A few years ago I blogged about falling down the up escalator. (Here) I pointed out that the first question spectators ask (after “Are you all right?”) is “Did you faint? Dizzy? Do you want to go to the ER?”
My answer to all these questions has always been ‘No.” I don’t fall often but when I do it’s always because I am not paying attention to my feet. Like once when I got up out of my chair to take my empty cup back to the kitchen. I had kicked off my shoes and as I stood on one foot, cup in hand, trying to slip my other foot into my shoe, I lost my balance and crashed like a felled tree. Nothing hurt seriously, I picked myself up, brushed myself off, and started again.
More recently, to follow the coffee angle, I was at work taking a cup back to my office when the toe of my shoe caught on the concrete floor and I stumbled. Have you had that happen — usually on a carpet? Why is that? If anyone figured out why that occurs, it will be the biggest discovery since the split atom. But I digress.
When my toe caught, the rest of my foot stopped moving but I continued down the hall … at least as far as the length of my body. Kerplunk. The cup of coffee in my hand became a tsunami of brown liquid splashing across the floor. Fortunately the only injury was a bruised knee for me and threatened cardiac arrest for a couple of co-workers.
An incident last December was the result of my poor depth perception (blogged about here). We were in dress rehearsal of It’s a Wonderful Life at Center on the Square in Searcy. The script called for my character, Mother Bailey, to quickly follow son Harry up three steps and exit through the door at the top. I had done that perfectly at several rehearsals, but that particular night as I came to the first step I simply did not raise my foot high enough, tripped and fell up the stairs. Every person on stage gasped and froze in place. Even though no audience was present, I stayed in character and “Mother Bailey” said, “Well, help me up.”
Like hitting the “un-pause” button, everyone jumped to life and rushed to do my bidding. When I tried to straighten up I was standing on the hem of my dress, making the recovery less than smooth. We finished the scene without further ado, because after all, the show must go on.
Reminds me of the title, “Up the Down Staircase.” Cleverly written episodes of less-than-image-enhancing accidents. Glad you were never hurt badly. Who but you’d ever thought to write about falls? Reminds me of a couple of spills of my own. Thanks for a fun post/memory. I especially like the Mother Bailey ad-libbing that could’a been intentionally written in. xoxo
This apple doesn’t fall far….
As you can see from my lateness, I am catching up on reading! Loved this because I resemble it a bit. I think rubber-sole shoes cause those toe tumbles. Glad you didn’t break anything. I giggled as I read about your reaction to falling up the stairs. I could just see you saying that.