I went shopping for food by myself today. I called my mother on the way and told her this. She patiently said, “And I should know that because why?” I waited for a few seconds until it all sunk in and she went, “Oh! How are you going to do that?”

The brief answer to that question is WalMart. Say what you want about their business practices, but they have electric carts with baskets on them.

I’m finding out that people react differently to perceived levels of disability.

  • Me in a wheelchair – sympathy and helpfulness from strangers
  • Me on crutches – less sympathy because obviously I did something stupid to get hurt but they will still hold the door open
  • Me on the WalMart scooter – no eye contact with the person with no obvious disability who must just be too @#$#$%^ lazy to walk
  • Me on the WalMart scooter when I stand up to reach something on the top shelf – active hostility in their looks. I learned to hold up my left leg and exaggerate the hop on my right leg to move around. That calms people down. If I had actually stood on both legs I may have been shot.

    • I can’t claim to be immune to this ranking of people. I saw a lady in a scooter like mine. She was large and she just had cookies and potato chips in her basket. When I got closer I could see that she had her leg bandaged so maybe my first impression of laziness wasn’t right after all. I did feel morally superior because I was buying all healthy food and she had junk. But in the very next aisle I found BooBerry! So much for all healthy food. I’ve been looking for that for years. It is my all time favorite cereal. I had a bowl when I got home and was afraid after all this time I wouldn’t like it. Never fear. It was wonderful. I’m going to have to shop at WalMart more often if this is the kind of thing you can find there.