Seven Personal Things Challenge

After much prompting from two imaginary friends and my inner child, I have decided to take up the seven things challenge. I am supposed to list seven facts about my life that are usually not proclaimed upon the rooftops. All of this is real...so here goes:

1. I have a scar on my left foot shaped like the United States of America. When I was 10 years old I was playing baseball, barefoot, with neighborhood kids on the north side of Houston. I jumped a ditch to retrieve the ball and landed on a broken Coke bottle. I didn't even know what had happened until I looked back and saw all the blood on the street. My Aunt Ruby rushed me to the hospital where I was tortured by a kind doctor. My scar was the subject of laughter in the military when I pointed out Florida, New York State and the California coast line.

2. Richard Pryor once performed a skit I suggested. Before I was married, I hitch-hiked to Hollywood and attended the Pat Boone show (Hey...it was free!), whose co-host that week was Richard Pryor. Prior to the show, the staff handed out index cards to the audience. We were to write an idea for Richard to improvise. I wrote my idea and also drew a cartoon on the side. Pat Boone picked out about five skits, mine being the last and Mr. Pryor did a full ten minutes using my suggestion. The idea was simply he being a stranded photographer in Africa.

3. I have Trypanophobia. That is the extreme fear of medical procedures involving injections or hypodermic needles. I can't even watch an injection on TV or a movie.

4. I was not always a Calvinist, but I was always predestined to be one.

5. One of my ancestors was hanged for impersonating Ulysses S. Grant. I don't know the entire story but I suspect he took advantage of several townsfolk.

6. I am related to the actor, Clint Walker.

7. I used to shoplift when I was a teen, until I was scared straight after getting caught walking out of a store with a "Mad-Libs" book. They found several items I stole from Fed-Mart (mostly 8mm films) and threatened me with life in prison. They let me go without even informing my parents. I rode my bicycle  home praying all the way that my mother would never find out. I later confessed. Much later.