Martin Frank Jones - His Blog Part 8

 His Blog - His Words

GFANDAD’S LIFE NUMBER 8              Posted on November 29, 2012 by Martin Jones

During school time, he would remove the bed of his truck and install a wooden school bus body on it and run a bus route. I remember one cold winter morning that his truck would not start. The way to start cars those days, was to insert a crank into the front of the engine. It had to be turned by hand. He even built a fire under it to try to warm it up thinking maybe if it was not so cold it might start better. No luck. He removed the crank and gave that truck a good beating with the crank. The scars were still there when it was ready for the junk pile. One of Daddy’s faults was his high temper. When his temper flared up his language became a little foul. It was during this time that daddy had an accident one night while working at the gin. Actually, it was when I was a baby. He got caught in the gin saws of one of the stands, and almost lost his life. He ended up getting his left hand and arm almost mutilated to the point of amputation. Dr. Clark and Dr. Hill at Crowell were taking care of him. Dr. Clark wanted to amputate, but Dr. Hill thought they could save all the hand and arm except the left thumb. After a long battle with infection, lack of healing and pain, the arm began to heal and movement in the fingers began to come back, and it was saved. There was limited use of the fingers but at least they were still there, and he learned to use them very well. He was naturally left-handed and had to learn to write and use his right hand as the primary hand.