..on Sunday as I headed down the food store aisle to pick up a few things on my scooter. And I ran into an AB protest in the middle of a grocery store. More accurately, an anti-scooter protest. I think it's a fringe group, however, of only three members. And they weren't wearing any T shirts with slogans protesting scooters. It was more of a silent protest- forming a body chain across store aisles.
The store was fairly crowded but not extremely so. When I went down the soda aisle, a mom and two kids, who were about nine or ten years old, were in front of me. I couldn't pass by them and politely asked to get by. The mother looked at me and, instead of moving to the side, stepped in front of me and said "You can just wait. I hate those things" and pointed at my scooter.
I like my scooter. It's red. It's cute. Anyhow I asked again. She began talking to the two kids as if I was invisible. I considered backing up but that way was blocked as well. In a few minutes they moved out of the aisle.
I moved my scooter to go around them as I exited the aisle, heading across the front of the store for the snack aisle. I was thinking "Cheese doodles." The next thing I knew, child #1, a girl (same family), stepped again in front of my scooter and stopped dead, her back to me. Again I was blocked. Then her brother joined her. He started dancing around in front of my scooter. I wondered if he needed to use the rest room.
I was still thinking "Cheese doodles." (I'm very persistent when it comes to Cheese Doodles.) I backed the scooter up since , for whatever reason, I'd run into the family from hell.
As I did this, their mother joined them. I was expecting them to hold hands and start chanting. As their mom moved toward them I zoomed around them on my scooter. I overheard her snarl "Those scooters should be outlawed. Normal people can't get around any more."
I agree. Normal people can't.
6 comments:
Hey I know them! I ran into that family in my local store too and they didn't like my wheelchair!(I think they have it in for all mobility devices)
I'm amazed at how often I run into blocking behavior not where people just happen to be in each others way but where they won't/don't move after repeated requests and I wind up going down another aisle, backing up or having to wait if I'm boxed in for sometimes long periods of time. Crowded? No, they are making a point. It's annoying.
It's particularly disturbing when parents teach their children such distorted views. I've seen this kind of acting out by people in stores and they target anger at disabled people, older people and sometimes it's racial. It's all wrong and good for you for telling the other side of things.
A Catholic
I honestly think some of these obnoxious people believe we could get out of the scooters and walk around like them if we really **wanted** to.
Maybe the store scooters at the front of the shop give them the impression that people use scooters just for the heck of it?
Arg! This story filled me with a sympathic wrath. At times like this I console myself with the fact that my chair is titanium which means I can ram their shins multiple times without any harm to the chair at all. Of course I am still too well socialized to do this but I need more than just "cheese doodles" to keep me calm.
Here's what gets me about this story: the fact that it is virtually invisible even though it happened in a public place.
I cannot comprehend the attitude of the mother; it's beyond me that anyone could behave that way.
It makes me wonder how often I've been in a store or other public place and been unaware that something like that was happening. I think I'm pretty alert about making way. (How many folks live in place where there are eight people riding scooters, another dozen with walkers, and many of the rest are not stable on their feet?)
But I purposely try NOT to notice what people are doing with each other. (This is a necessary skill for living in a monastery; without it, we'd be gossipy busybodies.) I have probably been present when a sharp word or helping hand was needed - and did not even know it.
I'm not sure what I'll do with that awareness, but I thank you for sharing the story.
I think there is a general feeling among the ignorant that the scooters provided by the store mean people are using them who could do without them. But, even at that, when the scooter is obviously owned by the person using it, it should be obvious to anyone with a grain of sense that this person "really" needs it! Well, as pitiful as this Mama's behavior was, her teaching of that attitude to her children is horrific, and certainly tells us how many grains of sense SHE has!!
I've never noticed this behavior in a store, but I'll be watching for it now, for sure!
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