Gordon Draves

Dear Paul,

I guess I lost track of your address, maybe you moved from Lake Elsinore. Hope you have been doing well.

Let me know what you have been up to lately.

Gordon

Posted on: Apr 26, 2019 at 1:22 AM

I almost bought it. Message to HUHS Class of 1964

I didn’t buy the farm, but on October 21, 2018, I came close, but as Greg Bolton remarked, "the check bounced." I was riding my bicycle on Roswell Road just south of Interstate 285 in Atlanta when a car coming south turned left in front of me. My front wheel hit his front right wheel. The next thing I remember was “which hospital?” as I was being loaded into the ambulance. I said “Grady Hospital” and spent 11 days, and five weeks at East Lake Arbor rehab in Decatur, GA.
   Five broken bones, the first ones ever—C-7 vertebra (yes, if worse it could have meant paralysis); left scapula (probably broke his windshield); right jaw crack; and the same bone in both hands—the metacarpal in the back of the hand that operates the pointer finger. My hands were mummified for 7 weeks, except for the tips of the right fingers, which allowed me to do some functions by myself. When the wrappings came off, I had the worst case of palm dandruff—dead skin came off in sheets. I left East Lake Arbor on Pearl Harbor Day, so I was home on my 73rd birthday on the 20th.
   Recovery has been slow. Velcro shoes solved the problem of not getting shoestrings tight with the painful hands. Now I can use the key to open the back door easily with either hand. My hands can’t lay flat on the table. The pointer fingers don‘t point well, for they are arched up and curved outward. The fingers are stiff and I can’t make fists.
   I am up to 250 miles on my new odometer/speedometer since Feb. 11. But when you divide that by the 68 days, it is not a big whoop-de-do, only 3.67 miles/day average. I am back to maybe 95% of abilities.
   This is what I looked like in February around the time I got my new bike from the other guy’s insurance company:
Presidents Day story w Gordon Draves
https://www.11alive.com/mobile/article/news/local/mynews/east-point/east-point-man-says-genealogy-leads-him-to-presidents-obama-bush-and-others/85-20cb5d21-f85a-4691-b799-95b517c05072.
Most of the time, it is difficult to open and needs a click or two. The written appears sooner, but the video is nice.
   It has been 6 months since the crash and I have a new perspective on Easter.
   Happy Easter and Passover to all of you.

Gordon

PS:

Since seeing you at the 50th year reunion, I have gone on 4 long distance bicycle and genealogy trips. When I got back to GA in July 2018 from 35 days of riding my bicycle 600 miles and wild camping most nights in MA and RI, I was down to 200 lbs. After 11 days at Grady and 5 weeks at East Lake Arbor, I was down to 190, even though I ate all the food they brought me, and at rehab, my Italian roommate gave me his milk and oatmeal, plus other stuff. I may have lost muscle. I am now down to 186 pounds with clothes on, that is about the weight I was in high school and until I got divorced after 5 years of marriage, so I had been over that for 37 years or about 1/2 my life and got up to 240 after a cruise on Carnival’s PARADISE when it was smokefree. Now I have added notches to my belt, something I thought I would never say.
   The wrecked bike I got on my 2016 trip in LaVale, MD, and brought it back on Amtrak after doing 400 miles on Great Allegheny Passage trail (GAP) from Cumberland, MD to Pittsburgh, Monitor Trail's 50 miles around the west of Pittsburgh, and C&O Canal Towpath from Cumberland, MD to DC. The forks are bent back about 5-6". I didn't notice until this week that the handlebars have a kink, so the bike took a lot of the impact.
    Gordon’s words of wisdom: Don’t break both hands at the same time, and wear gloves so they don’t have to remove gravel from the back of your hands--OUCH.
I had not ridden a bicycle in about 25 years until I noticed on the GAP trail guide that it went along the Youghiogheny River in SW PA, where my 4th great-grandfather John Gritton and parents settled in 1770. So I did the GAP in 2015.
Then in 2017, I started in Danville, IL where my great-grandparents Bloomfield had 14 children before leaving for AR. I saw Lincoln's Tomb in Springfield, visited Shipman, IL where my great-great grandfather Elijah P. Ford lived before service in the 88th IL Infantry Regiment in the Civil War. Then I crossed MO on the Katy Trail, for a total of 500 miles.
May 28, T-22

Dear Don, January 19, 2018

In 2009, we had a lively talk over several messages about genealogy and some of the finds I had made of soldiers in various wars. I didn't remember that I knew so much about relatives even at that time.

I am glad to hear that you could be back into biking. I have done 3 long distance bike trips. After not biking for 25 years, I started because of my 4th great grandfather I told you about--John Gritton.

Here is a little write-up I did for the genealogical group I attend. Hope this attaches, so you can see it. If not, please E-mail me at nonsmoke4ga@hotmail.com and I will send another way. You can just E-mail, also,.

http://www.mdjonline.com/neighbor_newspapers/south_metro/news/east-point-digs-into--mile-trail-system/article_528aedc0-efc8-11e7-b03a-a751aace60b3.html This is not it, but an article about our proposed trail system for East Point, GA.

Wesley Chapel Genealogy Group report on Huse breakthrough::
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=E60C650F2DF4E587!919&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!AJoJLkmrjd7VA9k

This is about my discovery while on bike trip across Illinois in August 2017. I found my 3rd great grandmother Sarah T. Huse Lee., I put Sarah T. Huse (her maiden name) into GOOGLE and that opened a great BIG DOOR.
https://onedrive.live.com/view.aspx?resid=E60C650F2DF4E587!919&ithint=file%2cdocx&app=Word&authkey=!AJoJLkmrjd7VA9k

The Find-A-Grave weblink opened an enormous door for me. In the last week or so, with help from my 2nd cousin Rick Cook in OR, we have put several gravestones into the system. My parents, both sets of grandparents, and my sister’s dad, now link to some of their relatives.

GOOGLE is marvelous. I found another 4th great grandfather in the Revolution yesterday. George Hallmark stole something and was transported to America and he was in VA militia. He is ancestor for almost all Hallmarks in US.
Hope you have found some ancestors of interest, also..

Gordon.

Great photos, Gordon! Thanks so much for the memories. Hope all is well.

Laren