RE: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
- From: "Pam Drake" <pamdrake@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 11:08:23 -0700
Don,
Yeah, I'll bet it was the Flamingo. When I was there there was a little
restaurant attached to the motel. It was called Stickney's, and served
freshly-made onion rings that were out of this world. <smile>
Pam
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of don bishop
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 10:58 AM
To: optacon-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: RE: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
Pam,
Not sure of the name of the Motel after all these years, but I'm pretty sure
it was on El Camino. As I recall, they had more than one training room set
up and I think there were only 2 and maybe 3 students working at one time.
So, there was plenty of room to separate students a bit and the noise really
wasn't all that bad. Also, the training was broken up a bit as most of us
had to get used to the vibrating array against the finger, so could really
only work for relatively short periods of time at first.
TSI was pretty small in those days and most everyone from Jim Blis on down
came through the training rooms at one time or another, and Jone Blis was
one of the instructors.
Don
On Wed, 17 May 2006 10:30:35 -0700, Pam Drake wrote:
Don,
Interesting! I never knew that the classes were once held at the motel.
Was that the Flamingo? Was the training one-on-one with several teams in
the classroom? That must have been really noisy! Or did they try to teach
one big class? I wonder how many classes had been held before yours?
It's just so interesting to think you didn't have a nice private classroom.
How things have changed.
Pam
-----Original Message-----
From: optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:optacon-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of don bishop
Sent: Wednesday, May 17, 2006 9:21 AM
To: optacon list
Subject: remembering my first experiences with the Optacon
Just changed the subject from "some comments about the optacon" or at least
pretty much that subject line.
Anyway, I remember the first time I actually used my first optacon.
I was in a training class given by TSI in Palo Alto. It was held at a motel
where we students stayed for a week or two weeks depending on people's
schedules.
TSI also had a suite there where the training was conducted.
They brought us into a training room with a long table. In front of each of
us was this big wooden box and a brand new Optacon sitting inside. I think
it still had the plastic around the case. In those days the OPtacon came in
a large wooden carrying case with thick foam padding. (soft packs were not
even heard of yet.)
It was like being at the door of a new world and even just seeing the unit
without using it was liberating. I can still remember the new smell of the
unit with the leather protective case.
And then the fun began. So did the work. <smile>
The excitment of actually reading print material, even if it was just a
training document, was something I'll never forget.
Since that day in 1972 I've read virtually every kind of printed material at
one time or another.
I still am a bit in awe when I look at an old book published in the early
1900s or before and realize that many many blind people lived in "homes for
the blind", or other institutional or protective settings, and that reading
such a book independently wasn't even considered possible.
It does put the progress in the world in some sort of perspective. I think
this is largely why I've always felt that the discontinuance of Optacon
production was truly a step backward from independence for blind people.
Don
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