Up Close And Little...

I realized I have not yet shared my encounters with other Little People [LP] here with you.  As in up close and personal encounters.

Some background first...

There is a very wonderful organization called Little People Of America [LPA], which was founded in 1956 by the amazing actor and humanitarian, Billy Barty who obviously was a Little Person.  

Since there are not a lot of us in the world many LP's feel very isolated.  What LPA does is to bring LP's together by regions and then on the national level.  The U.K. and many other countries have their own excellent groups based on LPA. 

Each year during summer LPA has a huge week long convention in different U.S. cities where LP's can be together, have fun, find romance, learn the latest from doctors who attend, companies who make wheelchairs and other devices designed to help make life easier for many.  

Apparently I am the only LP out here crazy enough to become a Theatre Scene Designer and to soar upon horses for five decades.  I did this bareback because I cannot use saddles.  Though I wrote to saddle makers around the world for their help in this regard, they understandably did not ever try to attend a LPA convention as no one really would have been lining up to see them anyway.  Except one.

However the saddle companies did all respond back to me with the nicest letters.  Two companies even sent gift certificates for their bridles, halters, and leadshanks I was very grateful to receive.  One company didn't quite understand my situation as they assured me once my height was resolved[?!!] to please get back in touch with them then.  And another company had a question of great importance to ask me:  "How DO you get ON your horse?!!"  Yet all was well as this LP soared across a thousand fields for five decades joyfully riding bareback with abandon without saddles.

Though I moderated the online group for LPA years ago besides moderating a unique successful chronic pain support group for LP adults and children I created on the LPA platform, and have done my share of telling the world about LPA, I have never...been...to...a LPA convention or regional meeting.  Ever.  For as one very busy LP having forty+ surgeries squeezed within a very full thirty-six year Theatre Scene Design career all over the place with a horse, I just did not have the time or money to spend on airfare and hotel accommodations for a week.  

Inaddition spring and summer are often the busiest time of the year for Scene Designers preparing for the new theatre season beginning each Fall.  

So now this brings us to the LP's in person who came crashing into my life along the way.  There have been six ("Adelaide And The Six Dwarves?!!").  First, I feel very proud and fortunate to have Moderated the LPA Group online which had 6,000+ members, for this enabled me to know many very amazing LP's doing extraordinary things like becoming doctors, lawyers, corporate executives, athletes, florists, secretaries, funeral home owners, artists, teachers, accountants, actors, on and on despite their challenges. They thought of me as being amazing too especially with having the courage to moderate the group when begg...ahem...ASKED.

ANYWAY, back to those six who found me.  They were memorable!  Now this group of six does not include the dear Circus Clown I wrote about here or the one I never met whose parents were so overprotective she became their prisoner.

My first encounter was a male LP who sought me out when I was interviewed about my work as a Scene Designer.  We met at a coffee shop.  He didn't work nor had he gone to college.  Was being supported by his parents.  Rather he was manipulating them by blaming them for ruining his life because it was their fault he came out as a dwarf.  Oh my was he laying the guilt trip on them so he wouldn't have to work.  It gets worse.  He was a drug addict too.  Tried to tell me ALL LP's did drugs (NO THEY DON'T).  Not pain meds but the hard stuff.  When he asked for my phone number he didn't get it.  I heard through the grapevine he eventually got arrested and served time for drugs.  Finally his parents had enough and quit supporting their thirty-something adult child.  Don't know what happened to him.  Did not WANT to know what happened to him.

One day in the same city, as often happens following theatre performances the Scene and Lighting Designers are asked to join the cast to receive standing ovations for our roles in creating theatre magic.  Later backstage I was told a female LP was at our Stage Door anxious to see the Scene Designer.  As soon as I stepped outside she literally screamed with excitement that I really was a LP.  I wanted to ask if this wasn't already made clear when I was onstage but didn't. 

We went to a bar nearby where she downed ten drinks for my one glass of wine.  She was a heavy smoker too.  I would have asked if she had heard of smoking stunting one's growth but she was talking a mile a minute so fast I could not get it in.  Wanted to know if I had met any other LP's in the city and though I was not going to mention Druggie Dude she brought him up.  Said they were friends and did drugs together.  Well that explained things!  She excused herself a moment to go outside.  Came back even higher than before.  Wanted to know if I wanted any.  I politely declined but for some this is like a personal affront.  She demanded to know why.  I said it wasn't my thing.  She went into a rage claiming all LP's do the hard stuff.  "Not THIS one," I responded.  Well that really set her off so I paid for my drink, left and was very grateful not to be a Space Cadet but just a crazy horseperson with a sense of humour.

Didn't hear from her until a year or so later.  One evening as I left our Stage Door there she was.  Bombed out of her head and desperate for money.  Offered to buy her food and she got angry because she wanted money.  When Clarence our Theatre Security guy suddenly appeared behind me she backed off.  Clarence said she wasn't alone.  Some tall guy was with her.  Grateful for Clarence.  Never saw her again.

A few years later in another city I was constantly getting mistaken for an LP named Becky.  And she getting mistaken for me.  Eventually Becky and I finally met one time only to discover we looked nothing alike!  She had blond hair, blue eyes, fair skin, and dressed in children's clothes that looked as adult as possible because she was waaay shorter than me!  I have black brown hair, dark brown eyes, a dark complexion, and dress like a hippie.  Becky was not a druggie thankfully but we just had nothing in common though we were happy to have met.

Then there was this Sammy.  He saw the art magazine interview about my life and art.  Contacted the magazine and left his information.  After a few weeks the art magazine called begging me to PLEEZE do something about this guy because he was driving them crazy with his calls!  So from a payphone I called him (smart aren't I?!!).  Agreed to meet him at a coffee shop.  Poor guy was way waaay shorter than me.

Anyway, it turns out Sammy was a wannabe artist.  Brought his work.  Let's put it this way, it was definitely in the abstract category.  He couldn't sell it.  No one liked it.  Then along comes Adelaide written up in a art magazine.  Sammy DEMANDED I further his career and while he was at it demanded my phone number.  Said I "HAD to help him because he was a LP."  I tried to politely tell him I did not owe him a thing and certainly was NOT giving him my phone number.  I was on a roll so I went on to tell him that if he continued calling the art magazine they would charge him with harassment and so would I, though I did not know if we could but Sammy did not know this.  Then he bombarded us with letters we never opened because of all the nasty comments written on the envelopes.  So we happily tossed these until they finally ceased.

Then there was this LP named Marjory who saw the news stories of Patches and I moving to Maryland on the wings of The Ride.  Marjory began driving the news media crazy seeking to get in touch with me.  When pressed as to why she needed to speak with me she delivered her bombshell.  She wanted me to take her with and stay with me.  Said I had to have enough money for her too and I owed it to her because she was an LP (many LP friends of mine have encountered the same demands from LP's just like these too).  As soon as the news media staff saw the look on my face when they presented her demands to me they knew my response was a resounding NO.  I cannot tell you what Marjory looked like because the media and I made sure we would never meet.

And finally there was this very young teenage LP named Ralph.  The hospital Dr. Kopits was based at in Maryland had a lovely heated indoor swimming pool just for his patients to use.  Since I was an adult patient I was allowed to use the pool whenever I wanted.  A few times my visit coincided with the rehab patients under the age of fifteen.  Ralph became fixated on me...as in having a crush.  I very gently told him I was old enough to be his mother (I was) and besides my horse could be very jealous of others.  Did any of this happen to cool our hormonal Ralph down?  Uh, no.  Not at first.  But dear Dr. Kopits saved the day by admitting a female LP who just happened to be the same age as Ralph.  Soon Ralph forgot he ever had a crush on me which delighted Dr. Kopits, Aiden, and I to no end.  

So you see my dear ones, though the LP's who invaded my life in person were mostly disasters, the many I've held dearly as friends who I have never met, walk just as TALL as I do IF not TALLER because you see I tend to be much taller than they are.  Because of this their height challenges are often way more daunting than mine.  Yet they too have attained just as much success in education and work accomplishments as I have so from where I stand TALL they stand even TALLER and I am very proud to know them.

But...they...do...not...ride...horses.  Ever.🐎😂🐎💫