Father's Day weekend circa 1986...the olden days.

Seeing how today is Father's Day I thought I would tell one of the Sabella family favorite father's day stories, and let me just say now that it includes a call to 911.

So one hot June afternoon I came home from spending the day down at the beach with my friend Shannon. It was a Saturday and we had plans to do something later that night. We were just going home to get some rest, shower up and get ready for our big evening, (we were only 17) so it wasn't going to be that big but whatever. So I pull up to my house in my very cool 1966 Ford Mustang (not that cool cause the brakes went out all the time) and I see that my brother Mike is visiting. He is visiting but instead of driving his car over he rode his super cute super cool new vespa (not sure what brand it was, but we are going with vespa) scooter. It was bright red and I immediately fell in love with it. He and my parents were outside checking it out when I pulled up. I was still wearing my two piece bathing suit with just a t-shirt over it and some flip flops (or flo-jos, or maybe jellie sandals). I said "wow Mike this is so cute can I take it for a ride" and before Mike could even answer my father said "DO NOT LET HER RIDE IT" hmm, how is that for confidence in my coordination. So Mike said no but he said that he would take me for a ride on the back. My dad then said that he was going to go take a shower because my other brother Danny was going to be there soon and the two sons were going to take their beloved father to the Playboy Jazz Festival for some father son bonding time for Father's Day. But before he went in he looked at Mike one more time and said "DO NOT LET HER RIDE THE SCOOTER". So Mike took me around the block and it was okay, not great because truly I just wanted to ride it by myself. So when we got back to the house I looked at my big brother, who happened to really love his little sister and I said "Mike, come on, he's in the shower he will never know, just let me take it around the block" So not one to want to upset me, remember I was the youngest and really kinda spoiled, Mike said "Okay Nina but just take it around the block". So there I went off in the wild blue yonder speeding away in my bikini, t-shirt and sandals on the shiny new scooter. I loved it, the wind in my hair, I felt so cute and hip. Then something went wrong, I was not nearly as coordinated as I thought I would be, I started to lose my confidence when I was making my third turn to head back home, I couldn't get it to turn and I was going too fast, next thing I knew I was flying (not lying, totally flew) over the handle bars and landing on the street, breaking the fall with my face. Yes, with my face. So I immediately jump up, blood is pouring from my face, I lift my shirt to cover my face and I just start screaming for my brother. He comes running around the corner and I swear to God I thought he was going to pass out. A neighbor saw me fall and was helping me push the scooter. I was walking towards Mike and I felt so, so bad I knew he was going to be so busted and my Dad was going to be really upset. But I also knew that my face was hurting so bad. We walked into the house and my mom started screaming and yelling (apparently I looked as bad as I felt) she called 911, this whole time my Dad was still oblivious and still in the shower. The paramedics came quickly, they started working on me right away, they put a neck brace on me and put me on the gurney, just as they were strapping me down my Dad walked in. OH MY GOD. He was so mad at Mike, and so scared for me. They then wheeled me out the front door to the waiting ambulance, just as we were going out the door my brother Danny was walking in, thinking that he was going to the Playboy Jazz Festival with his dad and his brother instead he was walking into his sister being rushed to the hospital. My parents followed the ambulance to the hospital. It wasn't until years and years later that I found out that my brothers went to the concert. Shut the front door, they went to the concert! Danny told me that our Dad looked at him and said "take Mike to the concert, I am so mad at him right now I can't even look at him". Danny says that it was the worst concert because Mike wouldn't talk and he was moping the whole time. He knew my Dad was going to be mad.
Back at the hospital we found out that I had broken my nose and my eye socket bone. I also had a big cut on my chin that needed stitches. It was not pretty. On the upside it was finals week that following week at school and I was going to get to miss it! Yay me!
Anyway, all was soon forgiven and my dad and Mike made up and we were one big happy family again. This is still one of mine and Danny's favorite stories to tell our kids and they have all heard it dozens of times. Oh and the next day Danny thought it was a good idea to come over and take pictures of me and my broken face, so the good news is we have it all documented!