02-21-2011, 08:52 AM
Thank you all so much for your responses.
One of the reasons I'm interested in this subject is a pivotal thing that I experienced many years ago, in the late 1950s, back before Civil Rights, before the influx of wanderers, before a sensitivity of caring for those not like *us* had fully developed in the little Tennessee town where I was born and grew up.
A cousin and I were at the annual carnival, which was a major event to everyone in town. I was about 12, he was 13 or so. We were best friends back then. Neither of us liked the rides much, so we were just wandering around taking in the sights. There was a big sign with a barker advertising a sideshow featuring *Siamese twins*. We paid our dimes and went behind the curtain. There in a trailer with a glass wall were two little boys sitting on the floor and playing with some toys, always facing each other because they were joined at the front from sternum to groin. At one point, they started slapping each other.
My cousin said that he could not believe the parents had put their kids on display. So he was angry with the parents. I said I couldn't believe God would do something so awful to babies. I was mad at God. Then we were both ashamed of ourselves for paying the dimes and gawking.
My cousin went on to become a well-known biochemist, married another biochemist from then-Czechoslovakia, travels the world and has done some pretty awesome things in the world of medicine.
I went on to college, agonized over Civil Rights and Viet Nam with my peers, played on the fringes of the hippie movement, and with the passage of years and the deaths of most of my family and friends, became a hermit. I always worked, but never had a career as such. Enough is enough, was and still is my little mantra. Just pay the bills, eat something, etc. I'm retired now, living off a tiny bit of savings and Social Security, in full-blown contemplative mode with my rescue dogs.
A couple of months ago there was tv program about the world's oldest living conjoined twins. As I watched, I realized these guys were the same little boys my cousin and I had seen so long ago in a carnival sideshow. I haven't seen my cousin in decades, but I thought about him, and the very different paths we chose in life.
Here's a link to an article about the twins, and there are several others available on Google:
http://www.phreeque.com/galyon_brothers.html
We've come a long way, but the road still winds ahead of us.
Thank you all again. It's very heartening to me to see the changes in attitude from my generation to yours, and the technological innovations that have provided us with satellite television and the internet and availability of information and instant communication.
There are many other aspects to this topic of exceptions, which is one of my main areas of interest at this point in my life, and they can't all be explored here, but I really appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and feelings.
One of the reasons I'm interested in this subject is a pivotal thing that I experienced many years ago, in the late 1950s, back before Civil Rights, before the influx of wanderers, before a sensitivity of caring for those not like *us* had fully developed in the little Tennessee town where I was born and grew up.
A cousin and I were at the annual carnival, which was a major event to everyone in town. I was about 12, he was 13 or so. We were best friends back then. Neither of us liked the rides much, so we were just wandering around taking in the sights. There was a big sign with a barker advertising a sideshow featuring *Siamese twins*. We paid our dimes and went behind the curtain. There in a trailer with a glass wall were two little boys sitting on the floor and playing with some toys, always facing each other because they were joined at the front from sternum to groin. At one point, they started slapping each other.
My cousin said that he could not believe the parents had put their kids on display. So he was angry with the parents. I said I couldn't believe God would do something so awful to babies. I was mad at God. Then we were both ashamed of ourselves for paying the dimes and gawking.
My cousin went on to become a well-known biochemist, married another biochemist from then-Czechoslovakia, travels the world and has done some pretty awesome things in the world of medicine.
I went on to college, agonized over Civil Rights and Viet Nam with my peers, played on the fringes of the hippie movement, and with the passage of years and the deaths of most of my family and friends, became a hermit. I always worked, but never had a career as such. Enough is enough, was and still is my little mantra. Just pay the bills, eat something, etc. I'm retired now, living off a tiny bit of savings and Social Security, in full-blown contemplative mode with my rescue dogs.
A couple of months ago there was tv program about the world's oldest living conjoined twins. As I watched, I realized these guys were the same little boys my cousin and I had seen so long ago in a carnival sideshow. I haven't seen my cousin in decades, but I thought about him, and the very different paths we chose in life.
Here's a link to an article about the twins, and there are several others available on Google:
http://www.phreeque.com/galyon_brothers.html
We've come a long way, but the road still winds ahead of us.
Thank you all again. It's very heartening to me to see the changes in attitude from my generation to yours, and the technological innovations that have provided us with satellite television and the internet and availability of information and instant communication.
There are many other aspects to this topic of exceptions, which is one of my main areas of interest at this point in my life, and they can't all be explored here, but I really appreciate your willingness to share your thoughts and feelings.
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