I almost died to play this game...

Before I go into the Return to Dark Tower (by @RestorationGames), I'd like to return to my childhood, when I played the original game with my sister and cousins ...  back to the early 1980's

Yeah, there's the box I remember!  So this was my favorite game in the early 80s, from when I was 7 through 8 years old.  I showed so much affinity for the game that my grandmother, who bought the game for all her grandchildren to play at her house, let me take it home (I'm sure I likely asked/begged multiple times - and tried not to fidget in church so I could cash that goodwill in).  Some kids in the neighborhood also had it, so I played a LOT.

Well, my sister also enjoyed it and I was the luckiest brother at 8 years old when she and I scrounged up enough money to get some new batteries to play the game.  All we had to do was pick up the batteries - can DO.  We lived less than a mile from a CVS pharmacy and I had a bicycle.  EASY PEASY LEMON SQUEEZY, KID! so excite! let's gooooooooo..........  CRASH

You ever try to hip check a moving car?  You ever been T-boned by the grill of a 4 door sedan going 25 mph while riding your bicycle?  I was totally not paying attention and taking this wild shortcut that will let you speed across a major road in the town I lived on and then get up the bank on the other side = right into the parking lot of the CVS.  You cruise down this steep hill and come right out onto the major road, but you're basically in a half pipe and you can't see the road once you're 3/4 the way down.  And even though I looked when I was up, by the time I hit the pavement there was a car right there.  They had no chance to stop, it really wasn't their fault.

I fly over the handlebars right in the middle of the opposite lane on the road and my bike skids down the road 100 ft,.  Luckily no cars were coming from the opposite direction and the passenger in the car was a nurse with ER experience.  She hopped out and came over to triage, told me not to move until a doctor told me, and kept me focused and awake until the ambulance arrived.  The police went and got my father (I was able to tell them where I lived) and he got there right after they cut open my pants to examine the impact site where the car impacted with my body.

So, as a prize, I got to ride with my Dad all the way to the hospital and we don't have to wait for traffic, that was the fastest trip to that town I'd ever had.  On the way over, he kept tryign to talk to me, but I was a little out of it.  I don't think the paramedics gave me anything, but who knows?  I was 8 and just got the biggest whollop of my life.  So my Dad asks me, "Can you move?" and I reply, "No." He must have asked me like 3 times and he was praying to God, something he never does.

Well in the ER and I was in the bed, and the doctor examining me asks if I can move.  Of course I could, I moved just fine.  All the little which ways he asked me to manipulate my toes and legs.  He nods, pats my head, and walks off to do some paperwork.  My Dad just looks at me shocked, "But son, you said you couldn't move!"  Of course I reply, "Well, you're not a doctor and the nurse told me not to unless a doctor asked."  My Dad was of course preparing himself for explaining to his son how he was going to be in a wheelchair the rest of his life.  Oh man, good times :D.  Kids will give ya grey hairs for sure!

All in all, the accident did do some permanent damage.  I didn't really find out until my early twenties when I visited a chiropractor and got x-rayed.  One of my vertebrae isn't wholly intact.  But all in all, I've been able to walk, play sports, live a normal life even with the injury - the human body can be an amazing thing.  I try not to take it for granted - there are a lot of people out there that aren't as lucky as I was.

That was a lot more text than I expected!  I'll go ahead and write about Return to Dark Tower and my trip to GenCon next time.