Blood and Sweat

[Droopy]

But no tears. When was the last time you cried after being physically hurt? I guess I was probably about ten. Since then it has just pissed me off. When do we get tough and quit crying for mommy?

I'm a trucker and I have the privilege of hand unloading my trailer every night. Fortunately, most of the stuff is in these big cages with rollers on them. I just roll them out to a platform on the end of the trailer and ease the platform to the ground. But there are still some loose pieces that have to be unloaded. Some of them are quite large and heavy.

Sometimes the loaders have to make room in the trailer so they can fit everything on. They do that by building shelves up over our heads that can hold the loose pieces. They block the loose pieces in by using load bars. They have rubber feet at both ends and extend out and lock in place by putting pressure on the walls of the trailer. They accomplish this by a ratchet on the load bar.

Well, I was working under one of those load bars one night not too long ago. I just needed to get one piece down and was trying to save a little time by not taking the load bar down. There was enough room there between the bar and the top of the trailer for me to do that. Those load bars are supposed to be able to take 2000 pounds of pressure if they are secured properly. Well, this one wasn't and I was standing directly underneath it when it cut loose. The ratchet part with its teeth struck me squarely on the top of the head just above my forehead.

I was dazed and I put my hand on top of my head, rubbed the spot where I'd been hit, and got a handful of blood. Before I got to the end of the trailer I had blood streaming down my face. Fortunately, I had access to a bathroom and after about five minutes of applying pressure to the wound it stopped bleeding. I was worried about possibly having to go to the hospital and get stitches more than anything. The bathroom looked like some horror out of a Stephen King novel, but I got it all cleaned up. Not one tear shed.

I was eating at a buffet style restaurant not long ago and this little girl, probably 7 or 8, went to the ice cream machine. The floor was wet there due to someone else dropping their ice cream and the little girl slipped with a bowl in her hands. She tried to catch herself still holding the bowl and when it and her hand struck the ground the bowl broke and cut the palm of her hand. She yelled and cried like the hand had been chopped off instead of just cut, no doubt horrified at the sight of her own blood. Mommy made it better, though, and before long the little girl was eating her ice cream as if nothing had happened.

When did the switch from sensitive, little kid to hardened, tough adult happen to you? Like I said above, I guess I was about 10 when it happened to me. This seems significant to me, but for some reason I don't know why.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear Droopy!

Wow, what a story!

Glad you're OK...

I don't cry with physical pain anymore...

But emotional or psychological pain can make me tear up...

I don't remember when that switch happened.

Long ago, I suspect.

Good to see you tonight!

:hi:

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. I'm not sure when that happened -- probably no later than my early teens.

But now if I get physically hurt I just cuss like a longshoreman. I cry if you hurt my feelings, though.

[DarkTirade]

3. Honestly, I'm not sure when it happened.

I think for most people it's one of those things where you're there the whole time, so you don't notice until you look back afterwards.

Then there are some who never grow out of it... :P

[NJmaverick]

4. Happened some time during my early teens

I can tell you from first hand experience though, that not everyone makes this transition.

[mwooldri]

5. Sometimes I have the kid in me, sometimes it's the tough adult.

I'm quite emotional anyway - for a man that is.

I certainly tear up when my son wallops me in the goolies. I do try to suppress it though.

However, had a major car wreck, passed out, came to, got carted off to hospital, no tears. Cried like buggery when I went to the wreckers yard to pick our belongings out of the wreck.

Mark.

[Kali]

6. depends

mostly I cry too easily for all kinds of things. I suspect I have a problem. Hell, if I start laughing real hard it will transition to weeping.