So I watched three Star Wars movies yesterday -- Parts I, II, and III. Today we're working on the second trilogy, which is the one that was made first. Yes? Just finished watching the movie that I always have and always will call Star Wars. The first movie, Part IV. Up to the next one now. That's a lot of Star Wars. I never noticed before how Lucas has a real penchant for cutting off hands and/or arms. You think Luke, but really, it happens a lot.So the bug up my ass today is the way my children are reacting to my status as "temporarily handicapped." In short, they are not buying it. They're buying my condition and all, but they really don't see my use of handicapped parking as justified. I know where they're coming from, because I have very strong feelings about handicapped parking spaces myself, and they got it from me. I don't expect to use it for a day longer than I need to. But they are not happy when I use it at all. They feel that I'm taking a space from someone who is "really handicapped."
Because I grew up in a time when there were no accomodations for the handicapped and my father's closest friend was wheelchair-bound, my own feelings are, as I say, quite strong. This was before there were designated parking spaces or sloped curbs or signs or anything. The only place I knew of as a child that had established accomodations for people in wheelchairs was Yankee Stadium. They had designated areas right behind the box seats, and if you were in a wheelchair, you could bring one person in with you free, and they would put a folding chair out next to you. Murray was a big baseball fan, and he would routinely take poor neighborhood kids with him so they could get to see a game.
Anyway, Jack and Murray had their office in a very small town on the other side of the county, a place so small that everyone knew everyone, including all the police officers. So they put up a sign out in front of the guys' office so that no one else could park there but Murray. It wasn't a handicapped space so much as it was his space. And I'm sure it wasn't authorized or anything. The cops just put it there.
When we went anyplace as a family when I was a kid -- the World's Fair comes to mind -- Jack would always ask someone at each pavillion if they had provisions for a wheelchair. Some did, some didn't. This way, Murray would know which buildings not to bother with when he went there with his family.
Nothing stopped him. I remember seeing a picture of him once in which he was taking his son hunting. It was a trip sponsored by someone, disabled war veterans, I'd imagine. He wasn't disabled in the war, although he had served as a Seabee in the South Pacific. Murray was part of the last wave of people paralyzed by polio, in 1953. Children were already being immunized by that time, but they hadn't gotten to adults yet. I was six months old when he got sick.
When I see people without tags park in handicapped spaces, I think of Murray, and it makes me mad. There is no chance that I could or would abuse a handicapped parking tag. For now, it makes sense for me, and I'm glad to have that little bit of help. Anyone watching me get out of the car would realize at once that I'm having some kind of mobility issue. Anyone except ...
Crazy. It is pissing me off, but on the other hand, isn't it nice to see your children incorporate your values into their belief systems? Okay, they're going overboard a little here, but I see where they're coming from.
