Just Like Real People

I've written about camp Easter seal before and I think I've even included the short video taken of the camp in the late 50s or early 60s but before my time. Today as the temperatures rise to the mid-80s I'm pretty well convinced that summer this year will come early and I can't help but think of camp when I think of summer. Up until my accident the closest thing to camp was the annual trip up to Father and the Sons outing which was a one-day event up at a campground north of Boise Idaho. The drive up Friday afternoon after work (my dad's work) and come back late Saturday afternoon. It is only about an hour's drive. Other than that I never participated in any kind of camp program. Add a broken neck it's endows it all kinds of perks one of those being airlifted out of Boise to the border of North Idaho and Washington on Ccoeur d'alene lake. The place is beautiful.If you research for “Easter Seals” you'll find a number of my previous posts regarding Easter Seals.

Last week I was fortunate enough to have a friend of my return a call. The names Henry he has cerebral palsy and I've known for at least 50 years. I first met Henry at Camp Easter Seals. Anyway, I try to keep in touch of Henry we shared a great deal over the years. We separated by a couple hundred miles Pisan Blackfoot Idaho. As it were talking we, of course, had to talk about our days at Camp Easter Seals. He made the comment that I was the ringleader, nothing fun happened in less I instigated it. I'd really like to believe this, I don't know if it's true or not, but we sure did have a lot of fun and at the expense of many of the able-bodied folks at that facility. This was a camp for kids as most camps are. What is really interesting this is a camp for kids with disabilities. The time and place for for once in your life during the year your disability didn't matter whole hell of a lot just because there are a lot of other disabilities runaround and a lot of them a lot worse than yours, not that it was a contest. It is also interesting was that I was one of the only folks with a disability at Camp would actually been able-bodied. For the longest time I've ever really thought much about this but I began to realize when working with independent living that there is a significant difference between congenital disabilities versus disabilities which come on later in a person's life. Even at 15 I thought different than folks born with disabilities and the guess us came out as instigating inappropriate behavior in many cases. But that's not what this post is about this post is about the big dance!

At the end of the two-week long campout there's a dance and it's held in the main cabin where the dining area is turned into a ballroom. The counselors pretty much put on the dance, remember the counselors are physical therapy and premed students from Washington State University and University of Idaho. Really fun kids. Records are played everyone gets gussied up in their best outfits and we dance for a good 2 to 3 hours just like real kids. Wheelchairs, people on crutches, people with canes

and blind folks all get the dance its the last night at camp the image I've posted the day is an image of myself and three of my buddies Ernie and Scott all wheelchair users all rocking out on the last night of camp…