Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related FFQ: Being crippled in the mid to late 60's, and early 70's

Say you had a child, about 4-6 years of age in the 60's and 70's that suddenly became unable to walk with either leg. Basically, wheelchair bound. Everything else was working, just not the legs. And he lives in the middle of rural Kansas...

How difficult would it be to get that wheelchair?

What kind of obstacles would he face?

James

First off, the expense of the wheelchair would be a problem, and there wouldn't be too many places he could go in it. The ground would be rough outside and there was no ADA to force buildings in town to build ramps or otherwise make them accessible. I would think he would have a folding wheelchair that would fit into the back of the pickup truck and that you would push by hand. And I'd think they would build a ramp up to the door of the farmhouse, and they would widen the doors (both inside and outside) for the wheelchair. If the farmhouse had a second story, they would have to build him a bedroom on the ground floor.

He probably would not have been able to go to school. He might have had a tutor sent out by the school district a few afternoons a week instead, due to transportation and accessibility issues. (The schoolhouse may have had steps but no wheelchair ramps, and of course you wouldn't be able to get a wheelchair onto the bus.) No internet or computer, of course, so he'd be pretty isolated. Their telephone may have even been on a party line, so he wouldn't be able to talk for too long because someone else would want to use the line. However, he might have been visited by other kids or groups of kids from time to time. (There was a disabled, homebound girl enrolled in my Girl Scout troop, but I only remember us visiting her once. A boy would have been eligible to join Cub Scouts once he was in second grade, but the group would have been pretty small in rural Kansas, and he would not have been able to do most of the activities.)

There was an episode of some TV show about that time, maybe My Friend Flicka or something similar, where the kid lived on a ranch and the plot was all about putting up an antenna so they could get TV reception and (I think) get school lessons that way. However, I think it was set in Wyoming or Montana. I don't think they'd be quite that isolated if they were in Kansas, especially the eastern third. They would have one or two television channels and an AM radio, and the broadcasts would give some national news but also focus on the crop reports and local news.

And yes, people would probably have referred to him as "crippled," not "disabled" or any of the other PC terms. I would think their church might have done something to help out that "poor crippled boy." Maybe the church would help them to raise the money for the wheelchair.

You might look for true-life stories from disabled Vietnam veterans to get an idea of the state of medical technology during that time period.

I am sure his parents would get him a dog to keep him company. And as he got older, he might read a lot of books. And he'd probably have a record player and some vinyl records of his own, either LPs or 45s. And he could own a portable reel-to-reel tape recorder (with 3" reels). An older boy could spend time doing some woodworking or building electronics, or he could even have a small darkroom and process his own black-and-white photographs. He might get his parents to buy him a manual typewriter to do his writing. (You could buy an electric typewriter by 1973, but they were fairly expensive.) And even if his legs didn't work, he might have a basketball goal or some other way to exercise his arms. Maybe he'd just play fetch with the dog a lot.

That's all that I can think of right now.

Cookiesmom gave an excellent and thorough reply. I have only a couple of things to add:

1) I do not know whether they would have had folding wheelchairs at the time, or whether that would be a more recent technology. (Of course, even if they didn't have them yet, the farmer (Jonathan?) might well cobble something like that together.

<Addition to original post> Here are a couple of web sites that will give you a bit more of a feel for the technology of the time:
http://www.permobilusa.com/USA/Corporate/About-us/Test-timeline/?epslanguage=en

http://www.wheelchairuser.net/manually/

Apparently folding wheelchairs were indeed already available in the 1960s.)


2) The people whom I have spoken with who use wheelchairs don't consider themselves "wheelchair bound" (which focuses on their limitations), but rather look at their wheelchairs as their means of independence. Of course, as Cookiesmom wrote, attitudes and terminology were very different decades ago.

Each state currently has a Parent Information Center tasked with helping parents of children with disabilities to learn more about their child's needs and to help them navigate the educational system. The web page for the one in Kansas is http://www.kpirc.org/ If you were to call them and explain your situation, they might be able to point you to an organization that would be able to provide you with additional answers.

- Lynn

I remember in the 1950s when polio was around, we had children in class at school who had heavy leg braces. They were the lucky ones. Also, a thought if you did not want to make a wheelchair using person, there were a lot of people who were confined to iron lungs. I remember visiting a cousin (I think) who was entombed in the horrible metal tube.

My father was in a wheelchair from 1959 to 1963 and they had folding wheelchairs then. The car trunks were smaller than they are now and there were no SUV's, but there were station wagons. We lived in LA.
We went to Disneyland and there were no ramps at the sidewalk corners like there are now. So mostly we pushed him down the street, which was rougher. My mother wrote to Disneyland and they modified their corners before it was required by the ADA.
There was also mail order. So I would say you could get a folding wheelchair in rural Kansas.
Artemis

And in a small community like Smallville, even though it wasn't required by law, it's also possible that a ramp could be built at one of the side entrances to the school by volunteers. The bus would be a problem but even in rural communities some parents brought their kids in by car anyway.

I was raised in a small rural town - the older elementary was two stories and absolutely not accessible by mobility challenged people. The two new elementaries were built in the mid sixties and were one story and and wheelchair accessible with little problem. (I was so jealous by baby brother got to go to a new school building while I was stuck in a brick monstrosity for jr. high.)

Also, even in the sixties, most teachers were perceptive enough to take handicaps into account and teach the other students appropriate ways of dealing with people with 'issues'. Assuming the handicapped student could get into the building, a teacher would assign someone as a 'helper'. (I was one of those in jr high. My job was to act as Becky's legs since the classroom was too crowded for her to move around in without running into things.)

About schools making accommodations--

My kids attend a small private school. Money is very tight and since the building has not had a thorough renovation since the ADA passed, it is not ADA compliant. A couple of years ago a student broke both of her legs and was confined to a wheelchair for several weeks or months while she recovered. The school rearranged all the classroom assignments in order to put all of her classes on the first floor. Other students or teachers carried her and her wheelchair up and down the entrance steps in the morning and afternoon. I'm not sure how they handled bathroom access. Anyway, I would think that something like that might be done in a tight-knit community even before the ADA.

When I suggested that he probably would not be able to attend school, I was thinking of the older, multi-story school buildings that I have seen in small towns and of the "homebound" tutoring that my school district furnished in the 70s to students who were too sick or weak to attend classes. I was also thinking of the time it would take each day to drive a student maybe 10 or 15 miles in to town and back each morning and afternoon when you've got a farm to run. (No matter how compassionate and wonderful Martha and Jonathan are, they've got to make a living, and there are times of the year that farmers have told me they don't even have time to sleep.) But people have posted some great stories here about schools and communities pitching in to help. One additional point--someone I read this to mentioned that if the problem was not clearly diagnosed, there might have been fear by some people in the community that the boy was contagious with something similar to polio, so they could be afraid to have him around their kids. Since this sounds like an alt-U and it's your story, you could go either way with the people of Smallville--caring and compassionate, or suspicious and afraid. That's the beauty of being the author--it's your decision.

ahh, thank you all for your input. It will help out tremendously.

I can easily see Wayne Irig getting together with some other neighbors and making the modifications needed.

I can also see several elements in the school and community looking down or suspicious of some supposed outsider coming into to their community and needing all this help when he wasn't 'one of their own...'

Course, I can also see Martha Kent taking on those old biddies as well...

James