For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 05, 2023

The grocery store at which I’m employed used to have a combination wheelchair/cart until at some point we got rid of it. I guess it was rarely used?

Elly’s google-eyed expression in the final panel is confusing to me. Is it because Elly is doing all the work pushing her mother and the shopping bags, so she thinks she is not really that helpful?

“Let’s get the electric one next time, dear. I wanna try popping a wheelie!”

When Mom (God rest) and I went shopping, I’d push her chair, and she insisted on putting everything on her lap. When we were done, the bags were to her chin. We both had fun. Now I’m the one who will happily put bags in my lap whilst hubby pushes me around, so to speak. (This is assuming I leave the house. You know you’re a hermit when the pandemic doesn’t change your life much.)

Mike says they hired a wheel chair or something. Speaking of ‘something’, believe it or not our mall back in the 70s offered to rent out a Roman Empire style sedan chair on the women’s fashion floor. You know the ones that didn’t have wheels but had four shirtless men carry it from wooden poles in front and back? Women loved the convenience of it. But yet it didn’t last long because there were complaints of sexism since men weren’t allowed to rent it. Men were a little overweight for the employees likes.

It’s 2023 and St. Michael is still using a DESKTOP computer with a CRT monitor… heh.

My Mom is 90, almost blind, has no memory, and needs a walker to get around. No, I don’t appreciate this “joke.”

My times coming. Maybe, as time goes by, they’ll perfect the exoskeleton devices, and we won’t need wheelchairs. We’ll just climb into mechanical legs and walk around like Robocop. I would sooo do that.

Don’t Canadians call wheelchairs something else? Trolleys?

Everybody’s doin’ a brand new dance now

(Come on baby do the locomotion)

I know you’ll get to like it if you give it a chance now

(Come on baby do the locomotion)

My daughter can do it with ease

It’s easier than learning your A B C’s

So come on, come on, do the locomotion with me

You gotta swing your hips now

Come on baby, back up to the wheel chair

Well, I think you got the knack, ohh

Now that you can do it, let’s make a chain now

(Come on baby do the locomotion)

Chug-a chug-a motion like a railway train now

(Come on baby do the locomotion)

Do it nice and easy now don’t lose control

A little bit of rhythm and a lot of soul

So come on, come on, do the locomotion with me

Come on, do the locomotion

Come on, do the locomotion

Come on, do the locomotion

Come on, come on, come on, come on

Move around the mall in a locomotion

(Come on baby do the locomotion)

Do it holding bags if you got the notion

(Come on baby do the loco-motion)

There’s never been a dance that’s so easy to do

It even makes you happy when you’re feeling blue

So come on, come on, do the locomotion with me

You gotta swing your hips now

Come on baby, sit down in the wheel chair

Well, I think you got the knack, ohh

Do the loc, do the loc, do the loco locomotion

(Come on do the locomotion)

Do the loc, do the loc, do the loco locomotion

(Come on, do the locomotion)

Come on baby

All that you can do is come on baby

Come on, come on, come on, come on…

Come on!

I asked the local supermarket why they no.longer had the convenient compact shopping carts. They pointed to the nearby senior apartment complex and said they all ended up over there.

When I had my broken ankle 3 years ago I didn’t want to miss doing dog therapy so I used one of the electric wheelchairs and put my dog on my lap. It was a favorite time of hers – she was finally of a height that people could pet her without having to bend down and she could see better due to being up higher. I ran into only one wall. I was glad I only needed it twice. They had extras; I didn’t take a chair away from a patient needing one.

I once needed to get a wheelchair in order to push my grandmother around the mall. We didn’t have to rent it, it was provided free of charge. However, the pickup point was on the top floor and very far from where we entered the mall. So my grandmother and aunt sat on a bench near our entrance, I went to get the chair, they said I needed to leave them with . . . something or other, I can’t quite recall . . . as collateral, I realized I didn’t have it, and, in those pre-cell phone days, I had to back to the entrance and lead my aunt back to whatever customer service desk we were using.

And I don’t think we had Grammy carry everything around on her lap, but we did hang most of the bags from the wheelchair’s handles.

This is another skill that should be taught in school, probably high school. Using a wheelchair properly does take some training. I once had a person I worked with who used a wheelchair and I helped her once with something, and I ended up helping often. She taught me how to properly handle the chair for her. I learned to back into elevators, how to take the chair and her in it up and down stairs, and even get through snow. That was many years ago and today I wouldn’t try the stairs unless it were a major emergency, but I appreciate what she taught me and learning the skill can help a person in the chair feel safer knowing the person pushing them is confident in their ability.

Drivin’ Miss Daisy.