[il-talk] Frustrated

Thu Sep 27 14:17:39 UTC 2012

Your story about walking, while someone drives along side, reminds me of an 
encounter which took place during the summer of 1974.  I still lived with my 
parents in Western Springs then and decided to go to Ravinia one night.

I rode one train downtown and another to Ravinia.  I enjoyed the concert and 
came home on the same to train lines.

I arrived in Western Springs late at night, possibly very early the next 
morning, perhaps at a quarter to two or so.  Western Springs uses the 
Chicago street numbers for north-south.  Therefore, the train station is two 
blocks north of 47th Street.  As I reached 52nd Street, a car pulled along 
side, and the driver followed me at walking speed all the way to and up my 
parents' driveway.  My parents' house had a street address of 5709.  I 
wondered about the driver's motive, given that he followed me that way for 
about three quarters of a mile, the south half of my walk home from the 
train station.

I walked up the driveway and was about to enter my house, when a man got out 
of his car.  He introduced himself, "Western Springs police."

I replied, "What do you want?"

He asked, "What are you doing out here?"

I answered, "I walked home from the train station."

He asked, "Do you have ID."

I replied, "No, I have a house key."

He replied, "I thought you were a prowler."

I answered, "I live here."

Fortunately, he then drove away, and I entered the house.

(At that time, I had graduated from the University of Illinois a year 
earlier, and its ID therefore had long expired.  It would be about another 
ten months before I would start working at CTA and would have an Employer 
ID.  Moreover, the state law establishing the Illinois ID would not exist 
until 1975.)

This police officer's skepticism probably had at least as much to do with 
suburban culture as with my blindness.  How many people do you suppose walk 
a mile and a haf home from the train station, especially during late night 
to early morning hours, through a community in which the second half of that 
walk has no sidewalks?

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Meyer" <datemeyer at sbcglobal.net>
To: "'NFB of Illinois Mailing List'" <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 4:37 PM
Subject: Re: [il-talk] Frustrated

>I realize that one doesn't always have time to do this but I remember a 
>time
> when something similar happened to me.  I was working evenings in a group
> home for developmentally challenged adults and was on my way to the train.
> As I was walking a car pulled along along side of me while I was walking 
> and
> hit his horn.  For some reason, I stopped.  A gentleman said quite
> confidently, "Do you know you are going in entirely the wrong direction?" 
> I
> had some time so I decided to have him examine his own question.  I
> responded that perhaps he might be right, but perhaps I might be right.  I
> then asked him how it was he thought I might be going in the wrong
> direction.  He was quite uncomfortable when telling me that I belonged in
> that big building that was a block or so behind us.  I asked him how it 
> was
> I might belong there.  He said that the building was for special people 
> and
> that I was a special person and.... I cut him off at that point telling 
> him
> that I was familiar with that building, that I was a staff member there,
> that I was leaving work and that I was on the way to the train.  I then
> asked him again if I was entirely wrong with the direction I was going.
> Without saying another word, he drove off.  I'm sure he was uncomfortable,
> but I truly felt on top of the world.  It might not have been right of me
> but I wanted for him to feel for just awhile, the irritation we feel at
> members of the general public almost daily.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:il-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Francisco Chang
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 1:28 PM
> To: Deborah Kent Stein; NFB of Illinois Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [il-talk] Frustrated
>
> As a sighted person I would find it extremely rude if someone grabbed me 
> me
> if I seemed lost. It is ridiculous that many sighted people think that it 
> is
> all right to grab a blind person because they are trying to help. A 
> sighted
> stranger would not like it if a blind person grabbed his/her arm because
> he/she seemed lost.
>
> Francisco Chang, RN, BSN, AACC, CCRN, CVRN, EP Lab, Swedish Covenant
> Hospital, Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Sep 26, 2012, at 10:43 AM, "Deborah Kent Stein" <dkent5817 at att.net>
> wrote:
>
>>
>>
>> When they ask me if I know where I'm going, sometimes I say, "Yes - do
> you?" I love Mary Ellen Gabias' response to people who grab her: "Oh, can 
> I
> help you?"
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Patti Chang" <pattichang at att.net>
>> To: "il-talk il-talk" <il-talk at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2012 7:55 AM
>> Subject: [il-talk] Frustrated
>>
>>
>>>
>>>> A guy just stopped me along Higgins. He watched me walk at full speed
> for two blocks and still assumed I was lost.
>>>
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