In the autumn of 1968, Mrs. Kooken drove her son, Larry Kooken, me, and five other seventh graders to Herington, Kansas, for a football game between the Herington Tigers and the Abilene Cowboys. We were packed shoulder to shoulder in her brand-new, beautiful Ford Thunderbird.

I even had one of the guys sitting on my lap in the middle of the back seat. Of course, in those days, no one worried about safety, let alone putting on their seat belts.

On our way back to Abilene that misty night, things went awry. Mrs. Kooken wasn’t that familiar with the route, and the darkness made navigating even more difficult. She became disoriented and made a wrong turn onto a paved county road with a sudden sharp curve and a drop-off of several feet on the right side.

She was surprised to see the curve appear out of nowhere in front of us. The car went straight off, sending us airborne over the drop-off, only to be stopped by a hedge tree.

Mrs. Kooken suffered multiple broken bones. Upon impact, the kid on my lap absorbed all the force of me plowing into his back. Essentially, he became my airbag, which, unfortunately for him, resulted in a severe back injury.

One boy sustained a broken leg, and another a fractured arm. Because of my human airbag, I escaped with only a sprained ankle and some bruises. ❦

“ Several years

later, I would have

another run-in with

a hedge tree! ”

STAY TUNED!