Carrie Dixon was a Deaf lady, who died with her husband and grandchild, in a tragic accident in the mid-nineteen seventies. She had a quiet life of "privilege" and was most certainly a "born Deaf" and culturally Deaf person. Carrie, as far as history goes,..should have been long forgotten,..not even a footnote in the history of Hearing or Deaf affairs. She was quiet..(unlike your truly :D), and she had the good manners not to come back and try to "rub the noses of others on their own mistakes."

Carrie Dixon believed that a bridge of understanding could be built between the Deaf World and the Hearing World and took the first steps in the Canton, Ohio area to try and build that bridge. She taught both Deaf and Hearing individuals the basics of American Sign Language in the old Red Feather Building in Canton,..Ohio at a time when it was illegal to use sign language in classes for the Deaf in the public schools. Carrie taught Deaf kids that it was "O-K' to decide to learn and use sign language as their chief means of communication..if they so chose.

This "it's-ok-to-make-your-own-choices" idea was revolutionary even in the seventies as "oralism" was the only "acceptable way" to teach Deaf any form of language in those times.

(Remember,..back then,...even the thought of Galladet College..having a "Deaf" president was unheard of!! Seventies establishment thinking on "Deaf possibilities:

Heck! If you teach a Deaf kid that they can make their own choices that kid might grow up and think that he/she can do more than become a type-setter or broom pusher as an adult! Why a Deaf girl might even think that she could grow up and become Miss America!! Heresy!! Heresy!!)

To make matters worse,..Carrie helped start a Deaf church where the hearing and the deaf could mix freely and use sign language socially as a means of communication in a public place!!

Oh,..the HORROR!------(This comment is a piece of social commentary on my part as I remember the attitudes of those times!!)

I have read in the journal of a friend that:

"Carrie Dixon,,for all of her good intentions and volunteer work,.in spite of all of her services to folks in mental institutions,..will be appropriately forgotten as far as history goes or as far as anyone's living memory goes. That is right and proper as all she did was upset the notions..."of socially prominant people and tore down the established order of the leadership of the sign language interpreter and Deaf pathetics." She had the strange notion that the people , who were born without sound in their lives, could lead normal lives and by her altogether inappropriate activities....actually taught the children of the socially respectable hearing to believe this delusion!"

(Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrge!!

Carrie Dixon was guilty,

.....oh yes,

..guilty,..I say,

....of TEACHING THE CHILDREN OF THE HEARING AMERICAN SIGN LANGUAGE!!)

As far as I have heard, Carrie's life and her marriage was happy. She and her husband, who was also totally Deaf, raised four beautiful and successful daughters,..one Akron University college professor with a PhD;...one teacher of the Deaf,..recently retired from working at the Ohio State School for the Deaf;..one, the wife of a wealthy local enterpreneur; and one, who the last that I heard,..was a teacher of the Deaf in an Ohio city close by here. That would not be a bad average as to the outcome of her children even for a "normal" hearing woman.

Yet,..Carrie Dixon's legacy included far more than her own blood children......

(more on Carrie later!! gotta leave!!)

The ladies and gentlrmen of L--- Center in Wads----, Ohio were a really neat group of folk with whom we visited recently. No one can ever ever tell me that "older folks ' are boring and without capability! Woot!

These folks hung on every word that came out of Rosezelle's mouth and every word that I acted out and said in order to present and enhance our program. At one point in the program,..I hesitated in a "reading' that I was doing and one lady of at least eighty five years yelled out,.."Don't stop now!! This is getting good!"

One little old gentleman stopped me in the hall after the program and informed me that he was single!! I told him that I would tell my husband that information. The old gentleman sighed and just shook his head and grinned,.."Well,..I just had to try!"

I wondered aloud why he had not come to our program. He just grinned and walked away!

Our previous speaking engagement at an "assisted living" facility was an "eye-opener." About fifty elderly ladies and one elderly gentleman came to hear Rosezelle and myself do our readings, and seated themselves,...waiting to be entertained.

Rosezelle had to take a "powder-room" break so I had the choice of either sitting for several moments or making conversation with the older folks. They had plenty to say!! I saw one little lady of at least eighty years with a lovely series of crocheted designs on her shirt, and I commented on them. "Oh! That tatting reminds me of the tatting of an old friend of mine,..who used to live with my family when I was a little girl!"

Innocently enough,..I asked the little elderly ladies, who were sitting not more than a foot and a half from me,.."Do the ladies here do such tatting? I gave some tatting like that to a lady I met just a few years ago because I thought that she could truly appreciate it more than certain other folks. That particular lady was an artist! Do you folks think that people, who are artistically inclined,..can better appreciate such things as beautiful needle work..more than the average person does?"

This got us stated on a group discussion as to who had contributed what to the last "fundraiser" for the activity fund but it did not lead up to a discussion of "art appreciation in the elderly!!" The scandal about how "Myrtle" had come up forty cents short with some of those funds, which were raised at said event,.was mentioned!! "Chloe" is suspected of "raiding other folks rooms for hearing aid batteries." "Lucinda" has gotten the eye of "Victor" in the dining hall and refuses to sit with his wife,.."Serapha" anymore!! "Deedee" has started a "knitting group," which everyone wants into,.but "Cassie" is not allowed into the group because her best friend is "Lucinda," the husband-stealer!!"

And that was just from the first row of little old ladies,.sitting a little less than two feet from the small table and podium from which Rosezelle and I were to speak in a few moments!! Rosezelle came back from the bathroom and noticed the commotion going on in the first row.

"I see," she commented dryly to me again,.."That you are still studying human nature!!"

"I didn't start anything!" I muttered.

However,.for the next hour and a half,..our program had some competition with the discussion of "Victor,.who shares a room with his own wife...(but horrors!!) will not sit with her in the dining room, and his paramour,..Lucinda!"

In spite of the competition from the ongoing discussion,..Rosezelle and I sold about eighty dollars worth of books!!

The one little gentleman in the crowd stopped by our table and complimented Rosezelle and I on our program,..bought a book,..and said with a sigh,.."I hope that you two ladies come again! My name is Victor,..and I hope you ladies noticed that I was sitting alone!!"

The private lunch and the speaking engagement were fun. The lunch first:

The lady, who got together with Rosezelle and I to have her book signed,.was an extremely pleasant person with no great demands on anyone. That was what caught my attention right off the bat about her.

Mrs. "N" had no theories on WHY Nellie did this or said that in the story of Walking Free. She presented me with no psychological analysis Nellie or of myself,...though she did ask if I thought that the meaningless lives of my mom's deaf relatives might have been what affected some of mom's later actions towards Nellie. I did NOT mention my grandmother. Who and what my grandfather was could have gotten me kicked out of the restaurant, about forty years ago, if it had not been for the likes of Dr. Martin Luthor King!!

Neither did "N" gift my deceased Deaf-Blind friend nor myself with a very unwanted tendency to "sainthood." What a blessing!! We sat and talked for almost two hours, and "N" shared some of her own experiences with us. I was in tears as a tale of someone elses life and death,.."N's" daughter, partially unfolded before my author friend and me.

Losing a close relative, as "N' had lost one to circumstances beyond anyone's control, is always sad. The memory of "N's" dignity in the face of her life's adversity was something that I was able to take out of the restaurant with me as a reminder that once again...."when life knocks us down for whatever reason,..the fact that we get back up again and how we go on with our lives"..is what matters most.

The book came out and Rosezelle and I signed it. Not much conversation followed the book signing but an impact had been made on me,..at least. The standard,.."We must do this again!" and the standard hugs followed. Somehow,..I felt that the hug, given by this lady, this time was real.

Mrs. "N,"... I am sorry that you did not autograph my napkin or something. I wish that I had asked you to do so. I left that luncheon with the distinct impression that the person I had eaten with with was the person,.who should have written the book!

Did I say,.."la-laaaah-laaaah-lah!" with "Daria" music before in my last entry? I was guilty of pre-judging!! Perhaps...people are as human as you will let them be in certain cases!!

(More later on today as to what happened over the weekend! This blog is more of a "memorandom for me than anything else,..I think! and this experience is one that I want to remember!!)

So,..we go and speak again today about Blackheart,..the new book, and about Walking Free. Rosezelle says that I will enjoy doing this "gig!' We are also invited to lunch!! That is fine with me!

I'll tell my blog what happened at these "grand" events..as soon as they are all over. Why are those words from the "Daria" music going through my head? "La--La--Laaaaaaaa----La?"

Quotes:

"People,..without a clue,..will always accuse you of what they, themselves, would do in any given situation,..good or bad!"

"A "public blog"..is just that,..a public blog. Supposedly,..it is meant to be read by the public. Unlike "designated drivers" on New Year's Eve,..there are no "designated readers"..of a public blog,..unless the blogger decides to go private."

Hmmmmmmn!

The "little girl, '...(she is in her early twenties,)...who gave me the flowers,..has agreed to have coffee with me! I am going to rush right out and buy something pretty for her two lovely children! They are sooo cute! I saw her with her children and they were all so pretty together!!

There is no sight as lovely to me as a young mother with two or three young children with her!! I want grand children of mine own,..yes I do,..but I will not push my son into anything that he is not ready for!!

I am going to find a nice place to take her for dinner with my husband and I and then,..I want to get her and the two little ones something pretty at a store!!

Life is so good!

New Year's Eve was a great deal of fun. Hubby and I went a bit late to the party at the church hall only to find the accordian player had been replaced with a Bluegrass Band!! No "polka-ing" this year!!

Some of the youngers "hoe-downed" a bit but most folks just watched the New Year approach with both gladness and a sigh. Hubby and I are included in this later bunch.

What I mean is we were happy to be seeing the New year come in, but unhappy to think of the boy, who works in the local tire shop..going to Iraq! We were happy to be listening to good Bluegrass music,..but unhappy to think of another year passing so swiftly. We were happy to be having the opportunity to "clog" to good country music if we so choose,..but unhappy to be a bit too tired to get up and "boogy!"

The "kraut' was good and both my husband and I dipped into it with a will!! I think that I ate more desserts that evening than I ate in the whole last week of 2004, altogether!! A very thin looking recently married young woman in a very tight dress gave me a VERY sour look as I downed my second luscious piece of chocolate flavored "saur-kraut" cake.

I held up my spoon,..filled with the thick sweet cake and fudgey icing,..smiled at her and chewed and swallowed. Her mouth chewed along with mine and her throat swallowed in sympathy with me!! I smiled at her,.."Have some?"

I even got up to go over and show her where the extra paper plates were!! She just sort of snake-hissed at me and almost ran to the other side of the hall.

"Mabs,"..an aquaintance of mine,..filled me in as to my currant social "gaffe,".."Stanelle,..you shouldn't eat in front of skinny young women and act like you are enjoying yourself. It's bad manners."

"Huh?" says I,.."She appeared to be almost as tall as I am and she couldn't have weighed more than a hundred pounds! Well,..that's how skinny she looked! I would think that a slice of cake would cheer her up!! Ye gads,..Mabs! Can't her husband afford to feed her properly? He got her that exspensive looking dress! I know he works up at the Ford truck sales place!! My Lord!! Aren't they shamed to have her going around looking half starved?"

Mabs just looked out of the corner of her eye at me,.."Um,..no! She's proud to look like that. she WANTS to look like that!"

All I could do was sigh and mutter,."Go figure!!"

............................................................................................................

I NEVER thought that I would open my mouth and say,."That's terrible..but..."

But what?

Tsunami fanfiction at fanfiction.net?

Tsunami fanfiction about the recent "Halocaust" in the seas around Indonesia and Siam?

That is almost as bad as the "rich kids..riding their jet skis, in front of the tsunami victims on.."the morning after!!"

Does the word,

.............."compassion,.."

................................. still have any meaning?

Evidently among the Blind in California,..that word still means something. The young blind mother of the sighted baby,.that San Mateo County,..Ca...were trying to take away from her and her husband...(at the HOSPITAL,..NO LESS,....got on the internet and got a hold of her local "Blind Federation" rep and a League of Blind Parents.

With threatened exsposure to the press,....(The county had wanted to remove the child from it's parents because they had asked for.."child-parenting classes!!!! They sound like fairly responsible folks to me if they asked for some instruction on how to CARE for the baby!!)...the social workers backed down!!

Hmmmmmmmn!

You mean ADA means that you can't remove a sighted kid from it's obviously deficient blind bat parents and give it to a "deemed worthy by the state" set of SIGHTED parents?

What IS this world coming to?

(Explaination for the humor-impaired--That was sarcasm,....on my part!!)

"Ich Bin "Mary Sue'd!!"

I've been "Mary Sue'd. In any other form,..I'd say that I'd been "Mary-Skewered!" Done by any other person,..I'd say that I'd been "Mary-Skewered!!" Done by this particular person in these particular circumstances,..I've been paid a great compliment.

My own "Mary-Sue" fan-fiction person came over to my house the other day and left me two huge bunches of red and white carnations and then,..I was presented with my own personal piece of WALKING FREE fanfiction!!

I almost fell off my chair!!

In this piece of fan fiction,..it seems that this young, barely beyond her teens young lady was my "personal-assistant,..pretty and perfect,..who got everything done for me without me being aware of it"...while I lived with Nellie,..the Deaf-Blind lady!!

And then,..the young lady asked me about SHAKESPEARE'S vampire book!! It seems that Shakespeare's book really intrigued her and she WANTS MORE OF THE SAME!!

(Hint!! Hint!!)

My visitor thought, "Bewahrt!!"

I thought it, "Beschatten!"

When I think of all of the fan fictions that I have written in my own lifetime,..it seems a great irony to have been fan-fictionalized!! If Stan,..Kai,..and Z/Xev were real,..if Star Dreck characters, TOS,.were real,..if the Farscapers were real,..right now they'ed be ROFLTGDAO!!

They've been avenged!!

Ich bin "Mary-Sued" by "Holly-Sue!"

And it was all done with the greatest sincerity..and admiration!!

Danke,..Holly!! Danke!!

(Thank you!!)

No,..I'm certainly not blind,..but...

So you are a blind couple, and you..do what comes naturally, and you have a SIGHTED baby,

(gasp--"Do the blind REALLY GET MARRIED AND HAVE

.........(sex?)"...)

and you live in San Mateo County in

....California..

(where else could this happen...but in California?)

...you get put under investigation

...to see if you can

..."care"

...for the baby!!

---sarcasm---:

("OK,..you blind people..the harness for the Seeing Eye Dog goes on the dog and not on the kid!!")

...Geeeeeeeeeeeeeeeez,

....the Deaf have been having kids and raising them for years!! I won't even go into the horror stories that some Deaf folks have had to face!!

(I don't consider myself a "true Deaf" as I can hear music and the voices of the other folks around me and only have periodic losses of sound d/t my ear and sinus infections! O-k! Most of the time I don't catch all of the words that are spoken,..but I can get the sounds of the voices!)

To be threatened with the loss of your kid..'cause you are blind!! To think that you might lose your child because of your disability!!

No wonder so MANY high functioning dis-ABLES hide their dis-ABILITIES.

Quotes of the week:

"It is dangerous to educate the dis-ABLED to any great degree,..they have this bad habit of insisting that they can do what everyone else does and the educated ones try to enforce this delusion!"

"It's dangerous to educate people..like YOU!"