Ed Roberts, Activist
Lee Roberts: Ed Roberts as a Dad
Lee Roberts: It was always, he was just my father. And when I was a kid, I thought his wheelchair was the greatest thing in the world. I loved the electronic toys and everything that everyone had, but to me, I had the best one ever. I had a 700-pound, going up to 10 miles per hour, Power Wheels. And my dad was the driver, and I would hop on the side of his chair, and it was amazing how many people and looks would always happen, and my father used to always say "You're the star, kid, don't worry about it."
No matter where we were going, I always liked to hop on his chair and… and just travel around. Sometimes I would like to direct him where I wanted to go, but generally, he wouldn't listen to that because he was always so interested in meeting whoever would come up.
And as a kid, trust me, I wanted to get to a destination. Where… but he always would just start having the conversations with whoever on the street, and before you know it, these people were like spilling information about their lives. And as a kid, I didn't understand it, but there was a connection being made. It was my dad's just natural thought process of wanting to get to know the person.