The truck, Silver falls out on the street, Mom is a crazy woman....Green Pear salad

I remember when we lived in the basement, we called it the basement because Dad never finished building it before he took a job in Grangeville Idaho and moved away from our Darby home.  Mom liked to take us to town, which was Hamilton it was bigger, it was about 18 miles from Darby on payday.  She would buy us all her favorite treats, sno-balls, pink ones, and mountain dew pop.  I can't stand the taste of either to this day, and I really didn't like them back then, but they were a special treats she bought us.  There were the four older of us, Me, Silver, Red, Sister, for the most part and Little Brother came along during that time.  We went to Helena to pick him up.  We had spent a lot of time in Missoula with a Lady named Mrs. Hall before we got to go get him.  He had a pacifier when we picked him up, and Mom did not want to have any of that so she threw it out.  It was a long trip to Missoula before we could buy him a new one. He could cry really really loud. We had normally had to stay with Grandma Thelma when Mom would go to the hospital and then she and the baby would come home, but not Little Brother we all got to go get him, and even Mom went with us.  It wasn't even a hospital where we got him.  He was bigger and could cry a lot louder than the others when they came home. (He was three week old when we adopted him, but to us he came the same way, we picked him up and took him home, sort of like going to the store and getting a new model), 

Mom liked to buy stuff on paydays, sometimes a new to us vehicle at the car lot, some times wood at the wood store the others side of Hamilton at Woodside, sometimes sheep at the stockyard auction, but we always bought something on payday and "surprised" Daddy with our purchases when we got home.  One day we were on main street in Hamilton, the Safeway on one side and the bank on the other, kitty corner from one another.  We were in the pickup that mom had gotten at the car lot, we hadn't had it very long and the 4 of us were in the seat beside her, Little brother had not come yet.  All of a sudden the door on the passenger side came oven and Silver fell out on the ground, the other three of us started screaming and jumping around, no one wore seatbelts then, I am not all that sure the vehicle even had them as it was not a new truck and it was 1965 so probably not.  My Momma stopped the truck and seemed to go crazy, she jumped on the street left us screaming in the truck, cars were coming to a screeching halt all around us.  My mom pointed at the man that was just getting out of a car and told him to get in the truck with us kids, he didn't make us stop screaming at all we didn't know him from Adam.  Mom ran around to the side of the pickup and scooped Silver up, he wasn't breathing and had a bump on his head.  A woman came over to my mom, the lady from the car the man in the truck with us had come out of, she was all dressed in white.  My Momma and the lady got in the car and drove away, the man left his car and drove our truck after them.  We drove down a street and came to a great large building, funny it looked like the hospital where we picked up Little Sister, I couldn't remember when we picked up Red or Silver but it was the place we got Little Sister for sure.  Mom and the woman got out of the car, mom holding Silver and they ran into the building, Silver looked all white and floppy as they ran with him.  The man helped us out of the truck and walked us into the big building.  He had to carry Little Sister she didn't walk very fast like we could.  When we got in the build there in the hallway was Momma and the lady in white, a man with a big can that had a clear mask on it had put it on Silver, there was another lady pushing a rolly bed toward us with a man in white running after her toward where Silver had the clear mask on.  The man lead us away to a room with chairs, magazines and a TV.  He put it on and we got to watch it. 

When Silver came home we got to eat Green Pear Salad, it was one of the only things that my Grandma Thelma made that I can remember.  I think it made my Momma closer to her mom to share that treat with us during Silvers recovery.

Grandma Thelma's Green Pear Salad

1 jar of home canned green pears,  ( it was very easy, green food color in the pears as you can them)
Iceberg lettuce chopped, or you can tear, momma always chopped
Cottage cheese, your choice of your favorite.

Momma chopped the lettuce up and put a little on each plate, she put one half green pear on the lettuce, and put a scoop of cottage cheese in the hole of the pear.  It was pretty all green and white.

I as an adult now know that the lady in white was a nurse going to work, her husband had been taking her and that my mother saw her uniform and that is why she had told the man to take care of us.  When we got to the hospital a man had just fixed the oxegen tank at the entrance of the emergency room and the nurse put it on Silver as he was not breathing from the time he was picked up off the street.  He was in a coma for 4 hours before they could revive him.  He did sustain some brain damage, and the Dr said he would have some difficultly getting a concept into his brain but once there you would not be able to get it out or change his mind.  The Dr was dead on, Silver has learning disabilities but once he gets it it is there forever.  He really worked hard for some of the D+'s he got in high school, but he could type 120 words a minute with his fat thick hands, I never knew how.  He knits beautiful sweaters for Ladies at his Church and all of his grandkids.  He is as stubborn as a mule and you can never change his mind on any subject he sets his mind to. 

It was a great scare for us as littles but we knew the love of God in our hearts, God was the only reason that every thing lined up just right and my brother didn't die on the street at 4 years old.  Praise  God for his love and kindness, I hope you do as well..... tomorrow