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Hi and welcome back to Tell Me What Happened,

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the podcast that features true childhood stories

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from people from all walks of life. Each week

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our guest tells us a childhood memory, and then

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they tell us how it's impacted their adult view

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of the world. I'm your host, Jay Rehack, and

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like you, I've had my share of painful childhood

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experiences. But I'd like to believe they've

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all helped me to become a more empathetic person.

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Tell Me What Happened is sponsored by Sideline

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Ink Publishing, publishers of quality books,

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including Susan Salador's newest children's book,

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I've Got Peace in My Fingers, available worldwide

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on November 1st, 2019. And speaking of Susan

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Salador, each week we begin the show with a portion

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of her classic song, The Boo Boo Blues, which

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you can hear playing underneath my voice right

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now. Today I'm going to tell you another one

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of my stories. Although trust me, in the near

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future, we will be having additional, more interesting

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guests. Anyway, here's my story. So this story

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takes place when I was seven years old. Now by

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the time I was seven, I had three sisters and

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a brother. My sister, my oldest sister was 10.

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My second oldest sister was nine. I was seven.

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My younger sister was five. and my little brother

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was three. Now, we lived in the suburb of Chicago,

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and my father and mother were rather limited

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in resources. But on one weekend, one particular

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weekend, they decided to take us to a state park.

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Now, curiously enough, the name of the park was

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Oregon State Park, which is actually a few hours

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south of Chicago, still in the state of Illinois.

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When we got there, We unpacked our picnic lunch.

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And then my older sister and I decided to take

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a walk and look around at the area. What we saw

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were what can best be described as very medium

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sized cliffs, probably 30 or 40 feet high. And

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carved on those cliffs were steps. And the idea

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was people would walk up the stairs to the top

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of the cliff and look down and, you know, enjoy

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the view, I suppose. When I was seven, my sister

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was 10, we started walking up the stairs and

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I absolutely got bored by the idea that we're

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just going to walk up the stairs. It just seemed

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like tedious. So I decided that Instead of walking

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up the stairs, what I would do would be climb

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the side of the cliff using the roots of tree

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branches and trees that were sticking out of

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the cliff. And I thought was is that I would

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sort of pull myself up like a sort of Spider

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-Man, just sort of crawling up the side of the

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cliff, root by root. That was the master plan.

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Well, it lasted, I think, one root. The last

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thing I remember is my sister yelling, Jay, no!

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After that, everything went dark. My father measured

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the distance that I fell many years later and

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determined it was about 22 feet 6 inches. But

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anyway, that 22 feet 6 inches was pretty fast.

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I don't remember any of it. I hit the ground

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and Evidently rolled over and hit a boulder.

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I didn't quite hit the boulder directly which

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probably would have killed me but instead I rolled

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over and hit the boulder anyway my Head started

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bleeding like crazy my family Say later that

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told me later that they actually saw me fall

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I find it hard to believe anybody we actually

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saw other than my older sister oldest sister

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who was watching from the from the side of the

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Cliff there by the steps, but anyway, they say

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that all I said For the many hours that I was

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knocked out was Anyway, they all grabbed me put

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me into the family station wagon Drove me to

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a local hospitals more of a clinic clinic. Actually.

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I was knocked out for a number of hours Just

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kept saying And then my folks were, and my brothers

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and sisters were praying for me, you know, for

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my life, et cetera. And about four hours after

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I'd fallen, I woke up and I told everybody I

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was hungry, and that was it. I stayed in the

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hospital for a couple of days, and my head hurt

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for a while. Turns out that the blood from my

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head was just basically a cut that I got on the

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side of my head, my skull, from the boulder.

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Again, I didn't actually hit the boulder directly.

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I evidently rolled over unheaded. Anyway, for

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many years afterwards, my father would always

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ask me if I was doing okay, and he would sort

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of touch me on the head and say, does that hurt?

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Does that hurt? And I'd say, yeah, it hurts.

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Stop touching me on the head. But as I got older,

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I... I had this sense of invulnerability. My

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mother said at the time, and she said it many

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times afterwards, she said, you lived for a reason.

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God saved you for a reason. And I've spent my

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entire adult life, I'm now 63, so that's 56 years

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later, asking myself, why did God keep me alive?

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I've also had many thoughts of the idea that

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sort of like an occurrence in All Creek Bridge,

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if you've ever read that story, this feeling

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that somehow I'm actually still falling and everything

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I'm saying is part of some massive dream that

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I'm having on my way down and as soon as I hit

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the ground that'll be the end of my life. So

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on the one hand I feel a sense of invulnerability.

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In another sense, in my adult life, I've had

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this curious notion of deep purpose that I've

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been saved for a reason. And the third idea is

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that maybe I'm not alive at all, that maybe this

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is all just some dream. I often think of, roll,

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roll, roll your boat gently down the stream,

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merrily, merrily, merrily. Life is but a dream.

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And I wonder if I'm still falling, and as soon

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as I hit the ground, it's over. I don't know.

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It's a little weird. That's a little surreal,

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I suppose. I think the real element of my life

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is I did feel a certain sense of indestructibility

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my entire life, which is, of course, foolish.

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And I understand that. I really, really do. In

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terms of purpose, I've tried to lead a purposeful

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life because I felt like I got a second chance

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when maybe I didn't deserve one in the sense

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that I probably shouldn't be dead. And on that

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note, I'd like to end this week's show. You've

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already heard how it's impacted my adult life.

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I want to thank everyone for listening. I really

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do appreciate the listeners checking in with

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me. By the way, if you would like to be on Tell

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Me What Happened, all you have to do is email

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me at jaychak .gmail .com or you can call me

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at 312 -343 -6273. That's email me at J A Y C

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R E H A K at gmail .com or again phone me at

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312 -343 -6273 Now I'm gonna end this week's

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show as I often do with Susan Salador's classic

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song the boo -boo blues This is Jay Rehek thanking

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you all again for listening and remember Be safe

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out there and try not to hurt anybody