Crutches

I got access to my first pair of crutches in the first grade. I don't remember thinking of them as an inconvenience, except that I had to have one of my classmates carry my lunchbox. And I was always slightly scared on the stairs that I was going to try to go down one step and end up going down twenty instead. That fear was realized at least once later in life, but that's a different story.
The injury was caused by a fishing accident. I was fishing on a dock with my dad, and there was about 8 feet of water between the dock and the shore. I really had to pee and didn't want to get wet, and my dad didn't want to get in the boat to take me to shore. So he picked me up and said "One ... Two ..... THREE" while I screamed "NOOoooooooo!!!!!!!!!!" I found myself flying through the air towards the shore, and since I hadn't as yet developed my tuck-and-roll crash technique, I ended up with a sprained ankle. I'm sure that the lack of ankle support in the sloppy rubber galoshes I was wearing didn't help. But really the problem was that I wasn't experienced enough in the art of landing lightly after flying through the air. I now consider this art one of my finest talents, one I'm sure I wouldn't have developed without my father's constant lessons.