Trying to Do Gymnastics on Our Chain Link Fence

Written By:  Andrew Eide

I have an amusing story to tell you from when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old living at 4022 Fullington Street in Oakland, California. It is amusing now but it was scary and shocking for me when it happened.

We had a chain link fence around our front yard. It was maybe 4 feet high and completely enclosed our front hard. On the side of the fence that faced our driveway the last two sections of the fence was missing the fencing itself. The poles to hold the fence was still there though so it served as a horizontal pole for us to hang and swing from.

On this day I was sitting on top of the pole. My friend was visiting and one of the things we enjoyed doing was to sit on the pole, hold onto the pole with both our hands, and then lean backward which caused us to spin around on the poll. My friend could get three or four revolutions that way but I was usually barely able to obtain one complete revolution.

All I remember was leaning back and then the next thing I remember was the back of my head hitting hard on the concrete driveway. I had no clue if my head was busted open or not. I remember it hurt immensely and even though I put my hand to the back of my head where the pain was, and looking at my hand not seeing any blood, I was still totally freaked out and I still thought I had busted my head open.

My first reaction after that was to run down the driveway to the back porch. Once I flopped onto the back porch I pounded on the door and screamed for my mother to help me. Mother came out and inspected my head and she told me that although I have a bump on my head I wasn’t bleeding and I will be okay.

Later that day she said she talked to the neighbor who said he was watching me and my friend sitting and playing on the fence. Where I thought I went around once and then lost my grip our neighbor told my mother that I spun around the pole several times, then lost my grip, and then I “dismounted” the fence pole like a Gymnast in a Gymnastics competition but instead of making a nice landing on my feet I landed on the back of my head.

I learned a valuable lesson that day and even as I grew up I was fearful of trying that maneuver on the bars at school even though all my friends were doing it as I didn’t want to get hurt again.