Hi and welcome back to Tell Me What Happened,
the podcast that features true childhood stories
from people from all walks of life. Each week
our guest tells us a childhood memory, and then
they tell us how it's impacted their adult view
of the world. I'm your host, Jay Rehack, and
like you, I've had my share of painful childhood
experiences. But I'd like to believe they've
all helped me to become a more empathetic person.
Tell Me What Happened is sponsored by Sideline
Ink Publishing, publishers of quality books,
including Susan Salador's newest children's book,
I've Got Peace in My Fingers, available worldwide
on November 1st, 2019. And speaking of Susan
Salador, each week we begin the show with a portion
of her classic song, The Boo Boo Blues, which
you can hear playing underneath my voice right
now. Today I'm going to tell you another one
of my stories. Although trust me, in the near
future, we will be having additional, more interesting
guests. Anyway, here's my story. So this story
takes place when I was seven years old. Now by
the time I was seven, I had three sisters and
a brother. My sister, my oldest sister was 10.
My second oldest sister was nine. I was seven.
My younger sister was five. and my little brother
was three. Now, we lived in the suburb of Chicago,
and my father and mother were rather limited
in resources. But on one weekend, one particular
weekend, they decided to take us to a state park.
Now, curiously enough, the name of the park was
Oregon State Park, which is actually a few hours
south of Chicago, still in the state of Illinois.
When we got there, We unpacked our picnic lunch.
And then my older sister and I decided to take
a walk and look around at the area. What we saw
were what can best be described as very medium
sized cliffs, probably 30 or 40 feet high. And
carved on those cliffs were steps. And the idea
was people would walk up the stairs to the top
of the cliff and look down and, you know, enjoy
the view, I suppose. When I was seven, my sister
was 10, we started walking up the stairs and
I absolutely got bored by the idea that we're
just going to walk up the stairs. It just seemed
like tedious. So I decided that Instead of walking
up the stairs, what I would do would be climb
the side of the cliff using the roots of tree
branches and trees that were sticking out of
the cliff. And I thought was is that I would
sort of pull myself up like a sort of Spider
-Man, just sort of crawling up the side of the
cliff, root by root. That was the master plan.
Well, it lasted, I think, one root. The last
thing I remember is my sister yelling, Jay, no!
After that, everything went dark. My father measured
the distance that I fell many years later and
determined it was about 22 feet 6 inches. But
anyway, that 22 feet 6 inches was pretty fast.
I don't remember any of it. I hit the ground
and Evidently rolled over and hit a boulder.
I didn't quite hit the boulder directly which
probably would have killed me but instead I rolled
over and hit the boulder anyway my Head started
bleeding like crazy my family Say later that
told me later that they actually saw me fall
I find it hard to believe anybody we actually
saw other than my older sister oldest sister
who was watching from the from the side of the
Cliff there by the steps, but anyway, they say
that all I said For the many hours that I was
knocked out was Anyway, they all grabbed me put
me into the family station wagon Drove me to
a local hospitals more of a clinic clinic. Actually.
I was knocked out for a number of hours Just
kept saying And then my folks were, and my brothers
and sisters were praying for me, you know, for
my life, et cetera. And about four hours after
I'd fallen, I woke up and I told everybody I
was hungry, and that was it. I stayed in the
hospital for a couple of days, and my head hurt
for a while. Turns out that the blood from my
head was just basically a cut that I got on the
side of my head, my skull, from the boulder.
Again, I didn't actually hit the boulder directly.
I evidently rolled over unheaded. Anyway, for
many years afterwards, my father would always
ask me if I was doing okay, and he would sort
of touch me on the head and say, does that hurt?
Does that hurt? And I'd say, yeah, it hurts.
Stop touching me on the head. But as I got older,
I... I had this sense of invulnerability. My
mother said at the time, and she said it many
times afterwards, she said, you lived for a reason.
God saved you for a reason. And I've spent my
entire adult life, I'm now 63, so that's 56 years
later, asking myself, why did God keep me alive?
I've also had many thoughts of the idea that
sort of like an occurrence in All Creek Bridge,
if you've ever read that story, this feeling
that somehow I'm actually still falling and everything
I'm saying is part of some massive dream that
I'm having on my way down and as soon as I hit
the ground that'll be the end of my life. So
on the one hand I feel a sense of invulnerability.
In another sense, in my adult life, I've had
this curious notion of deep purpose that I've
been saved for a reason. And the third idea is
that maybe I'm not alive at all, that maybe this
is all just some dream. I often think of, roll,
roll, roll your boat gently down the stream,
merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.
And I wonder if I'm still falling, and as soon
as I hit the ground, it's over. I don't know.
It's a little weird. That's a little surreal,
I suppose. I think the real element of my life
is I did feel a certain sense of indestructibility
my entire life, which is, of course, foolish.
And I understand that. I really, really do. In
terms of purpose, I've tried to lead a purposeful
life because I felt like I got a second chance
when maybe I didn't deserve one in the sense
that I probably shouldn't be dead. And on that
note, I'd like to end this week's show. You've
already heard how it's impacted my adult life.
I want to thank everyone for listening. I really
do appreciate the listeners checking in with
me. By the way, if you would like to be on Tell
Me What Happened, all you have to do is email
me at jaychak .gmail .com or you can call me
at 312 -343 -6273. That's email me at J A Y C
R E H A K at gmail .com or again phone me at
312 -343 -6273 Now I'm gonna end this week's
show as I often do with Susan Salador's classic
song the boo -boo blues This is Jay Rehek thanking
you all again for listening and remember Be safe
out there and try not to hurt anybody