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Child Abuse |
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No, it’s true: our Rick never did crawl. Maybe if we hadn’t got him the walker…who knows? But he went straight from sitting to walking. Now, I’d been taking all these child development courses, in which “experts” opined about the rôles of various infantile behaviors in the process. So, while we were staying with the folks in San Bernardino, I said to Rick one day: “Son, your mother and I are concerned for your welfare. The books say it’s by crawling that you develop the lateral eye-motions so important to reading. Now, son, as an Anderson, you just can’t grow up illiterate. So, Rick dear, it’s time for you to crawl. Crawl, Rick!” So he giggled and trotted across the room. I tried again: “Rick, I’m serious about this. Walking and trotting are well and good. In due time, as Grandpappy says. But right now you’ve got to log some crawling time. So, crawl!” So he giggled and trotted across the room. “Son,” said I, “I’ll give you one more chance: crawl, or I’ll break your leg.” So he giggled and trotted across the room. So I broke his leg. In two places. |
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But not immediately. It was later on, up in the mountains. I was walking on a gravelly slope with Rick on my hip. I was pretty sure-footed, in those days; nonetheless, my feet slipped out from under us, and all 200 pounds of me landed on my first-born. |
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He wailed, of course, but then he calmed down, and we didn’t think much more about it. Until we offered him ice cream, and he wouldn’t take it. Then we knew something had to be wrong. On the way down the hill, he fell asleep. The x-rays said his left leg was fractured in two places.
Not that my sentiments in the matter hold any real importance, but I did feel like the world’s worst brute. Still get a twinge, thinking about it, 44 years later. |
| Well, the only crawling Rick ever did was to crawl out of his cast, a bit earlier than the doctor had wanted him to shed it. Later, our beloved Doctor Jock Robey, in Cambridge, observed that the leg I broke was straighter than the other one. Go figure. Guess we’ll just have to wait for Judgment Day to find out how much punishment I have coming as a child abuser. Rick assures me he’s forgiven me. And, thank the Lord, he’s turned out to be an early and a lifelong-insatiable reader. |
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