I got my first power wheelchair when I was thirteen and a half years old. I think that was got rid of when I my father sold the house on Brattle in Montgomery.
I got my second powerchair from Columbus Medical on May 4, 2010. That chair is still functioning and is my backup chair.
I got my third powerchair, my first Permobil Corpus F3-to-F5 on/around 26 September 2017. It was totalled on 23 October 2019. It was replaced by the responsible party in January 2021.
I look forward to getting my fourth powerchair after I relocate.
I strongly recommend that all powerchair users get a chair with tilt and recline. If you are ambulatory as I am, your feet, ankles and knees will thank you.
I have not yet left the continental United States. I received my first passport on/around 27 September 2010. My application was filled by an anonymous civil servant; my passport-book does not have my middle name. That evening, I was late to my GOV 348 class after sending the fee and my application, taught Tuesday and Thursday evenings by Prof. PJ Mattiacci, who taught under a Presidential Fellowship as my political theory professor Brendan Stern did. But Dr. Stern’s class was Monday, Wednesday and Friday from I think 10:00 to 10:50 in the morning. It was the last generation of passport-books on which you could wear spectacles; I had my childhood Coke-bottle glasses and was dressed identically for the photograph as I was for this video-blog for my hearing High School ASL teacher. That passport-book was the identification I used to board the plane on March 11, 2013 to the greater Seattle area—to borrow a phrase from my beloved Mr. Williams, “[w]here I’m not wanted and where I’m ashamed to be…” (81)1. I’ll always keep my passport-book active. One never knows when it’ll come in handy! As one descendant of someone who fled the war mused, “when you’re a Jew, you can never have too many passports“.
Vale.
References
1. Williams, Tennessee. A Streetcar Named Desire. 1947. New York:
New Directions, 2004. 81. Print.
Last Updated: 14. January 2026