[BC] Another little story.

[Broadcast List USER]

Cool.

When I was in college, I worked driving a delivery truck, then for  
two radio stations and two radio networks.  I also (God forgive me)  
worked at Radio Shack, mostly selling TRS-80 Model I and Model III  
computers two days a week.

A blind girl would come into the store with her dog "Mookie" and look  
around.  Sadly, I cannot recall her name.  I was very patient with  
her, so she came in when I was scheduled, and I got along great with  
her black Lab seeing eye dog.  In fact, she could tell her Lab to  
"take me to Chip," and he would, even if I was in the bathroom.  I  
just love black Labs.

She would check out all the little bags of stuff Radio Shack (now  
Cell Phone Shack) had, and if she couldn't figure it out, she would  
bring them to me to tell her what they were.  MUCH of the stuff was  
in plastic bags then, so she didn't have to try to go through blister  
packs or open anything.  I thought it very cool.  Sometimes I  
couldn't explain it, and didn't want to open the package, so I would  
tell her I would bring in whatever it was from home and she could  
check it out later.  Since the store was in the same block as my  
apartment in downtown DC, it wasn't an issue.

I explained crimp lugs to her by bringing in some lugs, a stripper/ 
crimper tool, and some wire.  I "showed" her how to strip the wire,  
put the lug on it, and crimp it.  She did several on her own.

This also makes me think of my cousin's wife.  She was maybe 21 or  
22, and I was 16.  Her diabetes had made her blind, and killed her at  
a very young age.  She explained that if I wanted to have any luck  
with girls, I had to know how to dance.  She finished of my dancing  
skills, and she was right.

Then I met a blind engineer out west.  I just don't know how he does  
it, though he doesn't do it alone.

--chip

On Mar 15, 2009, at 6:00 AM, broadcast-request at radiolists.net wrote:

> Message: 1
> From: "Phil Parr" <philparr at consolidated.net>
>
> When I first started in radio, 1963, their was a gates store in  
> Houston.[..] they let the little blind boy walk around and touch  
> all the neat stuff. I must say, it was almost like sex to me  
> looking at that equipment I had never seen.
> [...]
> Phil Parr.