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Carry a Cane and You're Sure to Have Adventures At work one day, I was having a conversation with a friend and co-worker about how honest people really were when dealing with people who they perceive as disabled. I was telling her about a time I stood waiting for a friend near one of the classroom buildings on the University of Wisconsin campus. A girl of about nine stopped the game she was playing and walked over to where I stood twirling my cane between my fingers. "Hi Mr.," she said, "Are you blind?" "Yes," I said, letting my cane come to rest so as not to give her a good whack. "I am." She paused for a few seconds and then asked, "What's it like?" "Well," I said, "put your hands over your eyes for a second and tell me what you can hear." "OK," she said, "Here goes." After a longer pause she said, "Well, I hear traffic, and there's people walking around me, I can hear their feet, and there is a large dog nearby, I can tell by its bark it's big, and a bus just went by." "How do you know it was a bus?" I asked. "I could smell it. They have this awful smell, I don't like it. Oh yes, and I can hear a. . ." "Elizabeth!" queried her mother who had just arrived on the seen, "What on earth are you doing?" "Mommy! Mommy!" cried Elizabeth," It's so cool. This man is blind. Isn't it great! I am learning to see like he does." "Elizabeth!" exclaimed the mother, "Don't bother that man, and stop asking so many questions. It's impolite." "But Mommy!" Elizabeth began. "Never mind," said the mother. "Stop being a nuisance and come on. We have better things to do than make fools of ourselves." I remember telling my friend that it's sometimes much nicer when adults are not around. Later that day, I had an occasion to realize just how wonderful it really was. I was walking down the hall to the bathroom, cane in hand. Two little girls were behind me. I was close enough to hear their conversation. One of them said, "Why does that man use a cane? He looks like he knows exactly where is going?" I opened the door and turned on the light just to make sure that people who came in later wouldn't wonder why there was someone using the bathroom in the dark. "Look," said the other little girl, "He even turned on the light in the bathroom. Maybe he really can see." "Yea," said the first little girl after giving this some thought. "Maybe his cane just had to go real bad, and it didn't know how to get there by itself."