An old tower rises above the 93 acre plot of ground at 7725 North College Avenue in Indianapolis, a historic landmark along with the buildings on either side of it. Icon of the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired’s heritage, will soon stand like a sentinel over the changes that are coming upon campus As of July 1 of this year. For the campus as we know it will be under great demolition and reconstruction for five years. Still for any of us who saw that tower or heard someone’s description of it, the image will always remain etched in our minds.
That tower told of much more than marble marvels of architecture. For within its walls and through the whole school’s corridors resound echoes of our stories, classes, fun and frustration. To keep the memory alive, the Last Blast At ISBVI will bring together former and present-day teachers, alumni and current students, and those of us who were there for part of our schooling.
You can read about this awesome event here. Perhaps, if you are blind or know someone who is blind, you might consider journeying to the campus yourself, not just to see the old tower but to walk the halls that have been there since 1931. Let me share a few memories of my own at the monolith of wisdom, truth, honor, and grace-the best school in the land, as the school song croons.
Now, if you have driven past the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired or seen its main building on the news, you might think it looks like a castle, a bulwark of sorts. Like other buildings erected at that time for educational excellence, it was meant to serve as a beacon for everyone in the State. Here, just like in previous locations, the Indiana School for the Blind has proven that students with any degree of vision loss can learn just as well and adjust to life as equally as any other child going through public or private schools. Teachers down through the decades have shared their knowledge in history and civics, math, science, English and Spanish. I can recall my favorites by name nearly four decades after transferring from there: Ms. Heck, Mr. Gacsco, Mr. Davis, Mrs. Griffin, and many, many more.
If you walked the halls during or after the school day, the sounds of a piano or woodwind might grace your ears. That’s because Mrs. Francisco, Mr. Porter, and those who followed their tenures instilled more than knowledge about what notes to play. They fostered a burning love for that music long after graduating. Mrs. Price’s choirs sang as beautifully as any choirs in the State, often at local functions and dinners along with the concerts they’d give on campus.
Can you hear those saws or hammers resounding from D-Dorm? Yes, that’s shop class being taught by Mr. Reynolds. Or that aroma of grilled cheese or fried chicken wafting from K-Dorm meant that Ms. Lobdell was teaching her students to cook up something tasty along with how to organize a kitchen.
Stick around after the school day’s done and you’ll hear the coaches, drilling the guys in wrestling as they prepared for meets a couple times a week during the winter. In the fall, Mr. Gacsco’s voice rose above the sound of birds or distant traffic as he urged the competitors in track and field during their practice in hopes of beating other schools for the blind across the midwest.
Now, of course, the methods for teaching class are different, the technology much more complex than when I attended there. Yet, the fervor has remained the same, preparing…challenging…encouraging students to be ready when stepping in the big world beyond those 93 acres for college or work.
I can remember well the times in the dorms as many of us stayed on campus during the week, returning home only for Saturdays an Sundays. Our house parents, as we called them, kept us entertained. When my friends and I were little kendergarteners, Miss Murray got down on her hands and knees while we played pile on or blocks in Lambert 1 or she’d imitate Oscar the Grouch by jumping in a trash can while we all giggled. I learned I like pizza for the first time when Ms. Beimfore took our first grade boys in Lambert 4 to the Paramount Pizza Palace. As we grew older, house parents took us on walks off campus like to Broad Ripple or a near by park…or sliding down hills and wading through creeks like we’d do with Mr. Johanchess. And, as the tween years made our energies rage, house parents like Ms. Ulrich, Mr. Odom, and Mrs. Brown talked sports with us, chatted up the dating scene with us, and of course got into much of the same music that rocked our changing worlds.
You can ask any of us and we’ll tell you the struggles, too-crying as little kids while watching our parents leave us for the week…getting confused while some amount of our sight deteriorated in waves during a single afternoon…throwing temper tantrums when communication breakdowns or homesickness got the best of us.
And through it all-sometimes not appreciated till years later-the bond between us formed memories that would last our whole lives. As house parents encouraged our skills for everyday life, Mr. Soja and Mr. Busick taught us how to use the red-tipped white cane and a whole swath of routes for traveling off campus.
Yes, when we were in the dorms, we were kids and were allowed to be like any other kids-playing Star Wars with those action figures when in elementary, getting into cars and cops as we watched the Dukes Of Hazzard, Some of us started picking guitar, collecting our tapes-yes, way before CD’s and downloadable music off the internet. *grin* Yes, we sure had a life before the www at ISB. Then as the music played on Wednesday nights, we learned to dance and talk smack while doing so at the time for cantene. Some of us fed off an older friend’s developing talent as a student deejay when jamming out with a dual cassette boom box and a Mr. Microphone. We played blind pranks on each other at the oddest moments and no one was immune to those ambushes from silently waiting floormates, having a cup of water douse our hair unawares, and so much more.
Yes, the rough-housing, the relaxation, rec events, and radio all brought us together beyond the classroom.
Yes, from the tower to the track, from the basement cantene dance floor to the Boy Scout cabin-ISBVI’s hallowed grounds laid some foundation for who we all still are today decades later.
So on March 23, from 12:00-5:00 PM, teachers, students, and friends will give Rocketland one last blast of let’s-remember before its campus changes forever. If you can’t make it or even if you can, tune in http://www.Z103.com where the internet radio station hosted by ISB grad, Monte Sieberns, will give live coverage of this incredible day.
Boldly Blind 