Cool story. We have a neighbor who has a son the same age as my oldest son that has been blind since birth.
He's a really cool kid (man, really, since he is now in his early 20s) who is perfectly fine with his blindness. His folks cut him no slack - I was over there the other night and he was bitching about having to take the trash out to the curb, for example. They expect no less from him than they would from a sighted child. He used to come in to classes in school and talk about his blindness to kids of all ages. It was fun to sit in and hear the discussions and questions. He's cool enough with his blindness that he regularly makes Helen Keller jokes.... Dan On Sep 6, 2012, at 10:49 AM, Rich Thomas <richthomas79td...@constructivity.net> wrote: > When I was a little kid, maybe 5 or 6, the woman I stayed with after school > bought a piano, or had it, I can't remember, for her daughter who was a year > older than me. I remember one day the piano tuner coming over to tune the > thing, and the guy was blind. His wife would drop him off, he would be > directed to the piano, and he would do his thing by feel and sound. I > remember watching him, and he knew I was watching somehow, and he would > occasionally say something to me, or ask me to do something like grab a tool. > The guy initially creeped me out because at that age I had never seen a > blind person, and just figured they had to be creepy because in the movies > the blind person was always the weird character, and the guy looked creepy > too because of his eyes and how they were. Plus he was some unknown adult > person, which when you are that age just creep you out anyway. > > After a short while I sorta forgot about the blind aspect and was fascinated > watching him do his work on the piano, and the fact that he included me, > however simply, in his work was way cool to me. He was masterful at the > work, and put his fingers right on the keys and the tuning tools without even > seeing them. Very cool. > > His wife came back about the time he was finishing, she collected the money > and off they went. Later on I remember the sitter and my mother talking > about it, and it turned out that guy was like the best tuner in town, in high > demand. I think back to things like that, being a part of work like that, > stuff my dad did on the car or lawnmower and such, and even that simple stuff > must have been a trigger to my interest now in fixing and building things. > > I learned 2 things that day -- first that blind people were not creepy, and > that being blind seemed to be no impediment to doing something really cool. > And I guess if you are blind you better have someone else with you to make > sure someone does not rip you off giving you the wrong money. That last part > I might have figured out later, but anyway... > > --R > > On 9/5/12 9:57 PM, Mountain Man wrote: >> Dan wrote: >>> Take it for what it's worth, but this is coming from guys who make their >>> livings doing this. >>> >> Very few people make good living as piano technicians. It is very >> tough to obtain and keep customers. >> mao >> >> _______________________________________ >> http://www.okiebenz.com >> For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com >> To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ >> >> To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: >> http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com >> > > > _______________________________________ > http://www.okiebenz.com > For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com > To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ > > To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: > http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
