[Home-on-the-range] "It's not what we do but the way that we do it!"

[Cindy Ray]

When I went to the Iowa Commission for the Blind for my training, I had no idea what to expect. I had attended the Kansas School for the Blind for eleven years and the Iowa Braille and Sight Saving School for my final one. (When I first started school, there was not kindergarten at the school for the blind in Kansas, so I was in public school. We didn't do as much in kindergarten in those days as is done now.) Anyway, I have to be honest. I was glad I was going to go to the Iowa Commission for the Blind. I had heard a lot about the Kansas one and wasn't sure. Seemed in those days they had a psychologist there to evaluate us, and I didn't feel I needed one. When I got to the Iowa Commission for the Blind, I learned right off I would have to carry my cane around the building at all times. What? But we did, and soon it was apparent why. You weren't as likely to trip over arts and the like, run over people, and you could move much more freely without a fear of falling down stairs. First night or so there, I was invited to dinner at a staff member's place; I was expected to help with dishes. And classes were interesting. I hadn't been there more than a week or two before we went water skiing. Really? I never could get up on the skis, but it was a blast trying. In the fall we went wood cutting for wood to fuel the fireplace that was in the recreation room. They don't do this now. One time when we were out having our tree felling expeditions, we had target practice with a gun. Haven't done that before or since. At nights we were expected to go out to some of the downtown restaurants to eat; weekends we just shopped and did whatever, but it was all thought of as training. We had travel routes, but we got sent on errands, too. What kind of classes were these? These were classes to show us that if we could water ski, if we could cut wood or shoot a gun, if we could cook on an open fire, if we could cook at all, then we were capable of learning techniques that would make it possible for us to do jobs, and we might even develop some techniques of our own. In what they call philosophy class, which used to be Manuel's class, we had discussions surrounding things like, how do you feel about two for one fares on buses. Should a blind person knowing her blindness is hereditary have babies anyway, or for that matter, should any blind person have babies? A really hot topic in those days was blind begging? We reveled in each job a blind person landed, and all of these things made us feel a little more confident each day until we were ready to spread our own wings and fly.

Cindy Lou