Essay

Push me pull you

By Tony Laszlo

Last year, instead of having my mother fly all the way from the United States to Japan, I asked her to "meet me halfway" in Europe. My mother's health is not the best it could be these days; while able to walk a bit, she needs a wheelchair to get around properly. The wheelchair, in turn, needs somebody to push it. Guess who got to be that somebody ...

Actually, by the time my mother arrived I had already had some practice propelling a wheeled contraption over European streets. That's because my wife and I had been traveling for a few weeks on business and had been pushing our infant son's stroller everywhere.

Your average wheelchair and stroller have similar drawbacks, when you think about it. Both are pretty clunky and neither were designed for the cobblestone roads that one finds throughout European cities. Fortunately, my mother is about as tough as they come; the rough ride didn't get her down — or if it did, she didn't show it. She also came up with a rather ingenious method for transporting us all from one place to another with a full load of luggage.

Here's how we did it. First, my wife strapped on a backpack and dragged two bags behind her. Then, my mother in her wheelchair balanced a fourth bag on her lap and got set to tow my son's stroller with one arm and a large suitcase with the other. I had the relatively easy part: just strap on my own backpack, set up behind the wheelchair and push like there's no tomorrow.

Unwieldy though it seems, this system worked quite well on flat, smooth surfaces. It got us through Rome's sprawling airport without a hitch, for example. However, bumpy slopes are another story. In the Hungarian countryside, our Bremen-esque procession came to a dead stop.

We were trying to get from a bus stop to our hotel, which was located most unkindly at the very top of a formidable incline. To make matters worse, we were attempting this maneuver with cold night approaching quickly, and virtually no streetlights. And all of the dogs in the neighborhood had apparently made a pact among themselves to howl in unison and nonstop at the strange wheeled intruders. Choosing prudence over pride in this case, I decided to abandon my family at the base of the hill for a few minutes and run ahead to the hotel to get help.

Next time I'm in Europe, there are a couple of things I want to do differently. First, I'll get rid of that irksome stroller. Instead, my son will ride on my back in a special backpack. As for my mom, well, she may have weak legs but she's always been good on a horse. I've been thinking, wouldn't that be a great mode of transport for navigating the historical centers of European cities? For steeper inclines and even short sets of stairs, I'll bet a camel might be an even better choice. I hear they're even trained to kneel down to make it easier for the passenger to mount and dismount. Perfect!

"Camel-back Tour of Paris?" Yes, yes, it has a certain ring to it ...

Shukan ST: May 4, 2007

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