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why I claim always the Mississippi Delta is my home and MemphisÕs second because that
where I was institutionalized and I was in the same city as Delta and there is all that
Mississippi and Memphis connection with Elvis and it all felt right to me so I claim both
places and just like the peace of why I claim Memphis and all that is because I never wanted
to leave the South even when I left and only the Mecca or Atlantis was going to get me
out of there but in 1979 I was in 9th grade and the school I went to school in, imagine
I look back now and the last time my momma every picked me and tried to put me on her
up is when I was 28 picture this a women putting me on her hip at 28 years old. I was like
this is absurd you have lost your mind. But the reason I mention it was because the school
I went to was right across the street from my house. They did that intentionally and
all of this stuff I would be carried to school because I walk so damn slow and it should
have been the 1st clue but I walked slow so IÕd be carried over to school all the way
to the 9th grade. I think I got my 1st manual in 6th grade but imagine I didnÕt go to Kindergarten
and the Kindergarten class wasnÕt prepared and all of that stuff and I start out in 1st
grade and 1-6th grade I was either carried to school or then out down on my feel with
the stupid crutches in front of me hoping my stupid crutches donÕt hit me in the face,
In 6th grade I end up with the wheel chair and that particular school went K-9th grade
and in the middle of 9th grade year and my momma says to me you see the public school
wasnÕt accessible and I had to make a decision. You can either go to a private school and
a private school in Mississippi didnÕt mean that it was for people who could pay that
price. I was about black and white and I said I will not go off to a private school so I
had to leave the delta to go to school so I wouldnÕt end up in private school. And
the day I graduated high school which was May 17th 1983 I moved home to Mississippi
delta and I would have never gone to Texas but I had spent the last 3 years of school.
I graduated from Texas but was a better option and they had elevators and all that stuff.
In 1968 I was 3 years old and my daddy figured there was something wrong and at that point
I know a lot now much better then. Imagine 1968 in Mississippi delta and daddyÕs admitted
I have a disability and they start being the good parents they are and at that time they
though that was their only choice so what would happen I would go in for 6 months and
come out for 6 months and there may have been variation in the month and I remember what
happened absolutely when thereÕs a person here that just went back to Memphis she was
in the same institution. I want to tell you what I know as an adult is on half the time
I was out of the institution we had to go to therapy every week whether I was locked
up my mom and dad never ever missed a visiting day and thereÕs a great story behind that
we never missed a doctor appointment when I was out they took me every week to that
stuff. What I now know every week when I had to go there it was so important to walk in
there because in my head I understood if I didnÕt perform well that I was going to locked
back up and I remember there are pictures of me and I insisted into CampbellÕs clinic
and I was using the stupid crutches and walking in the rain and daddyÕs trying to convince
me to turn me in and I said no daddy they will lock me up so I was walking through all
the rain and the second the rubber tip met the slick floor they just polished with the
big machine the crutches went out from under me and hit face first and guess who landed
their *** back at the institution. But what I know as an adult and fighting this while
system it wasnÕt about my performance I was being lied to and so was my parents. They
were under the idea it was about me and my disability but the truth was they had an empty
bed they wanted to fill and that happened from age 3 to 13.