[Nd-talk] FW: We celebrate with the best of them

Mon Dec 3 14:55:26 UTC 2018

From: The Blind History Lady <theblindhistorylady at gmail.com> 
Sent: Monday, December 3, 2018 8:07 AM
To: mota1252 at gmail.com
Subject: We celebrate with the best of them

The Holidays are what we make them 

.

Greetings Blind History Lady Fans:

December is the most favorite time of the year for me. There are the holiday parties, concerts, plays, greeting cards, fresh white snow, gifts and so much more. I have had a green Christmas in Hawaii, loud, rowdy, crowded  festive Christmas’s in Minnesota. Some have been just Curtis and myself. Although I have my traditions, when they are not a part of my Christmas, I find that Christmas is where and what I make it. I chose to make them all merry. 

I enjoy learning how others celebrated their holidays. I dug into our blind ancestor’s past. I found that again, Christmas is what we make it. 

I started to research toys for the blind from the past. I found an example from 1954 where Ideal Toys had two new products that they specifically targeted as toys for blind children as well as for their sighted siblings around the holidays.  I do not believe they were designed for the blind in mind, rather this was a marketing strategy for Ideal to present itself in a good light.  One of the toys was a telephone that looked like a pay phone with slots on top for nickels, dimes and quarters. The second was a police car. What the two toys had that was unique for the time was a small record player that would play sounds such as with the telephone, it would ask for the number please.  The police car said calling all cars. 

Ideal found two blind boys in New York to be photographed with the toys and be a part of their national advertising campaign. Yet, just as my toys from Santa’s past, these were not the only toy a blind child could play with. Thanks to Ideal for thinking of us though. 

Up until the  turn of the 20th century, Christmas was not celebrated for days, weeks and some may say today, months on end. Most worked a normal day, maybe taking off an hour early to sit down to a feast and an exchange of gifts. Some had funds for a festive day while most did not. Rural families still had their animals to feed, milk and care for. For our blind ancestors, it was much the same. Some hardly noticed the day had come and gone if not for church services to mark Christmas.

Many of the blind men and women still sold pencils on the streets on Christmas Eve and Day. Others played their music for the holidays for the coins tossed into their cups. A blind man in Maryland went out and took his peddlers funds for Christmas Day, drank them away, returned to his rooming house and sadly killed another boarder.

 Christmas cards in 1900 depicted Jesus healing the blind. For some blind folks, the card seemed to place them once again as second-class citizens. 

At a Christmas celebration in 1897 in Ashville North Carolina, several young boys and men were injured when fireworks festivities got out of hand. Several were injured and at least one boy was blinded from the incident.  We could focus on such times, but I choose to look at a brighter side of the holiday season.

Christmas at the schools for the blind in the mid and late 1800’s were celebrated from one end of the spectrum to another. Children rarely went home for the holidays. Some students told of the holidays as lonely, or no different from the days of study. As the schools for the blind held religious services on a daily basis, it was no different to have a special service for Christmas. Some schools held festivities where they invited the town into the school to listen to the blind children play music. It was also a great opportunity to raise funds for the schools. 

In Virginia in 1873, Principal Captain C. D. McCoy of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind did not place a tree in the chapel that year. Rather. He converted an entire room into a wonderland for the deaf and blind students. It was carpeted in pure white and decorated with cedar and ivy that filled the air with holiday smells. There were many candles lit and placed all around the room. At the front of the room on a platform was a sleigh. Santa with a full white beard and wrapped in winter blankets sat in the sleigh to greet each child. The sleigh had a gift for each child donated by the town’s merchants. Santa spoke fluent sign language so no one was left out. 

Other schools for the blind such as Iowa held special parties during Christmas week, There still were classes during this time. Many of the teachers lived at the school for the blind with their students and that included Iowa. For students through the early 20th century, Iowa kept their students busy with classwork that was suppose to be fun as well as winter sporting events and holiday parties. 

During our countries wars, newspapers documented the contributions of the blind through their private businesses, schools for the blind, blind women’s clubs and homes for the blind. Everything from sewing clothing to raising funds through fundraisers were done to benefit our soldiers, especially during the holiday season. 

Most of all, the blind ancestors themselves who gave of themselves to their fellow blind. One such man was Thomas Lockwood. Blinded in the Civil War, he went home and after a time of feeling sorry for himself, he began to sell books and more from door-to-door until he could open his own store. When his best buyer became blind and went home to feel sorry for himself, Thomas went over to his home at that cold season and told him to come back to work. Yes, even as a blind man. His employee reluctantly came back and found he still could do his job. A gift he never took for granted again. 

Happy Holidays to all of you. May the new year bring us all we hope for.

Be sure to check out other “The Blind History Lady” publications at

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The Blind History Lady is the winner of the 2018 Jacob Bolotin Award. 

Peggy Chong

The Blind History Lady

www.theblindhistorylady.com

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