January 2, 2015

"Arthur and Betty Lampitt of Granite City show off the 1963 Thunderbird turn signal that was embedded in his arm for 51 years after having surgery to remove it on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014."

Photo caption.
Betty was pleased the mystery was solved.

“You know what it’s like with a child,” she said, excitement growing in her voice. “You know it’s in your womb, but it’s not until the miraculous birth occurs that you feel the reality of it.”

17 comments:

Ron said...

Hmmm...one of those 'sequential' turn signal T-birds perhaps? Would explain why different parts of him would light up...in order...when he was changing direction while walking.

YoungHegelian said...

"When the kids were young, they would entertain themselves by pressing on Arthur's arm, and watch as either his right or left eye would start flashing. No one ever understood how Arthur could do that, but we just thought 'Oh, Art's just a pistol, isn't he?'. Well, now we know." said his wife, Betty.

traditionalguy said...

If he had donated his body for parts, that would have been a valuable rare one.

MadisonMan said...

Great story. No infection from the turn signal, I'll guess, because the thing was brand new or it was summer and the sun sterilized any pathogens that might've found their way onto it.

Anonymous said...

No xrays in those days?


Michael K said...

If he had other injuries they probably just ignored it and it healed.

Jerry Kramer, the old Packers lineman had a large wood splinter in his abdomen for many years until it began to cause pain. It was from an old injury like this.

T J Sawyer said...

What are you going to do with it, Arthur?

I'm going to stick it up the ass of the next reporter that asks me a dumb question!

Bob Boyd said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rob said...

As with Fusilli Jerry, it was a million to one shot, doc.

JRoberts said...

Why now???

Did Ford issue another recall?

George M. Spencer said...

Looks like those UFO people have him bar-coded and ready for enslavement. That turn signal was probably the only thing keeping from being turned into sparkly dust.

madAsHell said...

When are they going to remove the bar-code from his forehead??

Tyrone Slothrop said...

He's gonna have to quit playing the guitar, though.

Wince said...

This man certainly went through a lot in the 1960s.

Heck, he also turned into a talking fish!

I wonder if the turn signal lever in his arm had anything to do with that?

Big Mike said...

You know I've got a friend who's restoring a vintage T-bird. It's an earlier year but I wonder if he could use a chrome turn signal lever.

David said...

YoungHegelian said...
"When the kids were young, they would entertain themselves by pressing on Arthur's arm, and watch as either his right or left eye would start flashing. No one ever understood how Arthur could do that, but we just thought 'Oh, Art's just a pistol, isn't he?'. Well, now we know." said his wife, Betty.


Ha! Good one.

chickelit said...

Cool story.

I owned a '63 'Bird for several years. I remember the turn signal: it was a solid chrome-plated piece of steel. The turn signal was one of the few things I didn't rebuild on that car. I wrote about it: "We Drove That Car As Far As We Could, Abandoned It Out West". It was a comeuppance for me.