this past Sunday my dad had a pretty serious bicycling accident. in the fifteen years that he’s been biking, this is the first one that i’m aware of. he’s had some small spills in the past, but this one takes the cake for sure.

apparently, it had something to do with the shoes and toe clips he uses to attach his feet to the pedals and one of them being loose. i don’t quite understand the situation exactly, but whatever went wrong ended up sending him on his right shoulder and down on the asphalt with such force that he fractured his scapula (which, apparently, is pretty tough to achieve) and his pelvic bone. i haven’t seen pictures yet, but he also has some burns on his shoulder and knees from his skid. in addition to the broken bones, he also suffered a mild concussion. for a few hours after the event, he couldn’t remember what had happened or what he did on Sunday morning. scary.

in a testament to the quality of care that you might receive at the emergency room, this sixty-four year old man with the previously mentioned conditions sat there for nearly 6 hours before being admitted, didn’t receive any food until the next morning, and was told at discharge that he should keep ice on the broken bones to reduce swelling for the first 24 hours after the accident. did they not realize that he had been in the hospital under their care for the past 20 hours? amazing. not once did anyone offer to or provide him with an ice pack. i’m no physician or nurse, but it seems to me that this should’ve been one of their foremost priorities.

in any case, all of this makes me reconsider the importance of what i will call from now forward the “Shadle family oral history project”. i know that sounds grandiose, so apologies in advance. i’ve been thinking about this for a while, but have never taken action. i thought about it when my grandmother sold her home and went into assisted living a few years back. unfortunately, she died in October of last year.

it is true that things for my dad could’ve gone much worse. he was lucky to have had someone driving by in a car who saw him fall and who stopped to assist him (calling my mom, calling 911, etc.). we still don’t know who she is, but hopefully we will find out soon.

none of my grandparents are around any more, and any family historical information that i would be interested in is in the memories held by my dad and his two sisters as well as my mom and her brother.

i have a small digital recorder that i can use to “take notes”, but need to read up on what good prompts might be in order to obtain the best information out of them. my hope is that most of the questions that i can’t answer now because family members aren’t around any longer will be answered for future generations through this work. i know that’s pretty ambitious, but i guess it’s good to set lofty goals.