From: IMRud@aol.com
Sent: Friday, June 01, 2001 10:07 AM
To: Clark, Wes
Subject: Re: on the chin


In a message dated 5/31/01 11:49:49 AM, Wes.Clark@USPTO.GOV writes:

<< Do you recall when William Butler and I were running, I tripped and landed
on the sidewalk on my chin, and had to get stitched? >>

Actually, even though this didn't happen to me, it's one of my more harboring 
memories I have from this time.  I'm not sure if my mom looked at you first 
or not, because I have a memory of sitting in the waiting room when they took 
you in to see the doctor, so if my mom was around, I don't know that your mom 
and dad would have taken me with them.  Then again, maybe since we were 
together all the time, we just got carted off together no matter what 
happened.  

Of course, the fall and everything was bad enough, but the part I remember 
most clearly was sitting alone in the waiting room while your parents (I 
think they were both there) went in with you, and then I heard these screams 
coming from the doctor's room.  It was like something out of a horror movie 
-- at least to me, sitting there wondering what the hell they were doing to 
my best friend.  I'm sure it must have really hurt before they could give you 
some kind of pain killer and get started on the stitches. 

On a more pleasant note, I remember soon after this your mom taking us to 
Travel Town, over next to the LA Zoo.  We just ran all over the place and 
climbed all over, on and off all the frozen, static trains, planes and other 
defunct transportation devices.  Considering your recent accident, your 
mother took it fairly well, and didn't keep admonishing us to be more careful.

The second injury I remember happened to me.  The night before, we had 
watched Forbidden Planet on TV, and we were in your backyard playing, 
reenacting the scene where the monster Id is smashing through the electrified 
perimeter of the space ship and destroying everything in its way and tossing 
men all over the place.  In your backyard, we just grabbed whatever was on 
the ground and threw it up in the air.  One of the objects that went flying 
up into the air was an old rusty coffee can, its open end collapsed into a 
kind of wedge that came down hard and hit me on the head.  I'm sure that was 
all that was needed to send me screaming all over the place!  

A final medical memory involves your dad.  I remember going with you and your 
mom to visit him at a hospital in Hollywood.  Actually, I think I remained in 
the waiting room while you and your mom went in and saw your dad.  There was 
a TV in the waiting room and Hoppity Hooper was playing on it, and I thought 
this was a pretty good way to kill time.  Also, from the window of the 
hospital, you could see the side of a building on Hollywood Blvd. that had a 
huge neon Coca-Cola sign on the side of it.  I'm not sure why, but we seemed 
to think this was pretty cool.  Years later, after having lived in Hollywood 
for a while, I can remember looking at this same neon sign and wondering what 
the big deal was. 

Jim