In the summer of 1981, between my freshman and sophomore years in college, eager to be out on my own, I jumped at the chance to travel from my home in Sheridan, Wyoming, to a rehabilitation center for the blind in Topeka, Kansas, where I could learn mobility, cooking, and other necessary life skills taught to people like me with limited or no vision. Not what I expected, this place was more like a prison, where we couldn’t leave the facility unless a sighted person was with us until we were “cleared for mobility,” and when we did leave, we had to check out, then check back in again when we returned. In the dormitory, a buzzer woke us up each morning and summoned us to meals, and at bedtime, a sort of curfew was imposed between ten p.m. and 6 a.m., where men and women were confined to their separate wings, and on weekends, besides doing our own laundry, we had to clean our rooms, put clean sheets on our beds, and have staff inspect our handiwork. In the classroom building, bells signaled the start and end of class and break periods. Most of the instructors were snobs and not always helpful. Despite all this, I learned a few things, but I realized later that I could have learned everything I needed to know right here in Wyoming at a summer camp for the blind.
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Thanks to Girlie on the Edge for inspiring the above true story with her six-sentence prompt for this week. If you’re a blogger and would like to participate in this week’s hop, click here.
Please note that from July 16th through the 22nd, I’ll be on staycation while my brother and his wife from Florida are visiting. So, there won’t be any posts here during this period. I’ll respond to comments and other correspondence as time allows. Will see you all on the 23rd.
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And now, I’m pleased to announce that throughout the month of July, My Ideal Partner and The Red Dress are available from Smashwords ABSOLUTELY FREE as part of its annual summer/winter sale. You can visit my Smashwords author page to download these books. Happy reading!
By the way, for those of you who use the National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled, The Red Dress is available for download from their site here. No matter how you read it, please be sure to review it wherever you can. That goes for all my books. Thank you for stopping by. Stay safe, happy, and healthy.
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New! The Red Dress
Copyright July 2019 by DLD Books
When Eve went to her high school senior prom, she wore a red dress that her mother had made for her. That night, after dancing with the boy of her dreams, she caught him in the act with her best friend. Months later, Eve, a freshman in college, is bullied into giving the dress to her roommate. After her mother finds out, their relationship is never the same again.
Twenty-five years later, Eve, a bestselling author, is happily married with three children. Although her mother suffers from dementia, she still remembers, and Eve still harbors the guilt for giving the dress away. When she receives a Facebook friend request from her old college roommate and an invitation to her twenty-five-year high school class reunion, then meets her former best friend by chance, she must confront the past in order to face the future.
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Dear me, Abbie that must have been so disappointing, when you were looking to spread your wings.
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Yes, it was disappointing, but there were a few good times. As I said in my post, this place was in Kansas. Before I left, one of the staff members, upon finding out my favorite movie was The Wizard of Oz, gave me a t-shirt that said, “I visited the land of Oz.” It was pink with black lettering, and the word “Oz” was designed to look like a rainbow. I treasured and wore that shirt for years.
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Good six. You must have felt let down.
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Thank you. Yes, I did feel let down, but life goes on.
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This is a testimonial to hard learned lessons. Thanks for sharing!
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Well, it’s like the lesson Dorothy learns in The Wizard of Oz. If you’re looking for your heart’s content, look no further than your own back yard.
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Good description of what someone who is blind has to learn. I especially liked the ending where one could learn all of that at home in a summer camp.
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Here’s the irony. This was a college preparatory program that I attended at the rehab center in Kansas. I’d been living at home and attending classes at the local college. When I went away to college a year later, I was relieved to learn that dormitory life was not at all like that.
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Sounds horrific!
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Well, it could have been worse.
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Young and resilient!
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As you were telling Susan, how ironic you traveled to Kansas, the Land of OZ to realize in the end, like Dorothy, there’s no place like home 🙂
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Absolutely!
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It seems they were more concerned about liability than they were with teaching skills! Terrific 6 with a peek inside your life!
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You’re probably right. I’m glad you liked my story.
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Such a shame you hadn’t been forewarned.
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Yeah, well, that’s the way it goes sometimes.
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