The Injury

I have heard that if you start with a single written message and have a person read it and pass it on verbally to a second person, then the second person pass it on verbally to third person, then the third person to a fourth person, the final message will be so twisted that it will not even resemble the original message. This proved to be the case for me shortly after I got married. Here’s the story.

The Injury

In early July of 1973, I had been married to my lovely wife, Pam, for thirty days. I was working in the Phillips Exploration and Production Engineering Office in Borger, Texas, when I received a phone call. The call was from the Phillips E&P Operator in the building. She said “You better get home Bill, your wife has cut off her hand and is bleeding to death.” Well, I about had the big one right there in the office. I ran down the hall, then out to my 1970 Mustang Mach 1 and made it out to my house in Fritch,Texas in record time. She was at the Kitchen sink with a blood soaked towel wrapped around her hand. I said what did you do? She said she was trimming weeds around the flower bed in front of the house with the electric trimmers, and I sliced my finger open. She then unwrapped the towel and I saw a one inch gash in her finger. I was so relieved to see that her hand was still attached that I gave her a big hug. I took her to the ER at North Plains Hospital and they put twelve stitches in her finger. Then, I took Pam home and went back to work. After investigating why I received such a distorted story, it seems Pam couldn’t find my office number so she looked for Phillips Operator in the phone book. She got ahold of the operator at Borger Refinery. She passed the message to the Phillips Pipeline Operator, then she passed the message to the Plains Plant Operator who finally passed the message to the E&P operator who then passed it to me as I stated above. I think all of those operators involved felt the urgency of the situation and the injury grew a little with each messenger.

My daughter, Kristi, sitting in the garden area Pam was trimming when she sliced her finger.