One More Thing: What’s the weirdest way you’ve injured yourself?

Getting off the bumper cars at the Gillian’s Wonderland Pier in Ocean City. I tripped getting out of the red (I don’t know why I remember that) car and slammed the side of my foot down so hard that I broke one of the bones. We thought I could just walk it off, so I limped all the way back to 32nd street.
Shannon Lafferty, Audubon

When I was a junior in high school, I gave myself a concussion doing the high jump at a track meet. In high jump, you run up to the side of a large mat with a bar on top and jump backwards, flinging your body over the bar. You’re taught to land on your back with your knees up by your ears. I must have jumped very, very badly because I landed and my knee hit me right in the face. I got a black eye, a concussion and I didn’t even clear the bar. My coach didn’t know whether to laugh or be concerned. (He did a bit of both.)
Elizabeth Dodds, Moorestown

All I did was drop a bowl on my counter, and suddenly my pinkie was bleeding. A lot. Who knew fingers bleed so much? Looking back, I definitely should have immediately gone to get stitches, but I was in college and stitches cost money. Five years later, my pinkie doesn’t completely straighten.
Joe Kozar, Cherry Hill

I broke 2 ribs jumping over a parking meter. I totally would have cleared it had I not had a few drinks that night…
Lisa Howard, Egg HarborTwp.

I slipped on an envelope on the floor and broke my leg. I was in 4th grade and my parents thought I was being dramatic, so we didn’t go to the doctor the first 2 days. When we finally did and got the x-ray back, they felt so bad I got ice cream every night for a week.
Heidi Walker, Maple Shade

On a sled. I was going down a huge hill on a toboggan and hit a bump that sent me flying. Like, really flying. I came down hard, hit my head and got a concussion.
Taylor Shedlock, Maple Shade

I herniated a disc by turning on a TV. I was in high school, which I think makes it even worse.
Liz Gibbons, Cherry Hill

When I was a kid, I was riding my bike on the Ocean City boardwalk and I rode smack into a pole and knocked out almost all of my teeth. My mouth had to be wired shut for weeks, but at least I never needed braces.
Allen Hetsko, Pennsauken

I broke my wrist from falling off a tandem bike with my sister down the Shore. We rode it all of 3 feet – we were just on it for an Instagram photo (which, by the way, came out blurry).
Shannon Marquardt, Moorestown

I fell through the ceiling of an attic and did a split on the joist.
Andrew Warren, Egg Harbor City

When I was a kid, my friend had a boat on a trailer in the driveway. I didn’t know anything about boats, but I went up to it and started to play with the boat crank. I must have hit the release because the crank spun super fast and cracked me right across my nose. Blood everywhere. It was a real mess. I broke my nose, but the doc said I was lucky it hit where it did and I didn’t lose an eye.
Bill Arcangelo, Cherry Hill

I was running while wearing a long fake ponytail, and it got caught in a bush. It stopped me dead in my tracks, and I fell and sprained my ankle.
Jessica Erikson, Hammonton

I fell on one of those surfing rides at a waterpark, smacked my face on the board and knocked out my front tooth. They had to stop the ride and turn off all the water to look for it, but it was so damaged by the time we found it there was no way the dentist could put it back in. I had a semi-permanent fake one for 10 years, which was fun because I could flip it out of my gums to freak out my sisters.
Will Jamenson, Medford

September 2021
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