[Nfbf-l] THE GINGHAM DRESS

[Alan Dicey]

THE GINGHAM DRESS
This just goes to show that you can't tell about people on how they are 
dressed.
That is one of the troubles in the world sighted people judge people by 
their appearances.  Blind people judge from the inside out.

THE GINGHAM DRESS
A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun 
threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walked timidly without 
an appointment into the Harvard University President's outer office.  The 
secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country hicks had no 
business at Harvard and probably didn't even deserve to be in Cambridge .
"We'd like to see the president", the man said softly.
"He'll be busy all day", the secretary snapped.
"We'll wait", the lady replied.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would finally 
become discouraged and go away.
They didn't, and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to 
disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.
"Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they'll leave", she said to him!
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously 
didn't have the time to spend with them, and he detested gingham dresses and 
homespun suits cluttering up his outer office.  The president, stern faced 
and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, "We had a son who attended Harvard for one year.  He 
loved Harvard.  He was happy here.  But about a year ago, he was 
accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, 
somewhere on campus."
The president wasn't touched.  He was shocked.
"Madam", he said, gruffly, "we can't put up a statue for every person who 
attended Harvard and died.  If we did, this place would look like a 
cemetery."
"Oh, no,' the lady explained quickly.  'We don't want to erect a statue. We 
thought we would like to give a building to Harvard."
The president rolled his eyes.  He glanced at the gingham dress and homespun 
suit, then exclaimed, "A building!  Do you have any earthly idea how much a 
building costs?  We have over seven and a half million dollars  in the 
physical buildings here at Harvard."
For a moment the lady was silent.  The president was pleased.  Maybe he 
could get rid of them now.  The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, 
"Is that all it costs to start a university?  Why don't we just start our 
own?"
Her husband nodded.  The president's face wilted in confusion and 
bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling 
to Palo Alto, California, where they established the university that bears 
their name --  Stanford University -- as a memorial to a son that Harvard no 
longer cared about.
You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who 
they think can do nothing for them.
---- A TRUE STORY by Malcolm Forbes
"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did."
"But people will never forget how you made them feel."