Hey! That's rather clever turning the electrical box into part of the painting! Very cool!

I had a sink that looked just like this one in my very first apartment! It was in south central Kansas. The apartments started out as well these lil resort? type hotel rooms for this golf corse that was near by. The place was built in 1929 and was just totally awsome! I really was sad to have to leave the apartment because it had so many neat, save perhaps this sink, things you simply can't find these days, large windows, hardwood floors french doors leading into the bedroom, arched front door, crystal or maybe they were glass doorknobs, I could go on and on!

Hey, it does look like Spock. And re my last posting... I think this painting or stencel or whatever it is would look just as creepy if it weren't in a disused mental hospital... Although it being in a disused mental hospital makes it slightly more creepy if you get what I'm trying to say.

AAAAH! God in heaven!

Oooooooooooo! EEAK! I've heard of people's skin crawling but never understood what exactly that ment or felt like. Well until I saw this...this... whatever the hell it's supposed to be! Also, it is times such as these that I'm rather thankful my eye sight is as bad as it is. LOL That face looks just hella evil! Gads and it might be just me but those eyes make me feel like I'm being watched! Damn what a horrid picture to have in a mental hospital! If you wern't a bit cracked up already, you sure could get that way having to look at this day in and day out! Geeeebus! And the more I look at it, y'know? It looks an awful lot like an ex of mine who, I think, truely was gone beyond all recall!

Oh wow! I nearly frogot about those sinks. We had those in the grade school(s). I liked them b/c the way the water came out reminded me of the rainforest building at our local zoo.

I like this shot. It's rather peaceful and calming. as for what is at the end of the hall, my guess woul be either a door or a wall... J/K. :G>

You are going to find, no matter where you go, state school, mental hospital, out in the real world, that there are kind and caring people and then there are just mean A-holes that would be mean no matter what. It's just hat t s... Life. It isn't always fair or pretty or nice ut you deal...

Oooh! Come to think of it. We were admonished about disposing of our sanatary items at the blind school. We could NOT NOT NOT flush items down the toilet, nor could we just toss them away in the trash. We had to wrap up the used item in toilet paper before putting it in the trash. I guess so the people who took out the trash would have a layer of protection between them and our used items. That has been so engrained into my personal toilet habbits that I just sort of thought everyone did this, wrapping up their used item in toilet paper and then putting it in the trash. It wasn't until my feeancee remarked about it one day that I discovered lots of people don't dispose of those items as I do. And that my method of disposal is well? strange.

Hi regarding this calling people clients and brother and sister,
On every single disasterous spin I took on the ever revolving door at our state run rehab center for adult blind I and my fellow students, my word for us, not theirs (theirs meaning the folks running the center) Has been, and I guess will always be, unless the word "client" somehow becomes not P.C. "client.


I've always found this to be just a bit odd, although I suppose "client" is far better than inmate or being reduced to some nameless faceless case number.. to be filed away in some poor overworked VR counsler's caseload

Client, I guess is also used so that we, those who seak help from Voc Rehab in whatever form be it training, job placement, obtaining assistive technology so we can go to work, school or just lead as best a life as we are able to feel a part of the whole VR team. There was a time, not too long ago when we were told not asked or listened to what was to become of our lives. After all, we surely couldn't have the slightest idea what was in our best interest, being blind or disabled and all. We needed somebody, most times a non-disabled person to do our thinking for us... I'm being a bit sarcastic, but it's true, in the past if you had some sort of disability nobody wanted to take you seriously to listen to you. I guess this is because the people in charge, the non-disabled ones at any rate Had no idea what they'd do if they had whatever disability you had. They wouldn't know how to cope, some, not all of them. So they couldn't see how you would cope.

Like I said not everyone is/was like this, but some folks are. But over the past several years, we've been asked to step out of our sheltered workshops and back rooms and to have a voice in our future. So they did away with inmate, although, VR being as under-staffed and overloaded with people needing help as it is I'm not so sure about the being a nameless faceless case number. LOL just kidding...

Honestly I don't care what you call me as long as you can give me the help I'm seaking and to do this with dignity

As for this brother/sister thing. I hope I can write this and not muck it up. I think they did this to foster a "family" feel. I mean here are all these kids away from their own families so in a way the school/hospital was their family. It's rather odd and stilted but nothing new. For example at my time at the state school for the blind w e had dorm mothers and dorm dads, I guess that's what the guys called their overseers. We had to address all dorm staff by Miss. or Mr. whatever their first name was. And they just called us by our first names. Of corse in school we had to call our teachers Mr. or Mrs. last name. At the private adjustment center for adult blind in Colorado I attended a few years ago and at the school I attend to receive my guide dogs, we drop the Mr. and Mrs. so n so and just call eachother, staff, students and or trainers, in the case of guide dog school, by our first names. I like this because it is more relaxed andfriendly and I don't feel so much like a thing something is being done to, rather I feel like a person who is doing and choosing for herself just the same as anyone.

The tubs in this picture are in fact very much like, right down to the placement/arrangement minus the big hallway? window as the tubs in the dorm (long gone by now, they knocked it down oh, over 10 years ago in favor of whatever it is they have for a dorm now) had been.

I spent several summers between my time in grade school up to my Freshman year of high school at our state's school for the blind. It was a summer school program that focused on some of the things that we needed either help with or exposure to. Things like self-care and living skills. This included but was not limited to such things as making a bed. zipping up one's own jacket, my personal hell for one summer when I first started,shoe laces, both the installation and tying of. We learned very basic cooking skills, how to do our own laundry, some mending like putting buttons on to cloth and any personal hygeen type skills... We also worked on blindness skills such as braille, learning to use recorded books, O and M, Orientation and Mobility, which is learning to use a white cane or other adpative travel device, how to read traffic without seeing the stop light, how to ask for directions, plan a trip, stuff like that. And fun things like swimming and computers...

What we learned, like I said, was based in part upon recomendations from our parents and V.I. (special ed teachers trained to work with blind kids). What we learned at the school day, especially in relation to our personal self-care skills were observed and worked on when we returned to our dorms.

This meant everything. And I do mean everything! Especially if you were one of the younger kids. The dorm was split into a boys side. I didn't ever go over there more than a hand full of times so I can't say what it was like over there, but I'm guessing it was more or less the same as happened over on our side. On our side there was the main dorm where the younger girls from about age 5 through 12ish would live. and then then there was the east wing where the older girls stayed. The older girls had much more privicy. For every 2 2 person bedrooms there was a shared bathroom. They had their own kitchenette and lounge. It was a pretty sweet setup if you ask me. I know I loved it when I finally landed a spot there.

On the main dorm there were several large 3 - 4 person bedrooms. We each got a closet, a desk and a chest of drawrs if we were lucky. Some kids had to split up the dwars one having the top 2 and the other having the bottem 2... We had a large lounge and a empty bedroom that was converted into a weekend breakfast room. We had a piano room at the end of the long hall and a large "public" bathroom. When you walked in straight ahead of you was a large open space with a washer and dryer and a large sink on your right. A sort of wall that was open on both ends on your left. A full length mirror was on this wall and a large gray laundry baskette where bed clothes and towels and school owned laundry was put. If you turned right there was a long row of toilet stalls and across from that, on the wall behind the washer and dryer, a long row of sinks and mirrors. If you turned left and went round the full length mirror wall you had a stall shower. and then two bathtubsthen a small wall and a single tub on that next to the windows. There were chairs next to each tub... There wasn't much privicy in the bath section unless you took a shower or got the tub next to the window... But even then you were pretty much on display.

The reason being that a dorm mother would oversee the baths and stand there and watch you, especially if you were a lil kid to make sure you took a bath and cleaned your body and washed your hair rather than play around . Some kids even got watched when they did their toilet. Because I guess they needed help.

The reason we were watched even when taking a bath or whatever was to, like I think I saidd, was to make sure we were doing our self-care properly or to spot any troubles that had gone unnoticed... It didn't bother me when I was younger but today, partly I think because of the lack of privicy we had to put up with there, I am a very privet toilet person. I can't stand to bathe or do my toilet if someone else is around and I try to get changed in regards to my clothes as quickly and as unseen as possible.

Hi,
This is a very awsome site! I have spent, at different times in my life, time in this or that state run school, the state school for the blind, both a state run and privately run training and adjustment center for blind adults and 2 1 month training classes at guide dog school.

I've seen and heard lots of things, especially aat the school for the blind that has been truely awful. Abuse, mistreatment of students who could not defend themselves things like that. There are some awful awful people who mistreat people just because they can. But there are a lot of people who care about their job and the people thy are meant to help. Some of my fondest memories are from the times I was at the school for he blind. Anyway...
I'd like to point up a slight correction re the invention of Braille... Braille wa invented by a blind man, Louis Braille, who lived, who lived in France. When he was a small boy he was playing with his father's leather working tools and lost the sight of ne eye as a result of, well poking his eye out. On accident. He retained vision in the remaining eye for a very short time but lost that eye as well, a result of sympethic opthalmia (sorry I am not the world's most gifted spellers). Louis attended a school for the blind. There have been a number of reading/writting codes for the blind. But Louis wanted to have one system any blind person anywhere could learn... He got the idea of what we today know as Braille from ships of all places. These shipswell the people on the ships didn't want enemies, I'm guessing this was in a time of war or something to spot where they were. So they'd pass pages with these raised dots around and it could be read without the use of light, thus keeping the bad guys in the dark. Louis addapted that system into Braille. It is composed of 6 raised dot. 2 collumns with 3 dots per collumn. Sort of like a cupcake bake sheet. Depending on the configureation and the location in the cell (there are "upper cell" and "lower celll" configurations one can write, in Braille, nearly anything one could write in print. Numbers are made by using the number sign, the lowest dot dot on the left side (when you read) and all three dots on the right, it looks like a backwords print letter L followed by any letters on their own or together the letters A to J A is 1, B 2, C, 3 and so n. J is the number zero. So, to braille, for example the year 2007 you would write the number sign and then the letters B J J G with no spaces... The Braille cell is small enough to fit under one finger tip and for most people they'll read with their pointer finger. Some people, I am not one of them, can read 2 lines at once. Reading speeds for Braille can be the same or much faster than the reading speed sighted people have for print, same with brailleing, this s how we write Braille. Brailleing speeds can be as quick if not quicker than typing speeds... Braille can be done in 2 ways. The oldest, and the one most closely related to a pin and paper is the slate and stylus. The slate is a frame, it can be metal, wood, plastic. This frame is hindged on one side so i's sort of ike a very narrow metal book... It's as wide as a sheet of paper but not as ong, on avrage it only has 4 lines per slate. Anyway you open the hendged slate, slip the paper inbetween the front and back plates and you are ready to write! The slates, well most of the ones I've used have mall pegs on the corrners of one of the plates to hold the paper tightly. It also helps n keeping your place as you go along down he age. You put the top pegs into the holes left by he ottem pegs til you reach the bottem... Slate writting can be a bit of a challenge as you must write "backwords" The word order is the same. You'd still write "my dog has fleas they bite his knees." only the way you'd form the etters would be reversed. Example, the letter L when you read it it is all three dots going down the rightsside of the cell. When you use the slate and stylus you'd make all three dots in a ollumn but you'd write in the left most portion of the cell. There is also braille writers. These are most like typewritters for print. The brailler has three keys on the left side, a space bar in the center and three keys on the right, they are n a straight row there are two smaller keys located higher up, these are for backspacing and dvancing the page up a line. This IMHO is the more easy way to write braille becase you don't have to think how a letter is reversed. If ou ant to write a L you ust mash down all three keys on he right hand side of the brailler...
Each country or language has their own braille codes, there is American Braille, British Braille, German Braille and so n. You can ven do math and sciency stuff with Braille in additio to musical notation... I've been around Braille nearly all my life but didn't get very good at it 'til a few years ago whn I attended an adjustment center for the blind in Colorado. I'm still rather slow at it but can read and write it much better now and at times prefer using it over some other means of communicating... Sorry for the long long history lesson, and poor spelling... It's due in part to somethig's up with my computer not typing all the letters as I type and more because I've always been a crap speller.