The Summer Of 1967(Ricky Sholar) Man, it’s amazing what life can sometimes throw at you when you least expect it.

It was one of those beautiful sunny summer days that made you feel good all over. That made it feel like life was worth living. One of those days that was unknowingly headed down a disastrous lane. A disaster that would almost drive a young father insane.

Raymond Sholar had been transferred to Bowling Green, Kentucky. Dad was an Insurance salesman for Kentucky Central. Every day he would go to work and then, would return home at noon to have lunch with his wife and three boys.

My parents had already had one incident to deal with as soon as we moved to Bowling Green. Since the oldest of their three children, me, who is eight at this time, had been held back twice in the first grade, has been placed in a special school for handicapped children. Their solution for a slow child at that time. Please do not misunderstand. This was probably the first time I had ever truly felt like I had friends. I loved these kids with all my heart and would, forevermore hold a special place in my heart for kids with special needs.

Six-year-old Alan was beginning first grade at this time in a regular school.

We lived way back off the main road along with several other houses. Our mailboxes stood along the main road so, it was quite a distance if someone had to walk it.

On this particular day, after we had eaten lunch, Dad decided to drive Mom out to the mailbox instead of her having to walk it with us three boys.

As Dad drove us to the mailbox, Mom held two-year-old Jerry while six-year-old Alan and eight-year-old Ricky rode atop the trunk of the car while Dad drove along real slow and let the two boys have their roller coaster ride. You can just imagine the thrill that these boys were getting out of this adventure. Don’t forget, these were the days when kids stood up in the front seat while our Dads would zoom down the highway.

After retrieving the mail and going back home, Dad dropped off his family and headed back to work.

Mom was inside folding clothes while Alan and Ricky sat playing on the front porch. It was about twenty minutes later when Dad pulled back into the driveway. He had forgotten that huge book he carried with him when he was on the job.

After Dad had gone in the house, Jerry had wandered down the side of the car where we could not see him and was trying to climb on the trunk of the car.

This is where I have to stop and get my thoughts together because even though this happened so very long ago, it’s still, really quite hard to tell.

When Dad got back into the car and started backing up, that’s when Alan and I saw Jerry fall behind the car. We jumped up and down, we waved our arms and we screamed our heads off until Dad finally realized what had happened.

Dad pulls back up into the driveway, jumps out and gets Jerry in the car, and heads for the Hospital not knowing where it was located. Mom had screamed for him to wait for her but he was already gone. He was driving down the middle of cars sitting at red lights and going straight through praying for a cop to pull him over and take him to the hospital. He was quite insane by the time he arrived.

At this time Mom had gotten some people from church to come for her and us boys.

When Dad found the hospital, he had no idea how to get to the emergency room and was running through the waiting areas with Jerry in his arms. The hospital staff could only point the way when the nurses finally led my Dad to the emergency room. Dad was leaving a path of people passing out at the sight.

How my father ever kept from going insane I’ll never know but, a policeman nearly lost his life when he walked up to Dad and asked;

“Are you sure you didn’t do this on purpose?”

It took several big men to keep my father from attacking this policeman.

Doctor Roy Cooksey explained to my parents how they had to begin by washing gravel away from Jerry’s brain. Once that was done then they would have to repair what damage had been done and then that side of his head was covered with skin graphs that were taken from his upper legs. Once that was done then his ear was sewn back into place. Bandages would have to be worn for a long time after that until the healing process was complete.

We had already come close to losing Dad when our family along with a hitchhiker in the car with us, were involved in a horrific car wreck a year before Jerry was born. On a Sunday afternoon after church, a very intoxicated man came driving over a hill on our side of the road and neither one had time to touch a brake. The engine drove the steering column into Dad’s chest. Mom’s head hit the windshield and cut her across her forehead and drove a piece of glass through her bible. Mom was a cushion for the hitchhiker who somehow walked away without a scratch. Alan and I sitting in each corner of the backseat were thrown into the floor and buried by everything from the trunk.

Dad, at the time of Jerry’s accident, was still recovering somewhat from that auto accident.
Believe it or not, Jerry was in the hospital for just a short time. The nurses all pitched in and bought a wooden red wagon and filled it with covers and would pull him around the Hospital in it.

The time finally came when they were able to sneak Alan and me into his room to see him for the first time. The only thing on his body that he could move was his eyes. He could cut his eyes over to us but could not move his head. When he tried to smile, we absolutely cried our eyes out. It was a miracle that he had even survived.

After Jerry returned home, it was like bringing home a newborn baby. He had to start all over again.

Jerry Lynn Sholar, born May 28, 1965, would grow up as normally as a healthy person possibly could with nothing of the accident showing. One side of his head is one big scar with no hair which he covers up by letting his hair grow over it. If you were standing face to face, you could not tell that anything had happened to him. He went to school like a normal child and played like a normal child, got a job, and worked like a normal adult. He got married to the love of his life and lives a happy life. He did have issues with some seizures that the doctors kept under control with medication during his teen years and into his early twenties.

Jerry will turn fifty-eight years old this year sadly, without his wife Ruby by his side. Jerry lost Ruby due to complications of Covid in 2022. He is still with us and will be till God sees fit to finally call him home to be with his wife Ruby again. Since Jerry and Ruby never were able to have children Jerry lives alone but close to all his family.

Raymond Sholar, B 1934, D 2009. He was a hard-working man that could do anything he set his mind to. We even had a family band for a while. Jerry was our drummer. Dad had always dreamed of playing music and actually played bass on some old country recordings.

In 2014, Jerry and Ruby traveled to Bowling Green and paid a surprise visit to Dr. Roy Cooksey. He told Jerry all about what happened just like it was yesterday. He was thrilled to meet Jerry and his wife. Dr. Roy Cooksey passed away in 2016.

Lois Sholar B 1941-present was mostly a stay-at-home mom except for short periods when she worked at a couple of local Five-&-Dimes. At thirty-nine years old, our mother gave birth to a little girl that they let us boys name. We named her Amanda.

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