FloPa With The Funny Looking Toe

The other day I was sitting in my extra wide recliner. My granddaughter, Ella, was sitting right beside me. We were bare footed and had our feet stretched out in front of us. “FloPa, how come your toe looks so funny?” she asked. So I cut the TV off and gave her this story: When I was in about the 3rd grade at Radhost School, we used to play a game at recess time we called “Kick the Can.” We made up this game because the only tool or piece of equipment we needed was an old empty peach can. We’d draw a 2 foot circle in the ground and place this can in the middle of it. This can acted as the “home base.” Then being similar to Hide & Seek, we would choose one person to be “it.” He then would count to 40 or 50 and then proceed to try and find anyone hiding behind the buildings, out houses, trees, etc. Every time he spotted a person he put them into a jail which was another large circle drawn in the ground. The object of the game was for anyone to race toward the can and kick it before the one being “it” got to it. If the runner did get there first and kicked the can, that would free all the kids in jail and they’d run and hide again.

I used to run pretty fast then so I managed to kick that can many times. Here’s where the problem starts. That poor rusty peach can was kicked so many times it was all banged up and crushed. There were many jagged edges and one time I kicked it extra hard and one of these jagged edges cut clean through my cloth tennis shoe and deep into my toe. I stopped the bleeding and after running water over the cut from the school hydrant I wrapped it with some strips of cloth and didn’t think much more of it. I kept it wrapped for a week or two and finally it healed. But I lost the toe nail and once it grew back, I noticed the toe was slightly deformed and it stayed that way up to this very day. It’s funny how no one ever noticed it for over 60 years except my ever alert granddaughter. But at least now she knows the other side of the story.