[NFBF-L] Strange Stuff

[Camille Tate]

Mark: 

 

I laughed so hard when I read this! Here is another funny for you and everyone else. One of my former neighbors has three children. Her oldest, a girl who is now 17, was fascinated meeting a blind person who lived on their own. She had never met a blind person before. One day she was trying to hide from me on the stairs as I was leaving to go out. I told her to move and she started laughing. She told all the other kids in the building I found her by using my echo location stick. Can you believe it?! I have never heard the cane called an echo location stick before! Of course, we then had to take a walk in the neighborhood so she truly understood how I used O&M skills to navigate, but every once in a while she jokingly called my cane an echo location stick. 

 

Sincerely, 

Camille Tate 

2nd Vice President, National Federation of the Blind of Florida 

President, Melbourne Space Coast Chapter, National Federation of the Blind of Florida 

Phone: 321 372 4899 

 

From: NFBF-L <nfbf-l-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Mark Tardif via NFBF-L
Sent: Friday, September 1, 2023 6:25 PM
To: Blind Talk Mailing List <blindtlk at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Mark Tardif <markspark at roadrunner.com>; NFB of Florida Internet Mailing List <nfbf-l at nfbnet.org>; NFB Talk Mailing List <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Subject: [NFBF-L] Strange Stuff

 

Alright, friends.  I’m going to tell you something that will either leave you laughing or crying, and it is to demonstrate that no matter how well educated you are, if you are not familiar with blindness, well, you can still come across as, to put it politely, not the brightest light in the room.  The other day I saw a doctor I had never met before.  He had never spoken with someone who was born blind, and I suspect he had never spoken with any blind person.  Anyway, he saw my long white cane and, get this, asked if this was my “eye stick.”  Yes, that was the term he actually used, “eye stick.”  I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or to just moan with sadness, but one does need to remember manners in this situation, so I told him that we call it a long white cane and told him what it was for.  He actually asked a number of good questions about blindness, which I thought was good, but it was clear that he needed much educating.  He seemed surprised I can actually walk around town independently.  I guess we have a lot of work to do, still, to put it mildly.  Also, I must say that while people up here are often extremely nice and courteous, they seem to pride themselves on being quite insular, even more than the rest of Maine, which is my state incidentally.  I say that because along with the term “eye stick,” I’ve often heard some very strange and, frankly, primitive ideas that I won’t actually go into here, but I do often think that holds us back in a lot of ways.  Anyway, I just thought I would share that bit of strangeness.       

Mark Tardif 
Nuclear arms will not hold you. 

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