Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Life Then

I was born in the 40's. I was raised in the 50's. I was screwed in the 60's. I contracted polio when I was two years old. Fact of Life! It was my life for a long time. Many surgeries, many doctors, many restrictions, blah, blah, blah. I was raised by two loving, open, caring people that despite the decision to dedicate their lives to raising a (term of the day) crippled child had three more children. Thank God for that!! I was raised with the philosophy of the time. Girls couldn't, boys did. I missed three months of every year of school because of some new and exciting surgery that the men in white coats thought was exactly what my legs needed. Finally, at age 17 my mother gave me the choice. See what the Doctors had in store next OR forget the 'crippled/surgery' thing and go out and see what life as a normal teenager had to offer. It sure as hell wasn't sex (more about that later). After all that surgery all I had left that would tell people that I had had polio was a funny little limp and a foot that had been permanently stabilized in a slanting position so I could wear high heels some day. Of course, the high heels thing was an illusion on an x-ray; it never happened. But that's another story. My choice? I decided to be a teenage girl. I was a 5'8" blonde, blue eyed, beach girl and there were boys everywhere.

No comments:

Post a Comment