My Life - Unconscious at age 6 in a storm drain # 9

One sunny, late summer day, between first and second grade, I made my way over to Buckshot's house to hang out with him.  Neither Buckshot nor Elvie were home, so I just wandered around waiting for them to come home.

Behind Buckshot's house was a dirt road leading to a grain elevator.  Local farmers would load their big trucks with wheat, barley, oats, flax etc. which they had grown during the summer and then would sell the grain at this elevator.

Almost hidden beneath the dirt road, lied a corrugated steel storm drainage culvert, much like the one seen in this photo.  The dirt and gravel had worn away over some of the culvert to leave much of the top exposed to the traffic.  About 3/4 of the way across the road, the culvert was flattened on top due to the weight of the grain trucks driving by.  Even though the diameter of the culvert was quite small, maybe 12 inches or so, I had often thought of crawling through the culvert from one end to the other.

With time on my hands, I thought now was the time to do so.  I instructed Tony to sit outside one end of the culvert, while I went to the other end.  lying on my stomach, I called Tony to crawl through the culvert.  He whined, and nervously moved his feet, but he wouldn't enter the culvert.   I called again.  But Tony steadfastly refused to enter the culvert.

After waiting a few minutes to gather my nerves, I started crawling headfirst into the culvert.  I was very scared, but excited at the same time.  It was difficult making headway, as I was barely able to fit through the opening.  With my arms stretched ahead of my body, I would pull on the corrugated pipe with my fingers, and push as much as I could with my toes.   Progress was slow, and I soon tired.   As I was resting, about 1/3 of the way through the culvert, I heard, and felt, a grain truck approach.  I could tell the truck was moving slowly by the sound and the gentle vibration of the ground.  

When the front wheels of the truck rolled across the loose dirt and the top of the culvert, I could feel the metal bending and the earth moving ever so slightly.  I again got afraid.  I wanted to be home!  But then the rear wheels passed over the same spot, and the moving and bending increased.  I started to panic !   But the truck continued to slowly move away, and I was able to calm myself!

I started to move backwards, but found it more difficult than crawling forward.  So, I resumed my forward crawl.   When I reached a point about half way through the culvert, I heard and felt another truck approaching.   I could tell it was moving slower than the first.  I waited, as first the front wheels, then the back wheels passed over the top of the culvert.  The movement of the ground and the culvert seemed less than with the first truck.  I was relieved!  But, what I didn't know at the time, was the movement was less because I was in a position midway between the wheels on the left side of the truck and the wheels on the right of the truck.

I soon made my way to where the culvert was flat on the top.  When I tried to move my head through the reduced area of the culvert, I couldn't! It was too big!  It wouldn't fit through!  I felt ill!  I thought I would throw up!  Then, I discovered if I turned my head sideways, parallel to my shoulders, I could squeeze through.  After squeezing my head through the narrow spot, I inched my way forward.  Finding that I had to take very shallow breaths as I entered this restricted space, progress was very slow.

Then I heard another grain truck approaching!  It was moving even slower than the last one!  I tried to hurry, but it was too late!  The weight of the front of the truck, pushed the culvert down on my back and forced the air out of my lungs, and I felt pain!   Pain and panic!  

The front wheels of the truck moved ahead, and I felt relief from the pain, but with the panic and the shallow breathing I was out of breath!  Before I could move over an inch, the back wheels moved to the flat area of the culvert.  The air was immediately squeezed out of my lungs and I again felt pain!  This time the squeezing and the pain didn't go away!  The truck stopped at this exact spot, and was waiting in line for the other trucks to move ahead.

My panic increased as the pain slowly decreased and my vision became gray and turned to black!   I was unconscious!   As I was starting to become aware again, I could feel something warm and wet on my cheek. It was Tony!   He had sensed the trouble I was in and crawled in to help me by licking my cheek!  Slowly I pushed Tony backwards, and myself forward, until we were safely out of the culvert.

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I don't know how long I was unconscious that day.   I suspect, not very long.   But that was the first of many, many times during my life, and all will be documented on this blog.

My first post
My second post
My Life Begins - I Almost Killed My Mother!! #1
My Life - Neighbor & Tomato Plants #2
My Life - A Boy and a BB Gun #3
My - Life a Boy and a BB Gun (continued) #4
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade #5
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade (continued) #6
My Life - The Devastation of First Grade Continued #7
My Life - "Buckshot"! #8