This is a step-by-step, written narrative of how I came to be diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
Until November 2004, I thought February 1987 was the first time I ever came across anyone with the condition "Autism", on either Television or in real life. However I was wrong.
In November 2004, when updating this website, I remembered that at some point between February and August 1986, I can't remember the exact date, I saw a Television programme featuring someone who could tell people what day of the week they were born on. The introduction to the person featured went something like (I can't even remember the character's real name so I will use 'Christopher' as an example). "'Christopher', has learning difficulties, but he has a remarkable ability to tell people what day of the week they were born on". The subject was stood alongside the presenter, and faced a live studio audience.
After being introduced certain members of the audience would tell 'Christopher' their date of birth, and 'Christopher' in return would tell them what day of the week they were born on, such as, "What day was 21st March 1949?". The reply he gave was "Monday" (As 21st March 1949 was indeed a Monday). He was accurate each and every time. 'Christopher', also didn't make any eye contact and spoke with a robotic, monotone voice. The programme wasn't "Record Breakers" even though I used to watch that. Looking back now, as an adult, I realise that 'Christopher' must have been Autistic. I wish I had paid the same amount of attention, as I did the following year when watching QED.
In February 1987, I was sat at home watching television. After the nine-o-clock news, a programme called QED came on BBC 1. It started at 9.30pm and the title of the programme was called "The Foolish Wise Ones". I remember the date, because it was five days after I came back from Scout Dyke. I very much enjoyed Scout Dyke and had a great few days there, from Monday 2nd February 1987 to Friday 6th February 1987. I still remember the legend of "Pegleg", and Mr Crosland and Mr Kemp. I also recall going to Wortley Top Forge on the Thursday, 5th February. I stayed in dormitory two, if you must know, and on the first night, one boy was cried himself to sleep, and everybody in his dormitory started making ghost noises!
For a time at Primary School, I used to go to bed at exactly 8.31pm, but I had ended this routine at Christmas 1986.
I severely doubt if the title "Foolish" would be allowed in a TV Programme now to describe Autistic people but I suppose it was acceptable to use back in February 1987. Nor would someone with Autism be paraded like on Television today, like they were in 1986, as if they were taking part in a freak show. That is why in more recent years, I have felt, or even have expressed irritation with NT's who have remarked on my ability to do this, or have asked me when their birthday is or what day they were born on, for simple the reason that I don't exist for their entertainment. I am not a performing monkey.
The "Foolish Wise Ones" programme I saw in February 1987, featured savants who had exceptional drawing abilities. One was a musical genius. He lived in an institution but could reproduce music brilliantly on a piano after merely hearing it once. Another had problems calculating the simplest sums. He had a low IQ and yet had a gift for calendar calculating. I think the person with the music ability was called Noel. As I write now, the passage of time has clouded my memory somewhat, but I clearly recall that the subject with the calendar calculating ability was named David. I remember asking at the time, "He talks funny (odd), doesn't he?".
The main participant who stood out in my mind though, was a Autistic boy named Stephen Wiltshire, who could draw prominent buildings from memory, such as St Paul's Cathedral and the Houses of Parliament. Stephen, at the time, was approaching his 13th birthday. He was diagnosed as being Autistic at the age of five. He viewed the buildings only for a few seconds and didn't begin his drawings until he returned home or returned to school. Stephen Wiltshire has since gone on to become famous in the Autistic Spectrum World, and, even outside it, he has become something of a minor celebrity. In 2010, I watched an updated programme about him, which featured his phenomenal drawing ability and talents, which he obviously hasn't lost, though his social and communication skills, which undoubtedly have undergone a lot of work and practice in the years since then, have dramatically.
I was ten-and-a-half years old when I saw this, so Autistic Spectrum Conditions weren't dominating my thoughts then, nor was the possibility that I had one myself, so I thought no more about it, certainly not enough to consider that I had an Autistic Spectrum Condition myself. I could calculate calendars in February 1987 but I was more advanced that the Autistic person shown in this programme, with basic mathematical calculations.
The following year, 1988, the film "Rainman", was released, providing another sign when I failed to spot.
NOTE: I did see the programme again in July 2009, for the first time in 22 and a half years on DVD. This was how I reacted when I did so, SEE www.angelfire.com/amiga/aut/review.html
On the evening of Wednesday, 28th February, 1990, it snowed heavily, from what I can remember, about 4.30pm and carried on for the rest of the night. There was also a severe gale two days earlier, on 26th February, because a few FA Cup reply matches were cancelled because of it. There was nothing on Television worth watching on the evening of 28th February, so I got the film "Rainman" out of a video shop near where I lived, called Clearview. The video shop is no longer there and is these days an estate agents.
I suppose I watched the film and forgot about it, but again, if I had been sharper in my thinking on the final day of February 1990, I may have said to my parents, "Hang on, something isn't right, don't I behave like Raymond Babbit?". I didn't though, so I will never know would have what happened if I had. Four and a half years later, I still hadn't heard of Asperger's Syndrome, and I didn't see "Rainman" again for another eight years.
Almost eighteen years later, on Saturday, 20th October, 2007, I watched "Snowcake", on DVD. This was the 2006 film starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver.
