Rocks in my Head

My little brother and I used to play a game where we'd toss little pebbles at one another. It was something to do to aggravate one another in a fun way. We'd start off tossing little pebbles at one anothers back or leg. Just one or two when the other person wasn't looking. The game would last as long as there were pebbles available or until we got to our destination.

The game was usually friendly. We didn't get mad and end up tossing stones as hard as we could with the intent to cause bodily harm. But sometimes the pebbles increased in size as the game progressed. This is exactly what happened to our game one fateful day.

It was a lovely summer (boring) day and Scottie and I were taking a stroll through a local park. As usual, we were playing the pebble game with great delight. But as the game progressed, the pebbles started getting larger. Then they became rocks. Then stones. We weren't mad mind you, we were just getting into the game plus, we were running out of small stones to throw.

In this particular park, limestone was just under the surface of the dirt, so most of the rocks were flaky. As the stone size increased they started looking more platter-like. Flat and wide - perfect for throwing like a Frisbee. As you can probably guess, Scottie decided to wing one of these stones past me. He wanted to have the biggest rock and win the game but he didn't want to hurt me and this seemed like the perfectly logical thing to do. Make that sucker sail right past my ear so I'd feel the wind, and hear the whoosh and he'd automatically win the game.

Unfortunately, my stupid head got right in the way of that big old, platter rock and I got nailed pretty good. So much so that I wound up with a concussion. My ears were ringing and my vision was sort of wavy, and I couldn't walk in a straight line.
I did NOT want my Mom to find out because I had 2 previous concussions in a relatively short period of time and I knew that Scottie and I would get our hineys torn up for throwing rocks again and causing another concussion. I did my level best to appear normal but I think that my glassy eyes gave me away.

Both Scottie and I denied playing the pebble game so Mom couldn't really get us into trouble. She grilled me about the way I got the concussion but I was so woozy, I sort of got out of that, too. I just remember that we didn't play the pebble game for a while after that. I'm sort of glad too, because even though I know that the rock he accidentally hit me with wasn't terribly large, it still felt like it was. Sort of like this:



Rock on brothers and sisters! Just wear a helmet.