—Lancaster Farming. Saturday
34
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Joanne Hess . . .
‘Seeing’ With Music, Love,
March 30 being Shut-ins Day we think of one ambitious and
industrious lady with a melodious voice, alert mind, a kind
and patient disposition and busy hands even though she must
wear leg and ankle braces to get around and has been blind
from birth. She is Miss Joanne Hess of 152 New Haven Street,
Mount Joy.
It behooves each of us to count our blessings when we see
someone like Joanne, handtcaoned as she is, vet has a will to
do things for herself and does not want to be different from
other people. She may have to do things the hard way, but she
gets a lot of self satisfaction from doing things for herself.
Joanne said her mother always explained everything to
her. She talks about seeing and of the beautiful colors, yet she
has never been able to see anything nor been able to tell
darkness from light.
' Joanne says “My problem is getting around, in keeping my
balance, more than seeing.” For the most part she stays in
her room on the second floor of her parents home. She tires of
wearing her leg braces, so finds it easier to sit on the floor
and fill her lap with things she wants to carry, then slides
from place to place. Her room is a little crowded because she
keeps things which she uses within reach. However, her room
is clean and orderly and it is one of the most interesting
places to visit.
Yes, you might say her room is an efficiency apartment.
She has a mini-refrigerator and an electric oven-broiler so
can orepare her own meals if necessary. She enjoys food and
enjoys making meals for herself.
Besides her food storage and cooking equipment she has
her bed, chairs, cabinets, musical instruments, needlework
supplies and equipment, tape recorder, talking books, pat
terns, typewriter, cassette books, braille books and her
collections.
Joanne is the daughter of Barbara and Henry K. Hess. She
has two brothers, Henry B. and Jere. Henry is married and
Joanne Hess, Mount Joy, plays and sings with this
baritone uke.
lives at Rheems. They have a two and a half year old son.
Jere is married and lives in Florin. They have a daughter
who is nearly seven years old. Henry K. is a transport driver
for Sico. He delivers about half the gasoline to schools and
institutions and the other half to retail stores. Joanne’s
mother baby-sits for her two and a half year old grandson.
Joanne reads compatible books to her nephew. These are
story books with pictures and both braille and regular
printed characters. These books are made for either blind
parents or blind children or both.
Joanne grew up on a farm. Their house had a fence around
it so she did not wander away too far. She said “I always had
a time to find the house.” Finally her grandmother turned
the radio on and by locating where the sound came from she
could find the door. She said “I liked cows, horses, kittens,
dogs and flowers. I love the birds and the country.” She still
enjoys having a boquet of fresh flowers on the dining table.
She says “I get flower blubs. I like to raise flowers. I’d like to
raise herbs and I’d like to get scented geraniums.” Her
mother raises African violets but she doesn’t like the feel of
the leaves. She doesn’t like artificial flowers either.
Joanne’s education started at four and a half years of age
She went to Overbrook School For The Blind in Philadelphia
for two years. This school has an enrollment of about 250
students. She started in the fall and stayed there till
Thanksgiving The school closed from Thanksgiving till New
Year’s Day so children from a distance could go home for the
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holidays. She stayed there until Easter or the summer
vacation. When she was in second grade she broke a bone and
had to quit school J3he has had a dozen or more bones broken
between the ages of 8 and 12. Since that time she has had only
a couple bones broken.
The doctors found she has a glandular condition which
causes a calcium deficiency, which effects her muscles and
nerves. She wears braces so she can walk.
Herbert Anderson, who is a rehabilitation teacher for the
Association For The Blind in Lancaster taueht Joanne some
of the fundamental subjects like arithmetic and English. For
her fifth and sixth grade work she had a radio-telephone
hook-up to the regular public school. It was like an intercom
and she didn’t have any books. After that she went back to
Overbrook School for six months for seventh grade work.
She then took a correspondence course at Hadley School
For The Blind at Winnetha, HI. This school is supported by
Seroptomist Clubs, Lions Clubs and individuals.
Joanne then took a GED (General Educational Develop
ment) test at Harrisburg and passed it. She was the first
totally blind person that ever took it. She has a high school
diploma and says she would like to take a college level
examination program. They are for people who haven’t gone
to college.
Miss Hess spent several months at Harmarville
Rehabilitation Center in Pittsburgh; from there went to
Greater Pittsburgh Guild For The Blind in Bridgeville, south
of Pittsburgh; and took a 15 week course. There were 32 or 33
other trainees there, some severely retarded and some ready
to go to college. There she learned hand writing, some typing,
some cooking, household arts and had a course in elegant
manners. Part of her training while at Pittsburgh was
making arrangements for traveling such as getting tickets.
Mrs. Shell at Mifflintown taught her to pack a suitcase and
started her to cook. The first thing she cooked was a chicken
leg, some potatoes and carrots. Mrs. Ethel Kopp of Mount
Joy has been very helpful to her also. She reads pattern
directions onto a tape then Joanne uses her braille copier to
copy patterns for her rake knitter, knitting, crocheting,
hairpin lace, letters, instructions for electrical appliances
and to leam music. A friend comes once a week to take her
cassette and Braille books, ten inch recorder and talking
books to the post office.
Joanne says she receives help from the Easter Seal Society
and she also appreciates what the Lions Clubs and Serop
tomist Clubs do. The Lions Club sponsors individuals,
providing transportation (train tickets) to camps. It costs
$65. a week to goto Becon Lodge Camp For The Blind. This
camp is near Newton Hamilton, between Lewistown and
Huntingdon. Joanne taught at this camp. She usually stays
there about six weeks. She appreciates the fact that they
have one section for adults and one for children. They have
guide rails and they have a paved area as well as a grass
area. With her walking problem she appreciates the paved
area. She plays games there like Scrabble. They have many
games and sports for recreation. Joanne used to paddle in the
pool but she got a sinus infection so has been limited to
floating and getting around in the water.
Joanne took piano lessons for 14 years, studying with
Braille music. She gave a recital in 1960 but had to give up the
piano two years later because of tiredness and strain. She has
a lovely voice and loves music. She plays the baritone uke,
and used to play an autoharp. She has a recorder, a melodica
and a mouth organ. She also has some antique instruments-a
mandolin harp, a ukehnd and a guitar harp or a Columbia
harp.
Joanne uses her talents to entertain others. She puts on
programs, singing, playing and demonstrating touch reading
for Farm Women groups, PTA meetings and mother and
daughter banquets. She used to go around visiting shut-ins
and singing to them, friends took her. She attends Mount Joy
Mennonite Church and their sewing circle. She helped make
booties for the sewing circle.
Joanne belongs to the Blind Association. She really enjoys
their activities, particularly Educational Week For The
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and Beautiful Colors
Mrs.
Charles
McSparran
Blind or “Blind Week” actitivities. The auxiliary to the
Association For the Blind sponsors it. This year it will be held
May 6 through the 10th, from 11 a.ra. till 1 p.m. at the Masonic
Center, 213 W. Chestnut Street in Lancaster and is open to the
public. They will have a delicious luncheon for $1.50, have a
fonraar table where they sell cakes, pies, rhubarb,
asparagus, chow chow, candy, cookies, craft articles and
articles made by the blind. They have a display, showing how
the blind read, write, crochet, sew, do chair caning, home
skills and use some appliances. Joanne works there every
year. This year the Overbrook School For The Blind will
provide musical entertainment periodically.
The auxiliary’s membership of people who see, provides
glasses, have a picnic for blind people at Long’s Park the
second week of June, a Bingo party, an art class, bowling, a
swimming class for instruction and entertainment. The
auxiliary has a free clinic once a week at the General
Hospital and once a week at the Saint Joseph’s Hospital in
Lancaster.
The Association For The Blind, Walnut and Mary Streets,
Lancaster, has a sheltered workshop where they employ
approximately 25 blind people for gainful employment. They
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A ruffled doily, baby bib, tam-o-shanter, baby
sacque, a cap and a doily with colored flowers and
leaves around the edge which Joanne made.
do sub-contract work of various kinds. They welcome
visitors. They have a radio station for the blind at the center
where they read the morning and evening newspaper, have
programs to inform and educate the blind. Blind persons
need to have a special receiver set to receive their radio
programs.
Joanne does all kinds of fancy work and really does lovely
work. One method of knitting she uses is done on a rake
knitter. A rake knitter is about 15 inches long and about three
inches high, made of wood and somewhat resembles a bench
with two rows of nails on the top of it. She made a sweater,
scarves, a baby set of booties, hat and sweater. She knits and
crochets Barby clothes, baby bibs, handkerchief edges; tam
o-shanters, caps, sweaters and doilies. She makes more of
the doilies than anything else. She makes some lovely ruffled
doilies in varigated colors. She speaks of the beautiful colors
and it is through them she leams how to combine colors, what
colors go together well. Her conception of color might be
different from people who see but she still appreciates colors.
To give an idea of how long it takes to make some of her
fancywqrk, it takes about six hours to make the center of a
ruffled doily and about 12 days to make the ruffle. It takes
about 12 hours to crochet a baby bib and about 4 hours to
make a rabbit which she stitches on the bib. She is crocheting
a tablecloth, has a pattern for a beaded doily that she is going
to make and yarn to make a cart wheel pattern afghan in
orange, brown and white. She is also going to crochet a little
girl’s dress. She has made a baby hat, sacque, booties, stole
and a rug with hairpin lace. She has been making daisy
winder flowers to make an afghan. She says she would like to
have someone to show her how to tat and she would like to
have a thermoform machine and set up a business making
patterns.
Another thing Joanne likes to do is read. She likes to read a
talkmg book while she crochets or knits. She gets Good
Housekeeping, Natural History, American Heritage,
Dialogue and a couple ‘magazines for the handicapped m
talking book form. There are also some other magazines
I Continued on Page 36)
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