Thursday, November 23, 2023

PINKY IN THE BULKHEAD DOOR

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As I was delivering a couple of packages to “Parker’s Canvas Awning” one day, circa 1990, and I was closing my bulkhead, and preparing to navigate the first of three steps to the ground, I accidently closed the door on my left pinky finger.

 

As Jackie Gleason might have said, (and I, no doubt, thought)

 

“What a revolting development!”

 

I found myself standing in the cab of old #59299 facing a steel bulkhead with the little finger of my left hand securely intact inside the framework of the over-sized metal door.

 

And since the lock to the door was on the left side, and my keys were in the opposite free hand which remained to me, I found myself “between a rock and a hard place.”

 

And as Mrs. Faixfax in the novel, “Jane Eyre” was prone to say,

 

“What to do? What to do?”


While my memory of that event is not as clear as it once was, it seems apparent at this juncture that I must have screamed for assistance. At any rate, it was about this time that Mrs. Parker made her appearance, and I attempted to help her help me by handing her my bulkhead key, and instructing her to insert it in the wall lock with her left hand, while pulling the door strap away from her with her right hand; to no avail. For as much as she pulled, the bulkhead door refused to move. My stuck finger somehow disallowed the door from coming away from the frame.

 

By now, I realized there was only one thing to do. I began to pull my left pinky finger out, and towards my body. I would either leave it in the door, or it would rejoin the remainder of my anatomy.

 

However, I regret to report that I pulled out a skeletal shadow of what my little finger had previously looked like, and I left the majority of my flesh and blood inside the framework of the door.

 

(Gotcha)!

 

Actually, by this time my left pinky finger was 95% intact, and considering what it had endured, I think both I, and Mrs. Parker were happy enough with the results.

Bill McDonald, PhD

 


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