When Rich pledged Sigma Chi at the University of Miami in the late seventies, the carnival came to town, or in this case, came to campus. It was just across the Frat House within walking distance, so we went.  Then, I saw The Zipper! One of my favorite rides!

 

As all of us who knew Rich knew, he was the inventor of “mainstreaming” which means he authentically believed that people with disabilities could do anything any able body person could do; maybe even better.  Including riding The Zipper.

​

Rich had driving aspirations and a convincing spirit, I had the gift of persuasion with a little jersey boy attitude, and together, we convinced the attendant Carny of this particular ride to let us on.  It was the 70’s in Miami, it all worked.  

​

As the Carny slammed down the square metal bar across our joint torsos until it clicked and went back to his cigarette, we both laughed at how we even got onto the ride in the first place, and we were psyched. I pushed my two feet to the bottom of the cage as hard as I could to get ready for the start of the ride.

Then the ride started…. we were full of excitement, anticipation, and felt empowered.

​

Well, empowered until the cage started rolling over and his unsecured legs kept coming up and kicking us both in our heads and midsections for what seemed like an hour.

 

We jointly fought his off his two feeble skinny legs like two Uma Thurman’s in Kill Bill.

​

But you know what? 

 

It was all good.  We rode The Zipper together. He mainstreamed once again.

​

~ Kinch