Kat, I miss my Mom too. :-(  Unlike your Mom, however, mine was born after
her time.  She longed for the victorian era, I think, or at least to some
victorian image that seemed romantic to her.  She was able to come on board
with disability culture understanding a bit -- just a bit -- but it wasn't an
inate thing.

My eyes bugged out when I read your post.  I have a clear memory of watching
the jerry show once when I was a kid, when he specifically referred to the CP
telethon saying that he "would never parade his kids around on stage like
that."  He said that exactly, and I've never forgotten it for some reason.  I
mean that was a long time ago and long before I had a disabilty myself, but I
clearly remember him saying that.

How twisted and ugly a thing all of this is.

In a message dated 1/26/2002 11:05:37 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:


> My parents used to help UCP raise money in the LA area when I was quite
> young, and even had me on the telethon a couple of times.  However,  my
> mother put a stop to it for 2 reasons: 1) She loathed parading the kids
> around the stage, thought it made us look pathetic and she thought it
> belittled us, and 2) I would throw a tantrum every time they put me up
> there, and she got tired of it.
>
> I think my mom was born before her time. Now she's been gone for two years,
> I really miss her and her wisdom.
>
> I have never been able to watch Jerry Lewis without a frission of horror
> and/or distaste.  The man isn't even funny, and I cannot fathom why he's so
> popular, particularly in France.  My sisters both feel the same about him.
>
>
> Kat
>