First Day in School: Everything's Different - A Peek at the Peak Magazine

Posted By Les Conklin on Oct 3, 2015

By Manual Daniel Germano

Prologue

After the long drive from Bristol, Rhode Island to Watertown, Massachusetts, the author and his family have arrived at Perkins Institute for the Blind, Germano’s new, permanent home. He would rather be any other place on Earth, but this is where he must live for many years to come. Les Conklin, Editor

Part Four. Everything’s Different

Campus, Perkins School for the Blind

Ma and Pa had never been to Perkins. Speaking in Portuguese, they decided that we should find our way into the building and then go back for the suitcases and the boxes. We walked through one of two gate-like openings, with brick pillars on each side. We found ourselves in a rather large courtyard with lawns and flower beds, broken up by brick paths and surrounded by what to us seemed like large buildings two and one-half stories in height. The buildings were all made of brick. They were attached to one another, so except for the opening we walked through, we were in a court yard surrounded by the large brick buildings. I still had some vision and could more or less make out the surroundings. They seemed very strange and even a little “scary” and added to my insecurity, fearfulness, and anxiety. Ma and Pa seemed at a loss, and this only made things worse.

We had to ask for directions again. Ma saw someone walking nearby and in halting English asked if he could tell us where Anagonus cottage was. The man gave us simple directions, take our next left and follow the path to the front door. We came to the door, and after a while Ma found the doorbell and pressed it. It made a fancy tinkling sound, nothing like at home.

Perkins Campus, Boys Close

Meeting Mrs. Hancock

Shortly the door opened and a lady said, “Welcome to Anagonus Cottage. I’m Mrs. Hancock, the house mother and you are? And my Ma answered that she was Manuel’s mother and looking at my father and sister, she said this is Manuel’s father and sister, and that I was Manuel, who was coming to school. I stood and thought, what a name, Hancock, and what was a house mother? Like the Lady from the State, she spoke very distinctly. Her voice again was quiet but friendly. She thought it best that she first show us upstairs to my bedroom, where we could unpack and then meet some of the other children, who had already arrived and were playing about.

Strange Staircase

We followed her to the steps, which were nearby. I had never climbed up steps like these. They were made of something that felt like marble. The banisters were sort of rounded and were attached to square iron posts about an inch in diameter. The steps were also kind of wide and made a big curve around and up to the second floor. It all seemed very strange to me, for I had never climbed steps like these before, and the whole place sounded and felt very different to me.

Strange Bedroom

At the top of the stairs, we came to an open place surrounded by doors. Mrs. Hancock pointed out a door where she lived, and then we took a left down a hallway. We passed a few doors on the left and right, and Mrs. Hancock stopped and told us that this was my bedroom and that my roommate would be Laurent Roy, a very nice boy from Woonsocket, Rhode Island. She then pointed out my bed, chair, closet, and bureau, and said, in that soft friendly voice that she would give us time to unpack and that she would be back in a little while. She left the room, and my Pa followed her to get the suitcases and boxes in the car. My sister, May, went too, to help him carry in the stuff.

Helen Keller Studying at Perkins School for the Blind

Learning My Room

My mother and I stood in the room alone. She took my hand, preparing to show me around the room so I would learn to get around by myself. I felt her handkerchief and it felt damp; had she been crying? I gave her a hug and she hugged back and then said, let’s get started. Ma was good at describing rooms and things to me. She began by putting my back against the door frame we had just walked through. She said, across from you is a set of two windows. On your right is a short wall, then comes your bed, then a chair, then a bureau, and finally a closet door, then you come to the end of the right hand wall. You will then turn and after a short wall you will come to the two windows, which are different from ours, and I will show you. Under the windows is a radiator, bigger than ours. Then you come to a short wall and you turn the corner and you find the other boy’s closet, his bureau, his chair, and his bed. Then a short wall, and then you turn the last corner and there is a short wall, and then you come to the door switches right behind you. Now turn around and face the door frame. To the right of the door is a light switch, and she put my hand on it.

Strange Walls

Another strange thing: It had two buttons and when you pressed the top button, the bottom button popped out, and when you pressed the bottom thing, the top thing popped out. Ma told me that when the top button was out, the light in the ceiling was off, and when the top button was flat with the metal plate, the light went on. I tried it a couple of times to get the hang of it. Strange, I thought. I felt the wall around the light switch plate, and this was also strange to my touch. The wall was painted, not covered with wallpaper like the bedrooms at home and everyone’s walls in Bristol. I felt down lower, and about my shoulder was a board that stuck out from the wall. Hmm … I would learn that this board was called a chair railing. My mother told me to feel the left-hand door frame, and I found the hinges to the door. Moving to the left, I found the door itself. Going to the left, there was short wall, and then I came to the corner and turned to my left and found the short wall Ma had told me about.

Continued: Part Five. Strange Bed