Many readers of these pages may not realize what a genius and gifted person the author is, but I know he is hesitant to brag so I will do it for him. He was born, he tells me to uninspiring parents in an uninspiring location in Western Tennessee. The second son of a marriage whose only purpose was to birth four children onto an already cowded world stage. His parents knew he was special since he would not speak until he was nearly 3 and a half years old. His older brother looked upon him as an abberation and an inconvenience to his otherwise cushey life and spent the better part of two decades trying to kill little Jack Maybolt and make it look like an accident. He failed. Jack lives.
His first recollections are of abandonment at Sunday School in a large white church in Nashville where he lived with his mother, father and brother and newly born sister. Being left in a room of strangers is terrifying to a nearly 2 yr old child. He recalls running from the room and screaming for his mother. He never did like church and feels these early experiences shaped his life for the better. He was a shy child who preferred walking unaccompanied from the house and crossing the street alone and exploring the creek on the otherside of the road unaware of the dangers imposed by traffic. He would walk Mr. Magoo-like but was never struck and killed by traffic.
At the creek he often picked up rocks and threw them into the pools of water and watched the splash with bemusement.
This activity occupied hours of his day until the adult of the house counted children and found this one to be missing, then she would retrieve him from his pleasures, and promise to watch the children closer next time.
The creek was way more interesting to him than the inside of the house. He feels that way today.
After an education which included High School, College, Graduate School, Medical School and an Emergency Medicine Residency, Jack Maybolt was released on the world at the age of 33. He remembers his first patient in the ER in Cheyenne, Wyoming was an nine month old little girl with a urinary tract infection in the early phase of sepsis.
The pediatrician came to the ER at his bequest to admit the patient, and thus a long and delightful career in medicine began.
The Nut: Jack's third son is attending the Colorado School of Mines to pursue his dreams of building automobile engines, and was traveling from Denver to Kansas City to exhange a good truck for a truck that needs a little work. Both trucks are Toyota T100 4 x 4's and both have Jack's signature "Wyoming Deer Catcher" Steel guards on the frontends. One hour into Tom's trip out of Denver, he calls Jack to report, "Well, the "Deer Catcher" works, I just hit a deer at 77 mph that came out of nowhere and it struck the "Deer Catcher" and was thrown down and away from the car."
"I pulled over and inspected the truck and there was no damage, not even any blood!"
My brain storm in the ER on a slow day 10 years earlier had saved much trouble and money. I will give it to you.
In 1993 I was traveling between my work in Southwestern Wyoming and Northern Colorado and the route was all back roads, about 200 miles and much of it was not used that much and in the winter time if you broke down, you could be a long time before help happened by and there was no cell service along much of the route. Add the remoteness with the road traversing the home to wintering herds of elk and deer caused me bother. I thought of the "Wyoming Deer Catcher" as a way to not have a disabled vehicle if and when the inevideble animal strike occurred. I knew the formula, 65 mph in a toyota truck vs 250 lb deer or 750 lb elk equals radiator smash up or worse and a vehcile disabled in a remote and often cold as hell spot in the back country between Colorado and Wyoming.
I will briefly describe the "Deer Catcher" which has saved my trucks from four strikes in 10 years. The design is simple. I used 1/4 inch square tubular steel which is square and cut a length for the top bar which is even with the end of the hood on the truck and sticks out about 15 inches from the hood away from the car. This top horizontal bar is bent to curve to the sides of the truck and goes to the edges of the head lights and turn signals to protect these from damage. It is mounted to the frame of the car on two verticle bars that slant outwards from the bumper to join the bar on top at 15 inches from the hood. These verticle bars are about 2 feet apart. The second horizontal bar is the same as the first and wraps below the head lights just above and out about 7 inches from the truck. The lowest verticle bar is short and straight and is just below the truck bumper and keeps the animal from rolling under the truck. It is about 2 inches out from the truck. This staggering of the bars top to bottom, out to in, causes what ever animal is struck to be thrown down and away from the truck. The bending of the bars from the center verticle mounts also launches any animals struck to the right or the left to be sent to that respective sides. It is in a word, brilliant.
I spent about $300 for each "Deer Catcher" including labor and I believe it has saved me thousands of dollars and inconvenience of having a vehicle down for repairs.
You see Jack is a genius. But his is not the habit to crow about it. Caw, caw, caw---the crow's warning cry.
Jackson Delano Maybolt, President Urban Poverty Law Center
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