to go on the big slide instead of the little �baby� slide. I can still remember that conversation. (CI:) Okay, but you can only go on the big slide if I go with you. (YS:) NO! (CI:) You can only go on the big slide if I go up the steps behind you and slide down with you. It�ll be fun, you�ll see. We can do it together. (YS:) NO! (CI:) Then, you can�t go on the big slide. (YS:) NO! I wanna go on big slide!! (CI:) All right then, but don�t come crying to me if you get hurt. Of course, at the ripe old age of 8, I didn�t really understand that the whole �NO!� thing was just an age-appropriate part of the cognitive development of a child who wants to test limits and gain some small concept of independence. I thought we were having a rational conversation actually, and that she just wanted her way. However, since I still didn�t think it was safe, I tried to casually follow her up the steps. YS kept letting go with one hand in order to slap my hands away with her other hand while continuously shouting �NO!�. It scared me when she let go with one hand, so I foolishly decided to stop following her in the hopes that she would focus on keeping both hands on the railings. You think maybe some adult supervision would have been appropriate? Yeah, me too. But we didn�t get a lot of that. I will say that you do learn a lot from the School of Hard Knocks. That�s for sure. YS successfully made it all the way to the top of the stairs. She was very excited and proud. In her pride, she let go of the railings, turned around to share the moment with me and promptly took a nosedive off the top step. She landed on her head. In the gravel pit below. And, of course, she came running right to me, despite my earlier admonishment. She was crying hysterically as blood gushed from the back of her head. Shocked and horrified, I quickly picked her up and raced home. The whole time I was running, I was petrified I was going to get in trouble for not taking proper care of her, but I was way more concerned about her injury. Her injury at my hands. My parents were a little surprised to see blood gushing out of their baby�s head, but they very calmly assessed the situation and attended to YS� wound. They quickly discovered a hole in YS� head. Yes, a big hole. Filled with gravel. Alas, YS had rocks in her head. My Mother got the tweezers and picked out all the rocks while my Dad held her hair out of the way. And, I stood there sobbing and apologizing repeatedly. When they were all done, they gave YS a special treat and sent her off to play. And, I never got in trouble. I still apologize to YS about that. We�ll be at a family gathering or having lunch or something and I�ll suddenly blurt out: �Hey, I�m sorry about that whole �rocks in the head� thing.� She always laughs. Personally, I think she still has a couple of rocks left up in there. your thoughts? seed flower