@Elmer J Fudd - Checking my couny’s website, handicap or handicapped seems to depend on the ciolation. 🙂

https://suffolkcountyny.gov/tpva/Parking-Violations

I can barely walk at times, surgery scheduled and I asked for a handicapped permit but my state only issues permits for six months at a time. So had I gotten it early, I'd lose that much time post op. Not knowing how my future condition will compare to present, I didn't chance it. I'll admit on my worst days I've occadionally made curbside parking my own personal handicapped spot. But ONLY when there were plenty of open curbside spots available, no close regular psrking available, and for a quick errand. I doubt anyone would call me out on it if they saw me walking, and if they did I wouldn’t care. My MIL has on occasion offered her tag and I absolutely refuse.

" Does every state have the same thing, a placard for the mirror? "

In my state, temporary hanging ones (6 months validity) are red and permanent ones are blue. Those who qualify for a permanent one have the choice of a hanger or a license plate.

arcy, what's a "wheeler"?

food, I found this for California:

" People with a temporary disability, such as a broken leg, can apply for a red temporary placard. These placards are valid for up to six months and are renewable up to six consecutive times. "

I have a temp. I should've gotten it sooner but didn't think of it until after I had the hip surgery. Still it's helpful as my long distance walking isn't up to par, and if I had to cope with both the costco lot and the store, I'd not be able to make it. But I wouldn't want people accusing me of anything as I work hard at *not* limping per PT.

Elmer, I’m pretty sure that the term ”wheeler” in the context that arcy used is a very disrespectful way of referring to people who must use wheelchairs to get around in public spaces.

ADA parking

I completely agree with those that are in support of strong fines (or towing) when one parks in such a spot.

Additionally, I believe that people who roll their carts into a handicap(ped) spot should be called out. People even put their carts on the zagged lines that are meant for handicap van access so that the lift can go out.

In fact, I've no respect for people who can't walk the dam*ed cart to the cart corral. Losers.

" I’m pretty sure that the term ”wheeler” in the context that arcy used is a very disrespectful way "

I had no idea that was what she meant. Maybe I've been fortunate to live my life isolated from people with thoughtless, crass attitudes about others who are less fortunate.

I have an acquaintance who calls the parking spots "Crip spots". Rude of course but funny. I would certainly never say such a thing to a handicaped person. Still when I broke my leg we would be hunting an open "crip spot'" because it sounded funny. I could probably get a new hanger as I have a good deal of trouble getting around but there are seldom enough spots to go around. DH drops me at the door and I wait for him.

And Morz is right. People have been amazingly kind except the crazy people who will dive in front of you when you use one of those motorized grocery carts. Death wish.

patriciae

" I have an acquaintance who calls the parking spots "Crip spots". "

You need to go a bit up-market for the people you want to associate with. Your anecdote is another example of a comment from someone who's braindead.

“In fact, I've no respect for people who can't walk the dam*ed cart to the cart corral. Losers.”

Agree!!! I’ve seen some over the top behavior, including giving the cart a shove and it hits a car.🤬

"In fact, I've no respect for people who can't walk the dam*ed cart to the cart corral. Losers."

Unfortunately, sometimes the corrals are very far from the ADA spots, so I see people parked in those spots sometimes have to leave the carts. It kind of defeats the purpose of having closer spots if you have to walk the length of the parking lot to corral the cart. If I am walking past the ADA spots and someone is loading their groceries, I always offer to take their cart back to the store for them.

I suspect sometimes the carts left in the striped area are also from those who were parked there.

We all know if they put a corral closer to the ADA spots, just for those spots, everyone else would fill them up.

Given the number of spots for disabled people compared to the number of shopping carts left helter skelter in parking lots and the locations of same, it's not the disabled parkers who are the problem. Their spots are right by the door. Carts left by the lazy and thoughtless are too often numerous but anyway are scattered throughout the lots.

^^^Haha I recently joked to my wife that I was joining the people who are thankful for stray carts to help them walk.

(They say there’s a little truth in every joke and in this case that holds true, but I’d still take pain over a door ding.)

That's not disrespectful at all. And, likely true, as you say.

“Given the number of spots for disabled people compared to the number of shopping carts left helter skelter…”

Good point! I can understand some disabled people leaving carts in the striped area. However, the helter skelter Elmer mentioned is much too common. Just the other day I watched a truck pull into a spot with a cart in it. The truck driver slowly pushed the cart out of his way with the front of the truck until it started rolling and hit a car.

Our chain grocery store finally put in a couple of cart corrals, after years ofthe community asking them to. It has helped a lot. I try to be optimistic, so I tell myself that carts left out belong to someone with a small child or elderly person or anyone with special needs that they can’t walk away from for even a minute (also voice of personal experience).

Elmer, you do not get to call me "brain dead".

patriciae,

"Rude of course but funny."

Rude and, IMO, not funny.

" Elmer, you do not get to call me "brain dead". "

Not you. My comments had to do with your acquaintance.

patriciae, you wrote that it is an ’acquaintance’ who uses that rude descriptor for the handicapped accessible spots. You might be too close to the person to be as uncomfortable as others are at hearing it spoken. You have the advantage of knowing more about the person. I had a similar experience with an older brother of my DH frequently using an ethnic desciptor term that was offensive to me & that I knew I couldn’t ignore if he used it in public while I was with him. The brother still lives in the small hometown my DH grew up in so we don’t see him often. I resolved to bring it up with him privately if I ever heard it from him again. He did & I did. I explained how uncomfortable the term made me feel & how others would likely view his use of it & what kind of impression they would have of him. I also explained that though they most likely wouldn’t say anything directly to him if he paid attention he might see their reactions in their faces or lack of responses. I did stress that I knew it wasn’t in his nature to offend anyone & speech habit patterns hard to change etc. etc. I also talked about the current terms in use etc. Although he was surprised & a bit put off by my request that he never use the term around me or in our home he did listen. I never heard the term from him again. My point with relating this long story is that your acquaintance might truly not understand how offensive & hurtful descriptors of old usage are in today’s environment. Explaining it to him / her might be doing a great kindness to him / her. We all learn by example & doing the right thing isn’t always easy. Just something for all of us to think about.

I just looked at the old placard I had for my mom and it just has a picture of a wheelchair.

The parking space is referred to as a designated area for people with disabilities.

Some people have a license plate that says PD, which stands for physically disabled, often referred to as peedees.

" Some people have a license plate that says PD "

Gave me a chuckle, something no one in France would want on a license plate. Those two letters as a short form of a longer word in French, pronounced with emphasis on neither but sounding like pay day, has a rude meaning of a different sort. Its use may be out of fashion these days.

I think it is the same as how Canada labels its homogenized milk.

Not meant to offend, but it does get giggles and gasps from visitors.

To be a cripple in the past is to be disabled in the present which is apparently now getting the same sense of stigma to some so now we need a new word for people to eventually become averse to. The stigma is the attitude towards the person, not the word because there would be no stigma against the word if there was no stigma towards the person. This is following the same path as the words used to describe people with mental impairments.

Now I myself qualify as crippled. A perfectly sound word in and of itself. I personally refuse to see it as some sort of pejorative and I dont care if some people find me offensive because I am not as able as I used to be. However having said that calling me Braindead is an intentional offense because I am very much alive. Elmer doesn't get to do that to me without a condemnation.

Some words were invented as pejoratives. The totally offensive "N" word was just that.

I looked this up roxsol and found a few images that I think show what you're referring to. That's not it precisely but close. There's a subset with a p word that ends in "ast" that it refers to more specifically.

That truncation would never fly south of your border.

" However having said that calling me Braindead is an intentional offense because I am very much alive. Elmer doesn't get to do that to me "

Oh heavens. I clearly explained your misunderstanding of what I said. KW understood me immediately and you can too.

Remember the SNL character Emily Litella? She had a tendency to misunderstand what people said and then go off on a tirade based on the misunderstanding.

Elmer, Thanks for the laugh from Gilda! I think we all miss her. So I fell for it roxsol - I had to look up what label Canada uses on its homogenized milk - as Emily Litella said ”Oh, never mind!” 🤣

KW, I grew up calling it that😳 I still do occasionally.

I never thought about it until we had visitors from the USA and at breakfast their two young sons were thrown into a fit of giggles.

Ahhh…Gilda!👏🏻👍🏻

Ill never forget Soviet Jewelry.

Elmer, if you actually intended my "acquaintance" you need to upscale your syntax..

I stand by my parsing. The problem is the attitude not the word. Since you do not know the attitude of the acquaintance you cant possibly understand the context. Since people here know me to be a progressive liberal sort of person they can figure my context out if they choose. I do not, in case you dont get it, think impaired people are lesser in any way. Inconvenient for super busy Non thoughtful people maybe. You dont know when it will be you or yours.

" I stand by my parsing. "

Of course you do. It was your misunderstanding, something others didn't stumble on. You want to ignore my immediate polite clarification (which wasn't needed by others to understand what I said). It's your right to continue to misunderstand and be upset.

Other things Emily Litella misunderstood and went on a tirade about:

The Deaf Penalty

Eagle Rights

Busting School Children

I had to google how Canada labels their homogenized milk.

Oh my 🤭

Some people would keel over dead if they heard the banter that goes on between my dearest guy friend and I. So many sensitive people these days over words. Constant changing of their meanings and we are all expected to follow along.

My DMIL was crippled with severe arthritis for most of her adult life. She thought it was absolutely insane when the political correctness hit terminology. She used to say how stupid they were. Her opinion was, "Disabled, handicapped, whatever, whatever. Doesn't change the fact I am crippled up." Nailed it.

Are you boasting about being disrespectful to certain others when not in earshot of your words? If so, how sad.

This is homogenized milk in Canada.

Roxsol, before I looked yours up, I thought you meant this. It’s my ”why don’t we do this?” photo.

Finally, photos are working now. All these threads about avocados and parking signs and such have made me pay closer attention to the happenings when I go shopping. I always park at the far end of the parking lot because I enjoy getting a few extra steps in wherever I can. I paid extra attention to the designated spots for people with disabilities and they were all empty. I did notice this sign next to them. 🤠 Things that make you go hmm. I fit the bill in both cases.

The local big box hardware stores have a few spots marked for Veterans nearby to their entrances. My DH qualifes but doesn’t use them thinking they’re really meant for Veterans with service related disabilities.

roxsol - I was scratching my head about the ’parent parking’ sign. It hit me this morning - of course it means parents with littles in tow! I’ve watched people loading up strollers & the babies in them while also trying to load up groceries etc. Pretty scary sometimes trying to that with the small space between cars in regular spaces. Seems like the sign could do to be more specific about which parents.😆

Oh, I know that KW. It just made me go hmm. Sign, sign everywhere a sign. I also know that it is not like a spot where one would need an actual permit. It just caught my eye.

It’s nice to remind people to be considerate. In France there were train seats for aveugles de guerre. I think they were intended for the gas victims of the Great War, but I wonder if they still have those signs on the train windows.

Someone told me that in their state, the temporary rear mirror handicapped card had to have the person’s name and photo on it.

That sounds weird and might put the person at risk (too much information).

Agree that’s TMI to have name & photo on the parking card. We had one for my mom which we hung on mirror when she was in car. It seems to me she had a wallet card that stated her eligibilty for the parking pass & that would’ve been what needed to be produced if proof of eligibiity for it was requested by LE.

Unfortunately, there are occasional predators. I once read that muggers exploit those who appears disabled — limp, cane, and so on. No surprise.

I think it is shameful that some people have accosted people in handicap parking spots who don’t appear disabled to them. Outrageous. Pain, fatigue and other impediments are not always/often discernible.

I knew someone who had to use crutches for a month or two (in addition to having a handicap placard). She felt vulnerable (and was), so she kept a defensive device handy in the driver’s door pocket.

@morz8 - Washington Coast reminded me of the dilemma of picking up a disabled relative from the airport. He'd be in a wheelchair waiting at the accessible parking spot, and me without a placard getting ordered away by traffic control. So stressful. Same with medical appointments—I'd get him inside then run to move my car. Sometimes it was better to park curbside with hazard lights. I'm not sure of a solution since I imagine a "companion" placard would be abused, but when I see able-bodied individuals running to a car in the accessibility spot my heart goes out to them.

@gardener123 - The situation you describe is a good reminder to not be too quick to judge a situation when you don’t have all the facts!

Sitting in the car in the parking lot which I do a fair amount of I see all sorts of things. Some days I see lots of people with astonishing hair or people who are extremely short, wild beards. I wonder how they know it is their day to go grocery shopping. Anyway I have seen apparently able bodied people in disabled spots. One guy jumped out of his car and ran into the store and then later ran back out. I reserved judgement. After all I was sitting in the car in one of those spots. I had a perfectly good reason but I suppose some people might wonder.

patriciae

I've seen signs signifying a parking spot was "Reserved for pregnant women".

Gestures of kindness or common sense are hardly worth getting upset about. If you have parking spots, you too can put up any signs you want or no signs at all.