Replies

At that time just about anyone who had worked in a mill for more than a few years was missing at the least a couple of fingers.

That reminds me of an old joke:

A friend calls a friend to inform him that there's been an accident at the local saw mill.

Lem: "Hey Ephus. Been an accident at the saw mill. Stuart Spagweiller slipped and cut off his foot."
Ephus: Oh my gosh! What did you do?"
Lem: "Heck, we just put his foot in a plastic bag, took Stuart to the hospital where they stitched it back on. He was back at work before lunch."
Ephus: "Wow. Can you believe the miracles of modern medicine!?"

The very next day, Ephus gets another call from Lem.

Lem: "Hey Ephus, had another accident at the saw mill. This morning Ernest Trapp cut off his hand."
Ephus: "What did you do?"
Lem: "Well, we put his hand in a plastic bag, took it and Ernest to the hospital. They stitched it back on and he was back to work this afternoon!"
Ephus: "Wow. Can you believe the miracles of modern medicine?!"

And...the following day...yet another call.

Lem: "Hey Ephus."
Ephus: "Yeah Lem, another accident at the saw mill."
Ephus: "Uh oh."
Lem: "Yeah, today Lorton Ludwig lopped off his head."
Ephus: "Don't tell me. Don't tell me. They put his head in a plastic bag, took him to the hospital where they stitched his head back on and he was back to work by the end of the day?"
Lem: "Oh no....he's dead."
Ephus: "He's dead!? What happened?"
Lem: Well, we're not positive but we're pretty sure he suffocated in that plastic bag on the way to the hospital."

That is a good one! I am going to email it to my dad.

My brother actually did have one of his fingers reattached. He has 5 kids and he was supervising them while using his table saw... which it turns out is a bad idea. The doctor told him that reattaching it would be a long painful process. But he wanted to go through with it so they airlifted him to a specialist. The thing swelled up to twice its normal diameter and he couldn’t actually do anything with it for months.

My great uncle Ray actually lost his entire arm in a saw mill accident. He was trying to grab a piece of debris that was clogging up the works and got his arm caught in the feed rollers. It kind of started him on a downward spiral; he lost his wife and started drinking. He died before I was born after coming down with Polio while he was on a hunting trip.