[blparent] Interesting Trip to the Fair

[Chad Allen]

I'd contact management as well. 



-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Jo Elizabeth Pinto
Sent: Thursday, August 04, 2011 6:57 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Parents Mailing List
Subject: [blparent] Interesting Trip to the Fair

Hi.  Gerald and I took Stephen and Sarah to the county fair for opening
night.  Overall, we had a great time.  Sarah rode her first roller
coaster--a small one for kids--and just about split her face, she was
grinning so big.

But something interesting happened at the carousel.  Sarah and Stephen
picked out the horses they wanted to ride, which were next to each other.
The horses were three across, with Sarah on the outside and Stephen in the
middle, so I took the inside one, closest to the center of the carousel.

The guy who ran the carousel came over and asked Gerald,  "You're going to
stand next to her, right?"

Well, both of us thought he was talking about Sarah, so Gerald said yes, he
would.  He positioned himself next to Sarah, at the outside of the carousel,
presumably so she wouldn't fall off the horse or try to stand up or
something.  The ride started, but it stopped after only a few rounds, and
the operator came back over.

He wanted Gerald standing next to me, if I was going to ride a carousel
horse!  It didn't matter that I'd just ridden a ride that spun me six ways
to Sunday.  It didn't matter that I was a grown-up, and that my
three-year-old daughter could sit on the slowly bouncing horse
independently.

We all got off the ride, and three out of four of us had a bad taste in our
mouths.  Thank goodness, Sarah was too young to follow the conversation, but
I guess she'll catch on soon enough.

I'm choosing to focus on the good time we had for the rest of the night and
not dwell on the incident.  But man, we have a long way to go toward
equality!

Jo Elizabeth

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself--nameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into
advance."--Franklin D. Roosevelt
_______________________________________________
blparent mailing list
blparent at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blparent_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
blparent:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blparent_nfbnet.org/chad%40chadallenma
gic.com