Four Finger Panic
Mike Davis Title: Four Finger Panic Storyteller: Mike Davis Language: English Date of Telling: 2016-04-30 Location of Telling: Casper, Washington Duration of Story: 02:31 Source of Story: Family Location of Story: Western Washington Subject Headings: Dismemberment; Armed Forces Notes: |
|
Once upon a time, there was a Civil War Vet, who was so traumatized by his life in the Civil War that he married late in life. When he was 57 he had a son whose name was Guy. Now, Guy and his mother did not get along well on the farm in South Dakota. So when he was 16, the earliest you could join up, he joined the US Army. And went off to World War 1, one of the first groups to go over. He was very traumatized because he was the cook, so he would tell his kids, “You know, people are just no damn good. No damn good. They are just no damn good.”
But he was very smart so after the war he got out of the army, moved to the state of Washington, in the middle of the incredibly dark grey skies that encompass the area between Portland and Seattle, all the time. And he bought ten acres and started a chicken farm. There was a lot of trees to chop down so he built himself a little sawmill rig. He and his wife had four kids, two daughters and two sons.
Now one day in the mid 1930’s, while he was busy making two by fours to make an outdoor facility for sanitary reasons, he cut off four of his left fingers with the saw. The family had one car. The oldest daughter was about fifteen and had one driving lesson. He could not drive the car, so he forced his daughter into the car and his whole family piled in to drive down to the closest doctor, like five miles away. The whole way there, he kept screaming at his daughter, “Slow this thing down! You went from first to third gear! You are just not driving right!” The daughter kept thinking, I have got to get him to the doctor. Which she did. The doctor was actually also a World War 1 vet and had a lot of practice sewing things back together. And he did. And the fingers actually worked.
But he was very smart so after the war he got out of the army, moved to the state of Washington, in the middle of the incredibly dark grey skies that encompass the area between Portland and Seattle, all the time. And he bought ten acres and started a chicken farm. There was a lot of trees to chop down so he built himself a little sawmill rig. He and his wife had four kids, two daughters and two sons.
Now one day in the mid 1930’s, while he was busy making two by fours to make an outdoor facility for sanitary reasons, he cut off four of his left fingers with the saw. The family had one car. The oldest daughter was about fifteen and had one driving lesson. He could not drive the car, so he forced his daughter into the car and his whole family piled in to drive down to the closest doctor, like five miles away. The whole way there, he kept screaming at his daughter, “Slow this thing down! You went from first to third gear! You are just not driving right!” The daughter kept thinking, I have got to get him to the doctor. Which she did. The doctor was actually also a World War 1 vet and had a lot of practice sewing things back together. And he did. And the fingers actually worked.