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“OUR HAMLET”
Stories
Wigging Out
an accident
and recovery
1963
Jean
Raby Nelson
In September 1963 I was on my way to Rockingham to the movies with Betty Moore
and Jeanne Hurley. It was just after dusk and vision was bad. I was driving my parents
1961 Corvair Lakewood station wagon, later to be
named by Ralph Nader as a death trap. We could have
easily been statistics for all of his legal doings in the mid 60s. I also could
have been rich.
It was just after dusk and Betty Moore, Jeanne Hurley and I were on our way to
the movie in Rockingham. I was on Hwy 74 in front of Glenda Terry's home, just
past what is now RCC, when I had passed a car.
When I pulled back into the right lane I ran up on the back of an older model
car, with the little bluish reflectors within the taillight,
that had no lights on. I was fortunate to have a minister who would tell
the Hwy patrolman that I was not speeding because, unfortunately at that time
in my life, I drove like a bat out of hell..............and had the reputation.
Anyway, when I ran up on this car I had to jerk the steering wheel sharply to
avoid hitting them. When I did this, I went into the left lane and my front
left wheel sank down in fresh dirt where they had worked on the shoulder that
day.
I broke the A Frame on my car and had absolutely NO CONTROL of the steering
wheel. I am sure it was at this point I hit the brakes and that precious little
unbalanced Corvair went into 3 end
over end somersaults between the Terry home and the old Pine Flats (whatever
that was).
I had no knowledge of what was going on because apparently, I hit my head on
the mirror the first thing and don't really remember the nightmare that was
unfolding.
The car ended up on it's drivers side. I imagine I
would have been hurt worse had I not been thrown clear. I don't remember going
through the windshield but I had grass stains on the shoulder of my shirt and
an injury in the same place. I did hear screeching metal sound from the car
sliding on the asphalt for a long time after that.
I was thrown through the windshield and Betty and Jeanne ended up in a little
pile in the backseat. The backseat ended up back on the highway somewhere. I
honestly thought that I had killed them and it was a horrible few seconds. I
wasn't aware of my head injuries and I was taking control of the situation.
When Glenda's mom got there, she realized I was bleeding from my ear
(indicating internal injury) and took care of me from that point on. Betty lost
a day of her life (which she never regained any memory of) and Jeanne had on
big hoop earrings and one caught on something and tore at her earlobe but that
was the extent of their injuries.
Betty spent a night in the hospital for shock and Jeanne went to work the next
day and heard all the gossip about that speed demon Jean getting in an
accident.
Glenda called my mom and said, "Mrs. Raby Jean
has turned over in front of my house".........not just a little had a
little accident. I had the car and I think Mom got our next door neighbor,
Jimmy McEwen, to take her to the site of the accident. Daddy was at the Yard
Office at work.
Before they got to the scene of the accident they saw the ambulance heading to
the hospital and by the time they got to the hospital, Mom saw Jeanne and Betty
standing and knew I was the one on the stretcher. She lost it.
That was the first time I ever talked ugly to her (I wasn't in my right mind).
She was making so much noise, I thought she was going
to wake the people at the hospital.
The hwy patrolman questioned me in the ER and I am glad I passed the test since
I have no idea what I might have told him. I had large mental blank spaces due
to the head injury.
Oh I fractured my skull in 3 places. Actually, I pulverized my skull and that
is one thing that was in my favor. I ended up being rushed to
I was in surgery for 4 long hours........Mom was in the hospital in Hamlet and
Daddy was alone, It was at this time, that Dad made
his peace with the Lord and was a changed man after that time.
My doctor, George Tindall, later went on the become a famous neurosurgeon. I read about him when he
operated on Rita Hayworth and saw another time in a magazine he was one of the
top doctors in his field. He was a bright spot in my day because he always had
a cute team of interns with him when he came to visit.
I was told that I could have severe headaches the rest of my life or maybe not.
I am very thankful that I only rarely have a little headache.
It was a happy day when Daddy and Frank Gibson came to get me in the
Wilson-Harrington hearse at
My left side of my face had a large red eye with a dark pupil and a black
bruise that extended to my mouth. I was quite the site.
We were rolling down the highway, I was laying on the
stretcher in the back. As we went through Roxboro, I could tell we were in a
town so I propped on one elbow to see where we were. I will be the only one who
ever saw the face of the man, standing on the sidewalk in Roxboro when he
thought he saw a dead person sit up in the back of a hearse. You may have never
seen eyes that large. If I could have owned only 1 picture in my life, that may
have been the one.
Anyway, it was a happy day when we rolled into Hamlet and a disappointing one
when we pulled up to the back entrance at
It was a conspiracy to keep me down. They put a sign on my door that said
"1 visitor at a time".......This was not a good situation. They
relented after a while on that one. I had a sign in sheet on my door that
friends made......You had to sign your name, address and phone number......it
was a guest book of sorts. I also had another sign that said "Freak
Show...10 cents a peek" because I was bald and that was rather novel in
Hamlet so people would come by my room and stare into my room. You know how
people are....
It was during this time that a co worker from the News Messenger, Margaret
Brown and Robert Waddell of Wadesboro got married. She came by to see me and
brought me food and a bridesmaids floral spray with
one of those hand holders so we hooked it on the hospital bed. I looked like I
had died or I had just won the Kentucky Derby.
Hubert Maples Sr brought me one of the very best
steaks I think I have ever eaten about
If I am not mistaken, it was during this time that the first little
Unfortunately, I don't calm down at
One night I was out on the fire escape with my boyfriend and we got locked out
so we had to go down the fire escape and walk back into the hospital. A while later, I saw policemen walking around the parking lot with
flashlights. I asked what was going on and was told that one of the
patients had thought they heard someone on the fire escape. It was about
Virginia Martin, my boss at The News Messenger, gave me a little bouffant
curler bonnet to cover my ugly little bald head. I would wear this when it
bothered people to see my skull. Anyway, I put this on one day, had my lounging
pjs on and walked out of the hospital and down the
street to Bennett Chevrolet to see my car before it got hauled away. I figured
while I was there I might as well go over to the newspaper office for a little
visit. I was abruptly returned to the hospital by Barney Martin.
I was blessed with many cards, gifts, flowers and many visitors. It was a
lesson I learned about how much those seemingly small things mean to someone
who is hospitalized. I have tried to remember that when someone is down. Those
are a few things I remember.
These are a few little stories associated with this situation. I worked at The
News Messenger and one of my duties was to go to the Post Office to get the
mail each morning. Kirk Kurt, editor at the time, like to keep Hamlet posted
about Baldie Raby. Shortly
after I returned to work, I was walking back to the office when a gust of wind
blew my wig off. Now a wig was an unusual things in
Hamlet in 1963. If you only could have seen the face of the man as I chased my
hair back up
Another story was when we had visitors in the office from
The Beatles hit the shores of
Once we went to Rockingham to The Strand theatre. I think that was the name of
it. We went to see "Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte" with Bette Davis.
This was one of the scariest movies I had ever seen. Bette Davis chopped
unsuspecting people's heads off and they would roll on the screen. I am not
into horror films.
Well, JL Lassister was sitting behind me and I
imagine that he had already seen the movie. At a time when a head was getting
ready to roll, JL grabbed my wig and threw it about 6 rows foward
just as the head came off on the screen. I never knew anyone could scream like
that. I never did know who she was. Well, I don't remember how, but somehow I
got my wig back and we had a few good laughs over that.
This was not kind but I went home and told my good friend Shirlee
Russ how great the movie was and she should go see it. The night she went, I
saw her coming home so I took my little wig on it's
foam head stand and went to her house. I knocked on the door and tried to hide
in the shadows. When she opened the door, I tossed it in and we won't talk
about the rest of it. By some miracle, we are still friends today.
I had turned 19 just 4 days prior to the accident. I had spent about 1 1/2
hours being "sold or talked into" a group insurance policy that the
Hamlet Chamber or BBB was signing up for if we had enough participants. I think
I was the one who pushed it over (we probably all thought the same thing). What
a blessing that was to have that coverage. I did actually say ok so the person
would go away and I could get back to my proofreading.
It was during this time that my friends were all going off to their second year
of college and things got quieter after that. I had been encouraged by Mr.
Martin to attend college and had been accepted at
This is one of my life events that the Lord used to draw me unto Him because I
would look back and know that I could just as easily been killed. I would
wonder to myself, why had He saved me? I know now that it was so I could
experience this incredible journey called life and touch people and bring a bit
of sunshine into people's lives. Jer 29:11 is my favorite
scripture.....He knew the plans He had for me.
Well, this is my memory lane stroll and I am thankful that after all I have
been through with the head injuries that I REMEMBER OUR HAMLET...LOL
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