This is not news to Old Timers.
I spent a couple of days there. With a bruised liver. Yep. How they could could tell a bruised liver from any other liver beats me. They all look bruised at the store. But here is what happened.
We had a great snow storm in the forties. Much like the one that cost Greg Nickels his job as Mayor several winters ago when he got blamed for making the hills of West Seattle slippery.
Drivers hate snow but kids love it and after my kids badgered me into taking them sledding so I called a buddy who just happened to have a Flexible Flyer and we gathered at the top of a hill near the water tower.
Daredevil me, ready to prove some mythical skills on hills as a youth volunteered to go first but sensing some heavenly hazard my own sons chickened out.
My buddy volunteered his 5 year old daughter to hang on and go piggy back. She never blinked, and away we flew. At mach 90, tears flowing down my cheeks,we began drifting toward a big ditch on the left side of the street.
No problem, just drag your foot and, and, and - which foot? Wrong foot. I forgot which foot and whoosh, we swerved headlong over a ditch and hit a huge snowbank.
My passenger Tanya loved it. But I hit a tree stump or something and my nose burrowed a tunnel in the snow bank like a runaway gopher. When asked by onlookers if I was okay. I could only gasp before I passed out, and ended up at West Seattle Hospital.
It was then on the second floor above an insurance business at the Alaska junction, across the street from Husky Deli.
That location was a dismal idea and the hospital eventually moved south to a spot near Sealth High, which also proved a financial mistake.
Now the community is well served by Highline Medical Center and a cluster of clinics. This combination also works for Vashon Island though it would have been best for citizens who must take a speedboat to Fauntleroy or a helicopter to King County airport if they are in a hurry.
Jerry Robinson is the publisher of the West Seattle Herald/White Center News. He can be reached care of Ken Robinson at kenr@robinsonnews.com.
