[nagdu] question

[Angie Matney]

The guides he had problems with were the ones he hired to guide him while he was selling insurance. I believe this was before he went to college. I agree about his college friends. I believe the whole guide-dog movement benefited from their willingness to help him fight for public access with Buddy.

Angie

Sent from my Nokia N82.

-original message-
Subject: Re: [nagdu] question
From: Wayne Merritt <wcmerritt at gmail.com>
Date: 02/26/2009 12:20 AM

Given the type of personality Morris had, which you can learn about
from reading his experiences in Love in the Lead and from listening to
the one act play, "With a Dog's Eyes," that the Seeing Eye has
promoted and put on in recent years; it's hard to see how his guides
could have been losers. I remember one story where his friends would
coordinate their activities so that one of them would always be around
when Morris got out of a class in college, in order to walk him to his
next class. Years later Morris found out that it was more than a
coincidence that a friend was nearby when class let out. When he asked
his friends about this, the response went something like, "Well sure
we made sure that someone was nearby. If we would have told you, you
would have gotten mad and wanted to do it on your own." I'm
paraphrasing here, but again, from looking at this incident and the
other stories from that book and play, I somehow can't see Morris
intentionally getting "losers" to help him get around. Rather, I get
the feeling that he was much more opportunistic and spontaneous, as
wellas very strong willed and independent, or as independent as anyone
can be in the pre-guide dog days. Also, consider the great lengths
that his friends went to in order to help him in the early days with
Buddy, as far as getting into businesses long before anyone had heard
of guide dog access laws. Those are friends I'd like to have in my
corner.

Wayne

On 2/25/09, Angie Matney <leadinglabbie at mpmail.net> wrote:
> Hi Rebecca,
>
>>Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Seeing Eye used to have a
>>requirement that a person getting had to work (presumably outside the
>>home) and that they had to get to work without using sighted assistance?
>
> As far as I know, this has never been a requirement. The school expects that
> the graduate will be able to provide the dog with meaningful work
> opportunities. A very early class (held in Burkeley, before The Seeing Eye
> moved to Morristown) had
> among its students a homemaker (who did not graduate for other reasons) and
> a retired veteran. That class also had five women and two men.
>
>>I also wonder if Moris's guides were true loosers, or if he made more of
>>it due to his need (and it is a good need0 to promote the Seeing Eye?
>>Seeing Eye was his business after all.
>
> Actually, those incidents happened before TSE was founded. That was why he
> wrote to Mrs. Eustace, asking her to train a dog for him.
>
> If anyone is interested in this stuff, I highly recommend Love in the Lead.
> I'm pretty sure it's on Bookshare. It's definitely on NLS. There used to be
> a link to it on The Seeing Eye's web site, but I don't know if it's still
> there. Actually, there were a lot of
> books on the web site at one time, but I'm wondering if they are still there
> in light of copyright concerns.
>
> Angie
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 
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