I am a very active individual confined to a wheelchair from a spinal cord injury January 22, 1975. At that time I injured my cervical 4, 5, & 6 of my spinal cord leaving me a Triplegic, sensation from my nipples on up. Sounds bad? Maybe, maybe not. Yes I have had some problems with sores, bladder and bowel control, and just life in general. But as it goes it happens and the best thing I can do about it is to accept it and change what I can, don't worry about the things I can't (The "Old Man" will change what I can't.).
During the past 24 years I have been married and divorced three times (My first wife will always be in my heart and I owe her and her parents a great deal for the support they provided when I first was injured.). I wish my past the best and look forward to my future endeavors. I remind myself "That the world spins around in one direction, nothing I can do to change that, so I accept it and spin the wheels I have in any direction I want!"
I have worked at Sears, Roebuck & Company in the Audit Department; gone into a partnership in a Lounge/Restaurant, and worked for the USDA, Forest Service in Public Affairs, as an Office Manager, and short time in Personnel. Along with my employment I was involved in many community activities such as the Annual Hoopa All-Indian Basketball Tournament, Hoopa Tribal Recreation Department, Boys & Girls Club T-ball of Eureka, and various projects that came up. Currently I am involved in working with very good individuals in a couple groups I belong to that support a positive growth to the area surrounding the community of Willow Creek.
I call this the Klamath-Trinity Area and consider it that because I feel that we are under represented by our government representatives and if they looked at the area as a whole, they would notice the needs of eastern Humboldt and western Trinity Counties. Some things I am doing on my own are writing News Releases and distributing them to the media to share what is happening, a small thing, but more than what has been done in the past. I am also pushing the development of various recreation sites surrounding our area that the Forest Service has neglected because funds where sent to the Smith River Recreation Area and this part of the Forest has been ignored.
Then we got the 1999 Big Foot Days Parade that the Chamber of Commerce sponsored. This year it was planned to bring back the "Miss Bigfoot Contest" to the activities. This has been a great promotional tool in the past and reviving it did not encourage future participation from the surrounding communities and bring the "Big Foot Days Celebration" back to what it once was. Many things to do with little time, but now I am no longer going to be working with the Chamber on this project and hope they support who ever does it in 2000 a with more help and support support than I received this past year!
Of course living here in Willow Creek, "The Gateway to Bigfoot Country" can be hard on an individual in a wheelchair, but it is fun, especially going down hill along Hwy. 299. It is also neat to see a museum being built for displaying various Bigfoot items found. In the list below I have listed some sites for more information surrounding the Legend of Bigfoot that I think you will find interesting.
My hobbies are playing pool, drinking pepsi, bud, dancing, and pushing my chair 3 to 10 miles during the summer months. Pushing my chair a long distance allows me to let out my frustrations and daydream. About what, I don't know, but being a very open minded individual, you can never tell (Hehe).
Enough about the past, there is a future and as I see it I am going to China to marry Houlei. Houlei is a very beautiful young lady living in Baotou, 28 years of age and teaches English to over 200 students per week. She sometimes does not accept it, but she is very pretty, smart and unique dispite the wheelchair she was placed in 5 years ago.
I truly can't say enough about Lei, but I look forward to our lives together, living in China or returning to the states. I will do what she wants and what the People's Republic of China allows. Below are pictures of Lei and my self.
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The following is a poem that I think about on some pushes that may provide thought for you one day:
Adlai Stevenson sent a prayer as his Christmas card after he was defeated by Eisenhower. One of the people who received the Christmas card was the famed Dr. Howard Rusk, founder of the "Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine" in New York City. Rush had the prayer, which was then known as "The Prayer of an Unknown Confederate Soldier," placed in bronze and entitled it "A Creed for the Disabled." This creed has supposily been in the lobby of the Rusk Institute for over thirty years.
I ask God for the strength that I might achieve.
I was made weak that I might learn humbly to obey.
I asked for health that I might do greater things.
I was given infirmity that I might do better things.
I asked for riches that I might be happy.
I was given poverty that I might be wise.
I asked for power that I might have the praise of men.
I was given weakness that I might feel the need of God.
I asked for all things that I might enjoy life.
I was given life that I might enjoy all things.
I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I had hoped for.
Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered.
I am, among all men, most richly blessed.
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