Colored Chickens, Summer Jobs, And Camping At The Hospital

The spring and summer between my second and third grade years was one of the most terrifying and trying times of my life. Looking back now, it was miraculous that in the span of only a few months the Good Lord spared my life, not once but twice. Amazingly only now as I recall this time have I realized just how God was protecting me, even when I had no realization of just how His Hand guides and protects all of us even without our knowledge.

My story begins on Easter Sunday in a little trailer park in North Georgia, just south of Chattanooga Tennessee. On this particular Easter, not only did I receive the typical basket filled with goodies, but I also received something that to this day I have never forgotten. You see in my younger days, at Easter time, the local hardware and farm stores carried colored rabbits and chickens. Each of these cute little animals’ fur or feathers was sprayed with food coloring to produce their color. Entering one of these stores, you would see blue, pink, green, purple, orange and red chickens and rabbits everywhere.

Surely, you can imagine my wonderment to awaken on Easter Morning, to find that I had received a cute little blue colored baby chicken. Of all the gifts, I ever received as a child, that little chicken is probably the one that I remember the most. Perhaps it was what happened later that spring that sealed the memory or it could have been that there really was something special about that gift, and just how God was at work and would use that baby chick in a very special way later on.

In my childhood, we had chores, and one I learned very early was how to use a lawnmower and mow the grass. Just prior to entering the first grade, my parents bought a brand new mobile home for us to live in. That trailer was set up in a little place called Ray’s Trailer Park. For those who have never even visited a mobile home park the yards were very small and each homeowner was responsible for maintenance and mowing of their yards. Imagine how excited I was when my dad agreed to let me mow a few of the neighbors’ yards to make some extra spending money for the upcoming summer. Money that I would surely spend at the little country store at the entrance to the park.

This was my opportunity to establish my independence and become a lawn mowing mogul right there in that little neighborhood. Little was I to know at the time, but this coolest of summer jobs would end before it really got started, and would be the cause of me having to fight for my own life. In the evenings after school as soon as my dad would get home he would siphon gas out of the old VW, fill up my lawnmower and away I would go mowing each of the yards that neighbors had negotiated with me to do.

Day after day, this became my routine, as each evening I would go from yard to yard building my little enterprise, until the day my impatience and independence would nearly kill me. On one of my yards, I ran out of gas and made my way back to the house to get my dad to fill up my mower one more time so I could finish. Upon returning to the house, I found that my dad was at a neighbor’s house helping him work on a car. Therefore, instead of bothering him with having to get out from under a car, I decided to take matters into my own little hands. Little did I realize just what was going to happen next?

When I was a child, we did not have a gas station on every corner, and as I had said earlier when I needed gas for the lawnmower my dad would siphon it out of his old Volkswagen. Having watched him on numerous occasions I assured myself that there was no reason I could not do this as well. Convincing myself of this, and the fact that my dad would surely be proud of the fact I had taken care of this on my own, I grabbed the short piece hose he used and headed towards the car. Never did I think of just how tragic this event was about to turn for me, and how it would alter my summer and potentially my entire life.

With one quick draw on that little hose I was about to make one of the biggest mistakes of my life. Not realizing just how quickly gas could come through that hose, instead of getting a little in my mouth like my dad would do and spitting it out, I swallowed an entire mouth full. Naturally, I did not think much of it and proceeded to fill up the mower with gas, but before I could finish I felt myself getting very sick at my stomach.

At first I thought if I could just go to the house and get a drink of water everything would be okay. Suddenly the short trip from the driveway to the front door, which only took seconds, seemed like hours as the entire world seemed to be spinning around this little boy. Entering the house and quickly drinking some water very I hoped this weird feeling would pass, but a short time later, I found myself grasping the handle on our large freezer where I had obviously passed out. As you could imagine the rest of that evening after my parents came inside was one of deep concern over what had transpired.

The next morning my parents rushed me to the local doctor who examined me and immediately sent us to another doctor located in Chattanooga. The doctor informed my parents of the seriousness of the situation of which I never fully grasped. Apparently, I had a lung, which had collapsed from the ingestion of gasoline. Immediately my mom and dad rushed me to the old Children’s Hospital in Chattanooga, where I was quickly admitted, and taken to a room.

As I stated before, never for one moment did I fully grasp just how serious I was. Somehow, God has a way of helping children to cope with things that way. At the hospital, I found myself treated very special and I still remember the nurse telling me they were going to put a tent over my bed and I was going to get to camp at the hospital. During my expedition at the hospital my classmates at school sent me another gift I will never forget, I received a hardbound “Curious George and the Man in the Big Yellow Hat” book. Many times during that two-week stay in the hospital, would I read the pages of that awesome book.

However, the best surprise occurred upon my release from the hospital and returning home. You see my cute little blue chicken had lost the blue color and now wore bright white feathers. Also prior to my catastrophe, my neighbor had been building a chicken coop for a school project. As we pulled into our driveway, I saw the best surprise of all. That chicken coop was sitting right there in my yard and my little chicken was playing inside of it. All seemed well with the world again, I was recovering and with only a short period of time until school was finished for the year summer vacation was about to begin. Instead, there was one more near tragedy ahead.

This was also the summer that my grandparents would invite me to go with them on their annual trip to Daytona Beach Florida. Also going on this trip would be my aunt and uncles. You can imagine the excitement that built in me knowing that for the first time I would be seeing the beach and the ocean. It seemed that all summer especially after what happened that spring I was anticipating this trip.

So after a long night where my grandfather and uncles rounded up the chickens from my grandparents chicken houses to send to market we loaded in that old Chevrolet and made the trip down those narrow highways towards the Sunshine State. Even though I was small, that backseat got very uncomfortable sitting between my uncles as my grandfather drove. Never in our wildest dreams could anyone have predicted what would happen on that journey that again would almost take my life.

At one of many of our stops for gas, and to stretch, several of us, especially in the back seat were getting very sleepy. Upon exiting the car, I remember feeling very weak and for those who will remember the old service stations at the time, there was a big stack of new tires that I completely knocked down as I passed out from the effects of carbon monoxide poisoning. It seems that the car had a small exhaust leak, which almost got the best of all of us.

Fortunately, my grandparents were able to revive me, and with the car repaired, we would finish our trek to the ocean. That trip would become one of the most memorable times I would ever have in my childhood, and never did I think about the fact that on two occasions, miracles were the only reason I even made it to the beach that year.

Looking back now that spring and summer would be a turning point in my life, at the time I was hospitalized the doctors told us that my lungs would be scarred for life. In my early twenties, I was required to have a chest x-ray for employment purposes; the result of that exam would let me know that my lungs were perfect with absolutely no scarring. Other than the first year or two after that summer, have I ever had any issues with my breathing or for that matter my health in general.

There is no doubt in my mind that God spared me twice in the same summer, and if I really stopped to think about it numerous times as well over the years. My story should re-enforce in us all the need to have people around you who know how to pray and believe that God is able to heal and protect. Our children and grandchildren are special and if you were to ask my mom, I am sure she could tell you just how hard of a summer that was and just how many prayers she and my dad prayed. However, it also was a summer of miracles and was it not for our Creator God who gives us the very breath that is in our lungs; I would not be here today.

Perhaps it is most fitting though that my most vivid memories of that summer were of a little colored chicken, camping out in the hospital and my first time seeing the Atlantic Ocean. Sure took a lot to get me there, but I’ll thank God every day for that very special summer where He proved to me just how special His loving hands can be.