FRIDAY, APRIL 14, 1967

Today is an anniversary I wish I didn’t have to recall. On this date I attended my drawing class at the New York Institute of Technology as we sat on the rolling green lawn of the Art Center, an old chateau that was converted by the college for all the art majors.

As I was living in Hicksville at the time, in a rented house with three other students paying the rent to one of my art instructors. I needed a ride back to the house from class, and my friend Tom was the day’s driver. Being it was a Friday, with a very pleasant weekend in store, we hurried off the campus very happily.

As we drove, I placed my drawing pad on my lap, and had a charcoal pencil in my hand as I leisurely doodled on the cover of the pad. We started to head along Old Country Road, which is a very busy road and I kind of relaxed and just lay back for the duration of the ride.

Small talk was the order of the day, both of us tired from the class and we joked and kidded as we went along the road to our rented house. Coming up ahead was a steak house that was just starting to stir at 5:00 PM, as we approached, and a side street right after that. Suddenly as we are about to pass the steak house, a green pickup truck jumps out in front of us from the side street! It hesitates, and then passes perpendicular to our car and into the opposite going lane. If we stayed going straight we hit him square, we swerve to our right and run smack into a parked car at the curb by the steak house, causing me to pitch forward into the windshield, crashing through it and back into my seat. I sat there a moment, and asked Tom if he was all right. I think I feel ok; maybe nothing happened to me. Suddenly I think I must be sweating, as feel my forehead, I wipe it, and the sweat is red! I look beside me to see Tom’s 57 Chevy engine nestled between us. I try to move and a stabbing pain shoots through my right foot and up my leg! I look down and see my bone sticking out from my sock from a compounded fracture! Tom is fine, since he is saved by the steering wheel. Suddenly a stranger comes, opens the door, and takes out his handkerchief and wipes the blood from my head. The ambulance arrives and I am deposited on a gurney and put in the ambulance. I see the red truck from the fire department and Tom climbs into the ambulance with me. I do something I will do years later in an ambulance; I start to joke around to relieve the pain and tension as poor Tom looks on.

Tomorrow, My stay at the hospital emergency room.