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Okay, we're going, uhm, when I was about… (oh, the sound’s up!)
When I was about nine years old, uhmm, I had a friend named Judy.
We used to go to ballet class together.
And, y'know, either we'd dress at my house and then, my mother would take us to ballet,
or we'd dress at her house and her mother would take us to ballet.
And once in a while we'd play together, even though there wasn't ballet, but mostly it was about, that was our association.
Uhm, well, one day I was playing at her house. I think it was after ballet class.
And she lived on this big hill. There were a bunch of houses on the hill.
And we borrowed a Flexiflyer, y'know one of those sleds -
you can ride down regular streets, they don't - not for uhm, riding in the snow -
it's just … they've got wheels and they slide real fast down the hills.
Uhm. So, uhm. We borrowed this from a guy who lived down the street from her – down the hill.
She was going to show me how to work it (I never did this before).
And, I was pretty scared.
So, we went up the hill to these other people's house.
And, they had a very steep driveway.
It went down on one part and then that got to the house at the bottom of the driveway
and went up at the other side of the driveway, sort of like a U-shape.
So, it went down and back up.
And so she got on the Flexiflyer, lay down on it, and she went swinging down the hill and --
and turned the handle at the bottom,
and swinging back up and she got all the way to the top at the other end of the driveway.
It was VERY exciting and I was just SCARED to death.
So -- uh, she brought it back around, down to the beginning of the driveway again,
and said "Now you try it." And I said, "No, no, that"s okay.
You go right ahead. I’ll just watch you. I’m having a real scary time just watching." [almost laughing]
So she got on again and rode down to the bottom. Turned the handle at the bottom
and steered her way back up to the top at the other end of the driveway.
And, she was having a great time. She was sure I should try it.
And, I was sure I shouldn't try it.
At the bottom of the driveway was the door of the house, see,
and they had these 2 big wooden planters. They -
oh, they must have stood about 3 feet high.
And, uhm. They were filled with some sort of tropical plant, bush, tree, something.
And uhm,
And, I was sure I didn’t want to go down to the bottom of that hill, 'cuz
I knew I didn't have any strength in my hands,
and I couldn't turn the - the handle when I got to the bottom;
and you really had to turn it quite hard to get back to the top.
So she kept trying to talk me - to pester me and pester me and said, y'know,
"Go try it; you'll have such a good time."
So finally just to keep her quiet, I said, "I'll try it once and that's all."
Okay. I got on, lay down on the Flexiflyer and I -
and I held on and she showed me on the top of the hill how to turn the handle.
So I started down the hill, and I was going faster and faster
and I got to the bottom of the hill and she kept saying "Turn it! TURN IT!"
She was shouting to me "Turn it! Turn it!"
I didn’t turn it.
[laughing] I ran right into one of those big planter boxes at the bottom of the hill.
Banged my eye right above my eyebrow - my left eye and … [[fades out]]