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- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Archives Revels Classifieds Real Estate Guide Weather Subscribe Contact Us March 28, 2005 Tales From The Crib A bad case of 'Car Run Over' Jennifer Margulis My three-year-old daughter, Athena, came into the kitchen to show me the sorry state of the stuffed bear she received for Christmas. She had been doctoring Angel Bear with toothpicks and black hockey tape. There were "bandages" over every inch of the bear's body, the black pieces obscuring her favorite's stuffy's eyes, nose, and mouth. Angel Bear looked uncannily like a preemie in the neo-natal ICU. These babies, small enough to hold in the palm of your hand, are on so many life support systems that their tiny bodies are dwarfed by black wires and plastic tubes. But Athena had never seen a photo of a preemie or visited a NICU. She conjured up her baby's bandages, and the accident that led Angel Bear to be so sick, from her own imagination. "What happened?" I asked her. "She has nursemaid's elbow and Car Run Over, that's a really bad one," Athena answered solemnly. "Car Run Over?" "She was lying in the street resting and a car runned over her with its wheel. She got up from the street and ran onto the sidewalk, and she killed every single car except that one." Content that this explained all of Angel Bear's ailments, Athena ran back to her room to administer a silk scarf ice pack and baby powder ear medicine. Car Run Over is actually a catastrophe that I fear. My three children, husband, and I walk and bike in Ashland as much as we can. You may have seen us tooling around town - the girls walking on walls and skipping across benches, the baby squealing "Oo dat!" from his perch in the back carrier or his seat in the stroller. When the fridge is empty, we haul a big red wagon down our steep street towing all three kids in it. The wagon piled with groceries, we push it back up the hill with the baby throwing tomatoes out of the bags and the girls complaining, "I'm tired from walking." We use our car so little that the battery recently spluttered and died. James walked clear across town to buy a new one, transferred the baby onto his back and put the battery in the stroller, and trudged home. As much as I enjoy walking in Ashland, I'm dismayed when drivers don't stop at the crosswalks, gun through yellow lights, or speed in the school zones. The girls often bolt ahead and I find myself panicking and shouting, "STOP at the corner!" I imagine a driver taking a turn too sharply and running over one of my children. "Why don't you ever drive?" a mother at preschool asked me as I buckled Athena into the bike trailer. I so often misplace my keys that I'm not sure I could drive if I wanted to; our car is so small that the kids' car seats tremble when you close the doors. You know the stories you hear of parents soothing their newborns by taking them for a drive? Forget it. My firstborn hated the car so much and screamed so loudly that I would intentionally veer towards potholes because the jolting of the car would startle her into silence for a split second. Once you get out of the habit of relying on them, you realize how expensive, loud, polluting, obnoxious, aesthetically unappealing, and confining cars are. Driving is the single most polluting activity most of us do. Cars emit three totally toxic pollutants into the atmosphere: hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxides, and carbon monoxides, which are responsible for generating harmful ground-level ozone, acid rain, and poor quality water, among many other nasty things. They are also moving death machines. Some 42,100 people were killed in highway crashes in 2001 and more than three million were injured. It's not that we don't drive on the highways, we do. But as much as I can, I want to keep my kids safe and that means keeping them out of the car. I don't want to die. I don't want my children to die � in a car crash or of Car Run Over. So next time you see us crossing at the corner, I hope you'll cede the right of way. Jennifer Margulis is the editor and co-author of "Toddler: Real-Life Stories of Those Fickle, Irrational, Urgent, Tiny People We Love." DailyTidings.com Home Page Archives | Revels | Classifieds | Real Estate Guide | Weather | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2005 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Slippers Women's & Men's Slippers Ceramic Piggy Banks heloc libor rate Calenders 2005 Calender 2005 Accelerate Weightloss Products Memory Foam Mattress afsa studentloans home equity loans teleconferencing W2 Forms fasa student loans Matchmaking & Dating Scripts African Safari Conference Calls - $50/Month Security Systems student loan consolidation wholesale diamonds Currancy Exchange Online Casinos Community Fasa Student Loans Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams