Asklemmy

I was playing cricket in the driveway with some neighbour-friends. There were three of us and each took turns to be bowler, batter, and fielder.

As an aside, I was quite a good cricketer when I was young and was eager to show my skills to my friends so when the ball was hit high and far over my head I ran as fast as I could to catch it.

I kept my eyes on the ball, head turned over my shoulder, impossible to see anything in front of me. After a second or three, I looked forward to get my bearings and as soon as I did the back of an old, metal bakkie (pickup truck I suppose) appeared out of nowhere.

I ran straight into it, face first. I remember looking down, through tears, at my hands where the blood pouring out of my mouth and pooling in my hands. The blood was flecked with a curious white substance that I later found out was half of my front tooth reduced to a fine powder.

Came off my bike when I was about 6 or 7, scratched my elbow...not stitches bad but bad enough. Still got the scar.

Was running around with my cousins on pavement wearing flip flops. I was chasing my cousin who ran up stairs and I slipped and hit my face on the side of a stair. To this day, I still have the scar on my lip that my tooth opened up.

I was lucky, my worst childhood injury was breaking a toe on the bottom of a swimming pool I jumped into.

I once tried to jump over a big garbage container that was, ehhm.. how do i put it? It was sort of under ground, but with no roof next to a staircase. (It was build in a small hill, sort of) But i missed it and fell into it. My whole back was one big scraping wound. Very painful for weeks :(

Concussion at an ice skating rink.

I was skating at the local ice rink, and tripped. I think it was an Olympic-sized rink, but that might have been the pool... it was pretty big, anyway. I bounced my head off the ice so hard I saw blue and red fireworks (only time that's ever happened to me), and slid half the length of the rink on my face wherein I crashed into the barrier. That shit hurt, I still remember it vividly 30 years later, but luckily nothing broken. My mum was simultaneously aghast, and relieved and amazed I wasn't more injured. She was convinced I'd have fractured something in my face when she saw me fall.

While chasing around the house I tripped over a bed board and slid my upper lip on a carpet.

A strip of skin down from the base of the nose to my lip was gone. Everyone freaked out about me disfiguring myself.

I picked at it, of course, 25 years later there's no trace of it. Kids heal fast.

I was sheltered I think, considering some other injuries here.

Aan a two year old I fell off the couch into a metal table, narrowly missing my eye, but catching my eyebrow on the corner. Still have a small scar in my eyebrow.

As a teen (13-14 ish?) I broke both bones in my forearm. That kinda sucked.

Absolutely lame, but age 12 I remember the worst most intense pain I ever felt was sitting on my own thumb after pulling a wooden stool towards me - crushed it right on the edge corner and it was so intense.

Way more painful than the time I got a drawing pin (thumbtack) half embedded in my heel, impaled my wrist on a set square, or winded myself falling chest-first off a skateboard.

I've been pretty lucky/sensible

I've probably hurt myself worse, but one memory that stands out is me crawling around in a bush, getting my pants stuck and then losing my grip so I turn upside down with my head in a bunch of stinging nettles.

I've always been pretty careful by nature, even as a child. There's some close calls since I was outdoors a lot in the 90's hanging out in the forests and river valley, but nothing really bad happened. So I only have one standout story aside from boring scrapes and knocks from that time.

I made it to twelve years of age before I stepped on a log at a survival camp heading back from canoeing in a pond with a lady friend I met at camp. The log turned out to be hollow and full of bees suddenly very angry with me. Got about ~20 stings on the leg that went through the log since I was wearing shorts. A few up my shirt as I fled screaming profanity.

They were on me instantly, but didn't chase me very far thankfully. I don't react to stings much so it wasn't sore for very long. Or I don't remember the pain well because I was still swooning from getting my first smooch on said pond canoe ride....which might explain why I stepped on said log without looking too close. I'm sure there would've been bees around it. ¯_(ツ)_/¯

A flowerpot fell on my head when I was little, on my forehead.
The thing is, I don’t remember this ever happening. There’s a photo of me with a giant bandage, and I still have a scar in the form of some dented skin. But I can’t recall anything from that time.
Maybe it’s because I was like 2 or 3 years old or something. But I find it a little bit unsettling that my memory is a blank.