Remembering Kathy Ward~

When I was in high school I thought Kathy Ward was very pretty so I asked her out and she said she would go.

Saturday came and as luck would have it, I was having trouble with my car. I worked on it almost all day in frustration trying to get ready for my date. I thought I had it fixed, but the battery was so dead I had to push start it. 1950 was the last year Ford made cars with glass tail lights and that seemingly insignificant fact would have dire consequences for me.

I was pushing my car in the rain down Brookmeade Street, trying to get up enough speed for me to run to the driver's seat and pop the clutch. All of a sudden my hand slipped down the rear fender and I cut it on the taillight. I cut it deeply, all the way to the joint, but I was very lucky. While I laid the meat of the palm on my thumb wide open, I did not cut into the membrane covering my thumb joint. I cut my hand all the way from the tip of my thumb to the wrist. That was bad enough, but in the rain it looked worse. There was blood everywhere. I ran to the house and the front door was locked.

Mom didn't like it too much when we went in and out of the house too often, so to prevent this, she would simply lock us out. This time was even more important to her that we didn't come and go too often as she had some company. If we wanted in, we had to knock... and then we had better have a good reason for coming in (being too hot or too cold, or wanting a drink, was not considered a good reason.)

I knocked and got no answer. Usually when that happened, if it were not too important (like having to go to the bathroom) we would just give up and try again later. This time, however, I wasn't going to stop bleeding any time soon and I was agitated, so when I knocked again I banged on the door.

"What do you want?", Mom yelled when she came to the door. Then her eyes widened when she saw all the blood. 

"Don't come in," she shouted. "You'll get blood on the carpet."

So I waited a little longer, feeling a little less important than the new carpet (we got it as part of the insurance settlement when Hurricane Carla damaged the house. We also got a new roof and sheetrock too.) Mom came back with a towel and told me to wrap it around my hand.

I had been a Boy Scout for over five years and I thought I knew enough to know that just covering up a major gash on an appendage wasn't the thing to do. Hiding the wound with a towel wasn't going to make it go away or make it better. To my surprise, however, it did. I wrapped my hand tightly with the towel and we went to the emergency room.

All the time I was there I kept looking at my watch. I still didn't have my car running and this injury was wasting precious time. Mom finally asked me why I was so anxious about the time and I told her I needed to get ready for my date.

"You’re not going on a date with your hand like that!" Mom said. I told her I was and I wasn't going to let my hand bother me. She asked me how I could drive and I explained I never used my right hand for driving when I was dating anyway.

Finally we reached a compromise. Mom said I could go if she would drive us. At first I objected. I didn't want to be chauffeured like I was in junior high school, but Mom suggested that Kathy and I go to the Village. That way we could eat and take in a movie, and when we were done, Mom would come and get us. That sounded okay to me (as bad as all else seemed to be going). I sure didn't want to miss my date with Kathy, so I was willing to put up with this. I just hoped Kathy didn't think it was too weird.

We (Mom and I) picked Kathy up at twilight and Mom and Kathy both made my situation as pleasant as it could possibly be under the circumstances. Mom dropped us off and we had time to walk around and talk a little before the movie started. This was turning out well.

I can't remember what we saw, but after the movie we went to the One's-A-Meal just down University Blvd. All the buildings that housed those places are gone now as time marches on. I guess we had hamburgers but I all I remember is I was enjoying the company. Kathy looked great and was very pleasant to talk to. We sat and talked long after we finished eating but too soon it was getting time to get her home.

The problem was that there were four guys in the back booth by the telephone. I waited for a while, hoping they would leave, but the hour was getting desperately late and it was becoming obvious that these guys weren't leaving soon. So I had to make the call in the midst of them. It wasn't pleasant.

"Mom, you can come get us now," I said as softly as I could, but it wasn't soft enough.

"Mom, you can come get us now!” one of them mocked, and the rest broke out in exaggerated laughter. It was as bad as I imagined it might be - for a couple of seconds.

Then Kathy rose from the booth and came back to the phone, took me by the arm, and looked at me admiringly. I walked back to our booth feeling like a king! Yep, these guys could laugh all they wanted, but they were alone on a Saturday night and I had a class act at my side. I will always appreciate Kathy for what she did. She turned what could have been one of life's more embarrassing moments into one of my most memorable.