Minor Head Injury

Concussions are in the news these days. People are finally taking these major head injuries seriously in light of more research. I remember when I was in high school and hung out with the BMX crowd from time to time. The guys who rode on a competative level for long enough never seemed quite right after getting beat up on a consistent basis. I lacked the killer instinct to compete with them, so instead of racing or aspiring to VHS/BMX fame I worked at a local ski and bike shop. One day while trying to pull some ski boots off a big stand, in the midst of shaking the huge thing to try to get these rear-entry ski boots loose, I found myself lying flat on my back, sweating in the middle of a Wisconsin December. My boss helped me up while I said over and over, "What happened?" What had happened was that the ski boots on the very top of the rack and fallen off during my shaking, and the first thing to stop their descent was my skull. I have no memory of what happened to that friendly customer, nor do I remember the drive home. And I don't even have any football highlights or BMX fame to show for it.