6/25/2008 Raw Meat Eye

The other day I was gathering things in preparation for an afternoon excursion to Kroger while Fox busily assaulted the earth with a socket wrench. As I loaded the last of the recycling into my truck, all hell suddenly broke loose. Fox was using the wrench as a hammer and somehow clocked himself in the face resulting in an immediate textbook shiner. He screamed till his face was as purple as his eye while I hugged and cuddled him. We went back inside to get a sock full of ice and when I opened the chest freezer he got distracted, marking the end of the crying spell.
We left the house for the second time, and as soon as Fox saw the lone socket wrench he wiggled free and retrieved the tool. Within seconds he was back to hammering dirt with the wrench, but this time with a more external swing, bringing his arm up above his head instead of towards his face.
At this moment I noticed Lee standing at his mailbox with his back towards us. He had a cup of what I assumed was coffee, and his button up shirt was left unbuttoned, protuberant belly shining in the noon-day sun.
Considering his recent wounding disturbance, I let Fox play a little bit more before I strapped him into his car seat. Lee wandered over and wished us a good morning, then asked what I had done to make "aat boy cry like at"?
I explained what had happened and Lee assessed the damage. He praised Fox's bravery and tough-ness, then recommended that I tape a piece of raw meat to his black eye while he slept.
I asked if it was a remedy to keep the swelling down, and he told me
"what-cha do is get cha sum uh that chicken fried steak an take yuh a little scrap an jus tape it to is eye overnight. It'll keep is eye frum a-turnin black"
I said that I would wait and see how it looked when we got back from the store, loaded Fox up and drove away.
Is there anyone out there who would consider taping raw meat to a toddlers face? Do people still do that sort of thing, despite 'potentially bacteria-laden meat on a mucous membrane' red flags flying everywhere you look?
The bump never really evolved into a full blown shiner, but not because I put raw meat on it.