Kids tend to have a lot of energy. If you played a lot outside you probably had a mode of transportation along the lines of a scooter, bike, skateboard, crutches, walker, wheelchair or just your own legs. My vehicle of choice was the power wheelchair.
One only knows what kind of miles I was pulling when I was young. I enjoyed running around with my friends a lot outside, but with that energy came a few mishaps or sometimes several depending on how you look at it.
My first two chairs bore the brunt of it as I was the most active in elementary so props to them. Unfortunately, they couldn’t always take the heat of wild kids who’re usually playing outside for hours on end. So here’s a short list of some of the accidents I had during that time.
Chair #1
The first instance is short as I don’t remember much except, I was chasing after my friend when I hit a bump on the sidewalk until I felt the chair shift and then drop from behind. I was going full speed, so it took me a second to realize what happened when my chair started grinding in the back and I turned to see my back wheel on the ground.
Good news is we happened to have a neighbor who works with cars so him and my dad propped my chair up on a wooden block while I either watched tv or played video games. I was pretty lucky in that regard thankfully! Usually, we could temporarily fix it and I’d just have to be careful until we could take my wheelchair into the shop.
Oh, and there was also that one time when I got stuck on the playground in elementary because there was a soft spot in the gravel. My teacher had to hold me while a class full of first or second graders lined up with their teacher and push my sad chair out. I felt so bad but also it was heartwarming to see them willing to help me. It was sweet.
Chair #2
Now to my problem child. I had other issues in general with this chair and no, it wasn’t caused by me.
This second wheelchair gave me so many more problems, but I did break my back tire at least once. Yet again. The reason being is my friends were all sitting on the curb at the corner of our street, and I wanted to do the same. Also yeah, this was way before the curb cuts were ramps so anytime my friends ran around and went over the curbs, I had to make a detour by going down the corner house’s driveway.
So, I proceeded to back my chair up until I hit the curb to represent me sitting down when it suddenly made a loud thump and there goes the wheel! It’s always been the back wheel.
For the first incident, I was at least in front of my house, but not this time. Stranded across the street and a few houses down, I was lucky enough to have my friends with me, and they were nice enough to help me hobble back home. Just imagine a young girl holding up a good portion of a 300 something pound wheelchair by the handlebars, grunting as she carries me along.
It’s quite a sight to see. Just a train of kids holding up a wheelchair while we go a few feet and then pause for a break. Go a bit further, then stop. Similar to when my battery was low and I had to inch my way up the driveway, stop, turn it back on and go a bit more. That was a result of me pulling my friends along on their skateboards, amongst other things. We’ll end that story there.
Anyway, how did we fix this broken wheel problem?
Yeah, back to calling the neighbor again for his mechanical expertise.
Looking back, I realize it was mostly my wheels and battery that took the most damage.
The other time my chair died at school was in sixth grade during field day. You’re probably assuming it’s because of all the sports I was playing or all that running through the grass probably wore it out.
Nope, not exactly.
I was in the grass, yes, but two brothers and one of their friends in my class wanted me to drag them across the field while they hung onto the back of me. So I did. And my chair couldn’t take the heat.
We had to call my dad and I’m trying to play it off like, “Dad, how would you reset my chair if it suddenly died? Just in case of an emergency, like where’s the button for it?”
He knew something was going on because after he told me where the reset button was, he could hear: “Yeah, it’s a white button in the front. Under my footplate. Yeah, it’s working, it’s on now! Okay, thanks dad, love you, bye!” Click.
At least that was a simple reset. And no worries, the boys were completely fine. Though the mother of the brothers apparently wasn’t pleased by their grass-stained pants. Sorry about that, eheh…
Those were the main instances that I can remember but there’s probably more buried somewhere back in my memories.
Did you ever have any issues or accidents with your mode of transportation? Lose a wheel or perhaps flatten a tire? Crash into a bush? Share your adventures in the comments below.
Writing it out now I feel like a have crashed into a bush before. And not the time I plowed straight through one because the branches were sticking way out. It was intentional. The same could be said for literally any other inanimate object though. I promise I’m a good driver! ~So Says The Disabled Dryad~
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