GrowingUpKorean: The time I lost a toenail…

Have I ever told yall about the time I lost my big toe nail?

Well…

I was about 10/11 years old and it was the beginning of the school year. My friends and I had just hopped off the bus and we all decided to meet up at my house then ride bikes around the house. So as everyone was showing up, I was scrambling looking for my outside shoes. (Yall know about outside shoes) I had looked all around the house, front yard, back yard, man those shoes were nowhere to be found. I decided to put my flip flops on. (Here we go) So we’re riding around the neighborhood and get back round to my house. I see my mom’s car is parked in the carport so I was going to ask her where my outside shoes were. As I went to use my break, my hand slipped off the handlebar. In my mind, I was like “Just stop the bike with your foot”. Myself replied back “Cool.”

I put my foot down, toe first, to stop my bike, forgetting I had on flip flops and there went my toenail. (You know how you do something stupid and as soon as you do it, you’re just like “WTF”) Anyways, my momma comes out the house, angry. She just got home from work and now she had to deal with my dumb self.

Now most parents would look at a toe with no toenail, covered in blood and dirt, and say let’s go to the hospital. Not my momma. My mother got her blue tin can full on needles and thread and tied thread around my big toe, I guess to stop the bleeding. My mother proceeded to clean my toe with a cotton ball drenched rubbing alcohol, you know because alcohol doesn’t hurt. Then she put folded up napkins on my toe and taped it with black electrical tape (just in case I was too close to a socket). To make it worse, she whooped me for not wearing my outside shoes. When I told her I couldn’t find them, she said “They’re in the washing machine.” I asked how I was supposed to know that, her reply was “I don’t care!”

Yall, don’t let your kids go outside without proper outside shoes…

GB