| By Bob Weaver
Jack Marks receives balloons from Bob McCartney
We ask Jack Marks if he had dreams of flying as a youth. He said "Not that
far. The landing was too abrupt." Jack, part-owner of M & A Well Service at
Millstone, fell about twenty feet last Tuesday morning from a pole building
he was helping construct.
We talked about Charles "Tap" Kerby's flying exercises in the Village of Hur
back in the fifties. Tap's flying machine landed in the holler, with the pilot
suffering only minor injuries. (SEE earlier story in Hur Herald - People, Humor
and History)
Marks miraculously escaped serious injury, crushing his elbow. His wife
Janet, said the trauma team kept coming back at Charleston General
Hospital trying to "find some other injuries."
Jack said the secret of a successful fall is a "big belly." Janet differed with
his assessment, saying "Jack really crunched his guardian angel."
"I think I'm using up my nine lives, though," remembering being shocked by
two lightning strikes, falling through a ceiling last year and numerous near
misses on drilling rigs. "I should take better care of myself," he said.
When asked what he was thinking when he fell from the top of the building,
he said all I could think was "This is gonna hurt."
Jack was released from the hospital yesterday, and is anxiously waiting to
return to action.
Jack says he is planning his next fall from his hunting cabin at the head
of Rush Run
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