When I am with my 80 year old mom, she is always kind of embarrassed
if I use the placard, cause she is afraid someone might think it is
for her. I've decided not to raise the issue that it makes it sound
like needing a placard is shameful in some way. She's pretty proud of
how mobile she is.
Actually - very few people have been rude to me about the fact that I
use a placard and can still walk. I do try to avoid the van
accessable spots and leave them open for those in wheelchairs. Ann
----Original Message Follows----
From: Barbara L Dusel <scragglesd(AT)juno.com>
To: tmic-list(AT)eskimo.com
Subject: [TMIC] Parking Placards (thanks ann)
Date: Mon, 12 Apr 1999 06:07:03 -0400
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Hello Ann L. ...and everyone....
Thanks, Ann, for sounding so kind in the way you said that about
me
being judgemental - ha ha. Actually, the lady who does that is
awfully
nice to Bill and one of my favorite people in the world. And I guess
it
is my fault that I never asked for a permanent assigned spot there at
the
apartments. There are ways we could get one. We could even change the
car to Bill's name. We just never asked for one--thinking that we
don't
need the spot every day.
Yet there are about 6 people with their own assigned spot and all
can walk with Bill not being able to walk at all and having to load
from
the wheelchair.
Actually, I was on crutches once--for oh maybe 6 months I
couldn't
walk myself at all when I lived up in Washington, DC, due to an
accident.
I could drive, though, and people kept getting the handicapped spots
and
wouldn't let me have them - back then, I was driving on a toll road
and
had to "hop" over a long parking lot to the bathrooms with just
terrible
pain!!!! ...I could almost not make it and would collapse on the way.
It
would REALLY get on my nerves then. To see people fly into a marked
handicapped spot and run into the bathroom and pop back into their
cars
before they were caught. Maybe 6 would do this during the time I was
there. And they usually wouldn't even help me with the door.
However, like you said, people can get confused. Even now,
people
get mad at Bill and I. Sometimes we pull into a spot, and I put the
placard up, and I get out to unload the wheel chair from the trunk ---
and sometimes just as a lift the trunk someone might be shouting at me
to
get out of the spot--that I can walk.
When Bill goes to the Doctor, he will stop oh about 4 places on
the
way home, and he will only get out maybe at one. I almost always use
the
marked spots then. But he doesn't always decide to get out. It kind
of
depends onhow hard it is to explain to the clerk what he wants -
sometimes he will then go in the store. One time, ooooh it was so
funny,......a lady came out of the store where I worked, actually, and
was writing down my license number and was going to have me arrested
because I could walk. Boy was she mad. I never use it when Bill is
not
with me---and only about half the time, or less, then. But, anyway,
it
was funny and the police took our side.
No, Ann, I know what you mean. I didn't mean to sound hard. I
knew
I was sounding hard. It's just that Bill is the only one at the
building
who can't walk at all. If it were me, I would try to leave that spot
by
his apartment "open".....and park down one. But usually the guys in
nearby apartments pop right into the spot closest to his. And many of
them have specific assigned spots---everyone is less disabled than he
is.
And the younger people glare at you, often, if you take what they
think
is their spot.
It's my own fault though - I could ask for a permanent spot.
I just don't want one though. A perfect example - recently - a
girl there, a younger girl, had surgery for a spur on her foot. She
was
on crutches. By Bill not having a spot - she was able to pull right
up
to his apartment and hobble past to her apartment each day. If he had
his permanent spot, she would maybe have had to be down further 10
spots
or so---so I figure it is best to leave it this way in case someone
really is having a problem. But, .....I sometimes don't see why
nobody
leaves a blank spot there when they don't need it.
Sorry- I know I'm rambling even one more time. I know what you
mean, though. And, to say it again, the lady with the assigned spot -
she
actually is awfully nice to Bill and takes him a magazine or bag of
apples now and then. It just seems if anyone needed a spot - it would
be
Bill - the one in the wheelchair - but everyone there is busy getting
their own spot. Guess I will sign off of here while I'm not making
sense, but what you said did help me.
Actually, I think with the lady, it is mostly that her hubby wants
her to have a spot anyway. Sometimes I think there are people in the
world out there just taking a minor little problem to get that
placard,
but I could be wrong, too.
Barb D. who better shut up here.
i
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