Hatrack River Writers Workshop: Sandcastle Competition

This is topic Sandcastle Competition in forum Grist for the Mill at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by mikemunsil (Member # 2109) on :

My wife and I used to consult on sandcastle competitions down at Galveston. Our team sucked that year and I got in a rush trying to get sand up a ramp to the people loading our form. I was barefoot, pushing a full wheelbarrow load of wet sand up a ramp. I had just planted my right foot forward and placed all my weight on it (and the weight of the wheelbarrow) when the ramp came apart and the section of wood with the wheelbarrow on it popped straight backwards into the toes of my foot.

I felt a flash of pain and then nothing. When I looked down my big toe was bent over the other toes and my foot looked kinda weird.

Just at that moment, my wife called out that our 2 year old was missing. We looked around and when no one could find him she went up the beach one way and I went down the other, hobbling along as fast as I could. As it turned out, I went the wrong way, and as I don't give up easily, I went a mile or so. On the way back the foot was throbbing like hell, but the toe still didn't hurt.

The doctor who looked at my x-rays said that she stopped counting individual fractures at 25. She said the walking I did probably severed some nerves. A few months later, I started falling when the foot just wouldn't work right. After falling down the stairs I went back and had surgery done to free up the nerves. That foot is about a size smaller than the other now, and I have a nice 5-inch scar and a weird looking big toe.

So, no more sandcastle competitions for me.