Show VI J i IL of- of 1945 I 11 I J r By PAUL JONES Director of or Public Information National Notional Safety Council B BIG IG things happened in 1945 The war ended The atom bomb busted Taxes began to come down And Mr Bonner was shot by a duck Mr Bonner is of course Mr Stanley J. J Bonner of Houston Texas Texas Tex Tex- as as every duck now knows J. On Ona Onn a n fine October day he grabbed his trusty automatic pistol and ventured ventured ventured ven ven- into the back yard to shoot a couple of domestic ducks Duck No 1 fell at the first shot But Duck No 2 a more aggressive type leaped at Mr Bonner jarred his arm and caused the gun to go off The bullet hit Mr Bonner in hi the knee The duck Still alive and sassy Wacky Sure But no wackier than a lot of other freak accidents that happened in 1945 For a roundup round round- up by the National Safety Council reveals that come war come peace people go right on having the darn darn- edest things happen to them To wit Mrs Edward Comfort of Brooklyn Brooklyn Brook Brook- lyn was driving through Virginia her old month baby riding happily beside her In a basket str strapped to the seat of the car So far as Mrs Comfort knew there were no hard feelings between her and the baby J But the child suddenly stopped contentedly contentedly contentedly con con- drinking milk out of a nursing bottle bettle swung the bottle lustIly lustily lust lust- ily and conked Mrs Comfort neatly on the head Dazed she let go the wheel and the car overturned in hi a ditch Neither mother nor baby was was' hurt Headed Hard Fellow Not so allergic to a thump on the head held is Charles Anderson a hardy resident of Los Angeles Mr Anderson Anderson Ander Ander- son in fact has reason to regard regard regard re re- re- re gard himself as practically Inde inde- He was repairing a wall one day when a concrete block fell from a story fourth-story scaffold and hit him smack on the head He reeled into the street just in hi time tune to be struck down by Policeman Jess Haenel's motorcycle He recovered satisfactorily from both accidents And Mrs Dorothy Jensenius was walking in Chicago's loop one day when lo to and behold a bucket came hurtling down and hit her 0 0 I It had been dropped by a dismayed I window washer seven stories stories' up A shoulder injury to Mrs Jensenius and a dent in hi the bucket comprised the damage I In Toledo Mrs Margaret Cooks Cook's 5 car Clr blew a tire at a railroad crossing crossIng crossing cross cross- ing and careened down the tracks I toward an approaching freight train The auto struck a signal switch and threw a red block against the train automatically stopping it Stick of Wood Goes Boom When a pin in her washing machine machine machine ma ma- chine broke off Mrs Axel ACel Soder of Makinen Minn looked around the house for a substitute pin and finally finally finally final final- ly found something she thought was wasI just the thing She sawed off the I end of it and started to hammer it into the machine She might have done it too if the substitute pInI pin I hadn't exploded and blown her clear i pM 77 across the room She had selected a stick of dynamite Hits nits Right Post Taxi driver Ethel Sheffield's cab cab skidded into a lamp post in Regina Saskatchewan one zero below night last January She was knocked unconscious and might have frozen to death if a n fire alarm box on the lamp post hadn't been set of off by ny bythe the crash bringing firemen to the rescue Every returning GI is mighty glad to see the family again but few are so vo vociferous in their greet greet- I I I ings lags as was Soldier Frank Chlan of i I Baltimore He gave his mom a hug I so big it snapped several of her I ribs I I Its It's odd enough perhaps when a afire afire I I fire starts itself and then puts itself out When it happens twice the same way you begin to wonder I But once In hi Utica N. N Y and again I In Dark Harbor Maine the suns sun's rays passing through a bottle of water in a truck set fire to the floor of each truck only to havethe heat helt of the fire break the bottle and the water put out the flames Fire in Fire Station Probably the most embarrassed firemen in hi the country were the members of the volunteer department department department depart depart- ment of Columbus Manor Ill m. the night an exploding gasoline tank ina in ina a l wagon set fire to the fire station Unable to get their own equipment out of the station to fight the flames the Columbus Manor j laddies had to look on glumly while firemen from nearby towns did the job i I IA A lot of people stick their necks out in various ways but not so spectacularly spectacularly spectacularly spec spec- as did Virginia Triplett an elevator operator in hi St. St Paul Miss Triplett was leaning her head outside outside outside out out- side the elevator on the first floor when the automatic doors closed Passersby tugged at the doors by hand until they could be opened by mechanics Doorframes Too Low Out in Hollywood where anything can happen Sunset Carson six- six foot five cowboy movie actor went to the studio hospital for an aspirin to help his headache Coming out he struck his head against the doorframe door doorframe frame keeled over unconscious and had haq to have four stitches taken in hi his scalp l I t 1 Whether it was a suicide pact or just an accident no one will ever know But when Miss Bette Boren of Marinette Wis returned home one day last March she found the family's two dogs on the floor overcome by gas They had in some manner turned on the stove They were revived and haven't tried It again Every year someone lets a train pass over him without serious re re- re- re suits In 1945 It was Jesse of Denver Mr did it the hard way by first having himself an auto accident This threw him through the roof of his car and landed landed landed land land- ed him on his back in the middle of the track just as the train came along Mr lay quietly and securely until the engine and long string of freight cars had roared over him then found he had broken a leg leg leg-In hi the auto accident No year would be complete of course without someone falling safe safe- ly out of a third story window onto a cement sidewalk The 1945 out fall girl was Beverly Kay Schwartz 20 months old of Maywood Ill who escaped with a slight head Injury Just to be different a l Chicago baby took his mother along with him when he went for a two two story story plunge to the street The year-old year cl child ld slipped from a porch railing His mother Mrs Audrey Hudson grabbed for him got him lost her balance and mother and son fell together Neither was seriously hurt Most farsighted plunger of the year was James Hearn of Seattle who fell three floors down an air shaft to land cozily in an easy elsy chair Ambulance Throws Her ner Out As Mrs Clara Wagner accompanied led a sick friend to a Chicago hospital hospital hospital hos hos- pital the ambulance in which they were riding turned a corner so sharply that the rear door flew open and Mrs l Wagner was catapulted into the street She was returned to 0 the ambulance and continued tho journey journey journey-as as a patient 0 J Just to prove that America hasn't a corner on freak accidents a wind windstorm windstorm windstorm storm in North Adelaide Australia scared a deliveryman's horse into running away but also blew the deliveryman de- de liveryman ahead of the horse in time to stop it Bobcats dont don't frighten Mrs Don Donaldson Done of Breen Colo When she came suddenly upon a big one in her turkey yard she fearlessly seized a club and attacked it The bobcats bobcat's hide now hangs in hi the kitchen Mrs Donaldson did not suffer a single scratch An ordinary field mouse ran up the steering wheel of an automobile automo automo- pile bile driven by Hollis Lee Randolph of Topanga Calif Mr Randolph who couldn't have been more startled startled startled star star- had it been an elephant lost control control of his car ran it into a ditch and turned It over Neither he nor the mouse was hurt A Liberty ship crashed into a abrIdge abridge abridge bridge in Boston harbor knocking a foot 90 section of the bridge into the water Although the structure carries elevated lines automobile traffic and foot ways there were no trains no autos and no pedestrians on it at the time of the accident Yet it was midday when traffic is usually heavy No one was hurt on the ship either 1 0 One of l lifes life's es e's little mysteries to doctors and economists came when old month Larry Lingle of Harrisburg Harrisburg Harrisburg Har- Har Pa swallowed a nickel and coughed up a penny Henry Hale slipped on the ice in Chicago A policeman asked him if it he was hurt I broke my leg replied Henry calmly Take me home The police did so then asked solicitously so so- sly What doctor do you want Doctor Hale snorted What I want Is a carpenter Yes it was a wooden leg And just as a reminder of how tough things really were during the war Michael Babich walked up to toa a fellow worker in Newark N N. N J during the height of the tobacco shortage fa facetiously asked for a cigarette cigarette cig- cig arette got one and fainted I |