McClendon Studios Presents: Wavin' Man

McClendon Studios Presents:

Waving Man

Quite some years ago a column appeared in the Anderson Independent-Mail.  The
story was written by Steve Biondo who would later become a friend of ours through church at Boulevard Baptist. His son and our son both attended the Child Enrichment Center.

There was a man who sat on the side of the road in a wheelchair in the parking lot of the old B H store. The man would wave at all the passing cars. Steve’s column spoke of some great mystery surrounding “The Waving Man’ as Steve called him. He ended the column asking the Waving Man to get in touch with him so that they could exchange philosophies of life. I was not impressed because I knew the real story.

I was working with the Iva Rescue Squad (Anderson County Squad 6) and was in training to become an E. M. T. when we were called to what was broadcast as a train wreck. 

When we arrived at the scene, which was in front of the old Anchor Homes manufacturing facility, we soon discovered the truth. It wasn’t a train wreck. What had happened was a man had gotten drunk and then tried to hop a ride on the train that traveled between Calhoun Falls and Anderson. Most of what this train hauled was pulp wood.

Since the man was drunk, he missed his footing and was thrown under the train. The train cut both his legs off, but the weight of the train sealed off the blood flow. There was a lot of blood loss but he was no longer bleeding.

My job was to place the severed legs into a sterile blanket and carry these into the ambulance and then into the hospital. We got our patient bundled up and loaded in the ambulance and off we went. We arrived at the hospital and I carried the victim’s legs inside.

Later, when I arrived back at my house, my mother informed me that I missed dinner but that she would heat it up for me. I poured me a glass of iced tea. The microwave beeped and my mother served me two large barbeque chicken leg quarters- with extra barbecue sauce. How tasty. I decided then if I could eat those chicken legs, I could do anything.

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McClendon Studios Presents: My First Night in Spartanburg

My First Night  in Spartanburg

As I told you in a previous post, I moved the trailer to Spartanburg.  Well, we paid Hamby Mobile Home Movers to move it anyway.  

I got all the utilities hooked up.  Finally, the day came to move in.  I went a few days before school was to start because I needed to get groceries and find my way around town a little before I settled down for class.

My friend Phil Brown went up with me and he and I went grocery shopping.  We went to Community Cash and I spent a whopping $70.  That was a lot of money for a single person back then.   Later, when I was telling people about the $70, they would at first express shock and then would tell me that it was okay; I was buying all the staples like flour and corn meal at the time.

One extravagant purchase was a fish. I took it back to the trailer and broiled it for what seemed like forever. It did not look or taste done, so I cooked it in a frying pan.   It fell apart.  Phil called this fish hash.

After supper, Phil left and I was alone in the trailer.   I got a few things organized and decided to go on to bed.  I knew I had a big day of getting my books and finding my way around the campus the next day, so early to bed seemed like a good idea.

 I went back to the pimp room to lie down.  I was just getting to sleep when I heard an

awful noise outside.   I looked out the back door and saw a car had mIissed the turn and had run into the ditch that was just outside my back door.  

I grabbed my EMT smock and my first aid kit out of Bird-2.  At that time Bird-2, which was the name of my car, was stocked with first aid supplies better than most

Basic Life Support (BLS) ambulances.

I crawled into the car and began stabilizing the victim.   Shortly, an ambulance arrived. The fire chief, Tom Emery, recognized me and told the rest of the ambulance crew of Rescue 16 that I was an EMT and the newest member of the department.

This is how I met EMT Ray and the driver Billy-Bob Evans.  The codes for Spartanburg County EMS and Anderson County EMS were all different.  For one thing, in the Iva Rescue Squad (Squad 6 Anderson) an extreme emergency (light and siren) was 10-66.  In Spartanburg, the code was Code 3. There were lots of other differences.

I was the EMT in charge, but I did not set the code of going to the hospital.   Billy-Bob had this thing where everything was Code 3. Got a stubbed toe? Code 3.

We went to the Spartanburg General Hospital.  There the guys change the stretcher sheets using hospital linen.  Back at Iva Rescue Squad, we would have extra sheets in the unit and change it using those extra sheets.

We stayed at the hospital until we were released and then Billy-Bob drove back.  Our patient made it okay into the ER.  

Like all my Spartanburg patients, I never knew what happened after we dropped them off at the ER. In Iva, I almost always knew my patient.

When we were released from the hospital, Billy-Bob dropped me off back at my trailer.   I went home and slept on the couch.  I never slept in the Pimp Room again. I kept thinking about how close I was to having a car in the Pimp Room with me.

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McClendon Studios Presents: Wavin' Man

McClendon Studios Presents:

Waving Man

Quite some years ago a column appeared in the Anderson Independent-Mail.  The
story was written by Steve Biondo who would later become a friend of ours through church at Boulevard Baptist. His son and our son both attended the Child Enrichment Center.

There was a man who sat on the side of the road in a wheelchair in the parking lot of the old B H store. The man would wave at all the passing cars. Steve’s column spoke of some great mystery surrounding “The Waving Man’ as Steve called him. He ended the column asking the Waving Man to get in touch with him so that they could exchange philosophies of life. I was not impressed because I knew the real story.

I was working with the Iva Rescue Squad (Anderson County Squad 6) and was in training to become an E. M. T. when we were called to what was broadcast as a train wreck. 

When we arrived at the scene, which was in front of the old Anchor Homes manufacturing facility, we soon discovered the truth. It wasn’t a train wreck. What had happened was a man had gotten drunk and then tried to hop a ride on the train that traveled between Calhoun Falls and Anderson. Most of what this train hauled was pulp wood.

Since the man was drunk, he missed his footing and was thrown under the train. The train cut both his legs off, but the weight of the train sealed off the blood flow. There was a lot of blood loss but he was no longer bleeding.

My job was to place the severed legs into a sterile blanket and carry these into the ambulance and then into the hospital. We got our patient bundled up and loaded in the ambulance and off we went. We arrived at the hospital and I carried the victim’s legs inside.

Later, when I arrived back at my house, my mother informed me that I missed dinner but that she would heat it up for me. I poured me a glass of iced tea. The microwave beeped and my mother served me two large barbeque chicken leg quarters- with extra barbecue sauce. How tasty. I decided then if I could eat those chicken legs, I could do anything.

Watch This On YouTube

Read My Child-Bride Suzanne's Blog

Help us reach 1,000 YouTube subscribers. Please watch some of our videos. If you like them, please subscribe. Also, please share our YouTube information with your friends. We thank you so much for all your help.