[Nfb-history] Meet the blind of our past month

[rbacchus228 at gmail.com]

I would like to know about the experiences of Stevie wonder

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 10, 2017, at 7:02 PM, Peggy Chong via Nfb-history <nfb-history at nfbnet.org> wrote:
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> October is Meet The Blind month.  As the Blind History Lady, I hope that we all can be aware of how much we all have in common, not look at the differences, but how we as abled and otherwise abled Americans have in common that can unite us in our country. 
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> In years past, blind men and women struggled with the same misconceptions surrounding blindness we still face today.  Hopefully we can learn from the  past and those blind ancestors who brought understanding and balance to the misbeliefs and sometimes strange ideas of the sighted in their little community.
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> Let’s look at John Wenger, a man who grew up in a Mennonite  family in Lancaster PA in the last half of the nineteenth century.  Born with “weak eyes”, John, the eldest son,  was expected to do the work expected of a boy and young man of his age on the family farm. His parents knew he had weak eyes, but most likely not to the extent of his blindness until John lost all his sight by age 16. 
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> John’s natural curiosity was encouraged by his parents.  Not just in the love of his religion and participation in the church, but how to accomplish his farm chores, use his father’s carpentry tools and tinker with machinery.  By the time John was totally blind, He had proven his abilities as a  blind man to his family. 
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> As an adult, he needed to support himself and help support his parents and  their growing family.  The close knit community also knew John from childhood and although  they had their misgivings that a blind man could open and run the general store in town, they did not stand in his way.  Some most likely thought that his family would step in and help John out, and make the business run.  His family did help him out in the store in later years, but it  was because John had such a thriving business, that he needed help, if not from his younger siblings, then he would  have to hire  someone from town. 
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> While John was making brooms, finishing his carpentry projects, visiting customers in their fields, repairing their machinery bought through him and  assembling the machinery from the manufacturers, he needed someone to handle the frequent customers who came in for dry goods, eggs, butter or cheese, pick up their mail or to answer telephone calls to the store and take orders to be filled before the customer came to pick up their supplies on their way back home. 
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> Some of the town’s people thought John’s warehouse must be haunted as when he had little help in the store, he was forced to assemble the machinery late at night.  Passersby could hear the sounds of tinkering, grunts, banging and thuds coming through the shop doors.  But there were no lights on inside.  Their conclusion, the blind man’s business must be haunted. 
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> If his customers had doubts about the blind man being able to assemble their machinery, they soon were relieved of those misgivings when in desperation, they would call John to their fields to repair the non-functioning equipment.  Even if John had not sold the equipment to the farmer, he still went to help.  John quickly diagnosed every problem and in most cases was able to fix the trouble right there in the fields.  If the farmer had not purchased that first piece of equipment from John,  the farmer did make his purchases through John for the next season. 
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> Too often it seems that the blind person must go the extra ten miles to prove their talents.  Let’s all take the month of October to see past our differences and concentrate on the similarities that bind us all. 
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> Peggy Chong
> The Blind History Lady
> www.theblindhistorylady.com
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