“Creative play is like a spring that bubbles up from deep within a child.” ~Joan Almon

When I first got a three-wheel electric scooter (an Amigo) for long distances 28 years ago, it made me really nervous. I was used to walking. What would people think? Then I called several friends and asked them how having a friend on a scooter would be for them.  They said stuff like, “Hey, we can go more places; we can move faster: and you’re still sexy!” Then we started to test it out and go places. When we saw a buddy’s mom at the art museum, I was self-conscious. She was simply happy to see me. When we went Christmas shopping at the mall, I realized that I could have made big bucks selling rides on my scooter to enthralled kids whose eyes suddenly lit up, faces beamed, and fingers pointed when I zoomed by! Some children even delightedly ran after me with their embarrassed parents charging behind, swept into the vacuum of their kid’s sudden crazy surge of energy! (Oh, if I had only worn a Santa hat!)

I have learned that an electric scooter has a social image akin to that of a golf cart. It’s positive and related to having fun. It’s part of living with polio. People don’t feel sad when they see a scooter. They feel curious and playful. They want it to go fast. They smile at me more quickly. Now when I go out, I depend on my scooter full time. Actually, it would make me more nervous NOT to have one, because I not only critically need it to fully function, I go everywhere in it. It’s an essential part of my freedom as a disabled, but quite healthy person. (Actually it keeps me very healthy, but that’s another post!)

As my perspective has changed over the years, one thought that I now have about scooter-benefits is that having a scooter can help bring back the joys of childhood. Even more important– those joys can be shared with the special kids in our lives. It’s easy to play on a scooter. Kids understand and can immediately relate to scooters. And if, by chance or by design, you can have one ready for each of you –often Ebay sells used ones at very low prices– that’s even better. As Ward Cleaver said years ago,”You’re never too old to do goofy stuff!”

“Kids love watching adults act like children. It’s that spirit they can relate to.” –James Roday

I have been lucky enough to have two great young people in my life during the last decade. They are the children of an old friend. We have been so many places together with me on a scooter. We “walk ‘n roll” side by side. We’ve spent summer days romping at Cedar Point Amusement Park, gazing at downtown Ann Arbor’s street art, sightseeing on the shores of Lake Michigan, and being water-sprayed at the base of Niagara Falls. Back at my house, we’ve pulled out my old spare scooter and two of us on scooters have raced around the condo development, chased each other a quarter of a mile up to the corner for ice cream, or lightheartedly blown soap bubbles at each other then whooshed the elusive orbs high into the March winds. We frolic!  And that is a wonderful way for our hearts and spirits to sparkle and soar.

Kids are so good for adults. They help us stay young.  And in turn, we are good for them. Youngsters these days are “absolutely starved for positive adult contact.”  Remember how that felt?  Didn’t you just adore the adults in your life who were positive and who sincerely wanted to be with you, play with you and listen to you? Electric scooters can serve as one great tool for connecting with and loving the kids in our lives. And as we break with our mundane adult routines, stop, shift gears, then enter into our favorite kids’ worlds, something happens to us. We have the opportunity to renew and be permeated by the power of our own joy, creativity, and enthusiasm.

Do you have a story about how a scooter has helped you enjoy the kids in your life?

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