Thread: Were blind people neccesarily put in boarding homes in the 1950s?

I'm writing a teen mystery series set in 1950s Georgia. My protagonist is a thirteen-year-old boy who's blind. (He and a few neighborhood kids solve mysteries.)

I'm curious about something: Would my protagonist be living in a boarding home/school for the blind? Or would he be living with his parents? Would it be possible for him to stay with his parents (ie, they don't want to leave their boy, they want to keep him)?

Were there Braille "typewriters" (Sorry, don't know the real name for it) in those days? What about Braille books?

How would the news press (in-story) react when they discover that my blind protagonist is running around solving murder mysteries? How would he keep this a secret from his parents?

It would be possible for him to stay at home. There probably were braille typewriters and books back then. The typewriters would have braille on the keys but would print the regular Roman alphabet so that a blind person could write something that a sighted person could read. It would be relatively easy to adapt a braille typewriter from a regular one - just put bumps on the keys. The press would get excited about that kind of a story - it would sell lots of papers. He would keep it a secret from his parents the same way a 13 year old keeps any other secret - by lying, saying he was somewhere else, at a friend's house instead of at the crime scene. A really good lie is very close to the truth. That way the crime-solving behavior looks like what the parents have been told to expect. If he tells his parents he's going fishing but then does not take his fishing pole to the crime scene, he is going to get caught. But if he tells his parents he is using a tape recorder to record bird calls but in fact uses the tape recorder to eavesdrop on the suspect's conversations, then he might get away with it. His parents would only see him leaving the house with the tape recorder and would not think anything of it. He should know something about bird calls for when his parents ask, "How is the bird calling going?" If he is going to solve multiple crimes, he would lose his anonymity after the first time. He would have to testify or the police would give him a reward and make a hero out of him. If he wants to remain a secret crime solver, maybe he should give the evidence to the police anonymously - mail it to them with no return address.

Good suggestions.

Yeah, he should probably remain anonymus if he wishes to continue solving crimes. Sooner or later, someone will notice that a blind kid is snooping around the crime scenes and before long, the whole town will know of the boy's doings.

What kind of reward would the police give him? Would they really make a hero out of him? I see them taking him home and telling his parents to make sure he's safe and all that stuff.

I know it's off-topic about the MC's blindness, but when did folks back then get married? I thought I'd include a little romance between him and a female companion and they elope (they run off to get married). It'd happen when he's older of course, but I'm just curious.

In the 1950s, people did marry younger than they do today. Average age at marriage across the country was close to 20 for both men and women. In the south, especially the rural south, the average age may have been a little bit younger, maybe 19. Marriage at 18 was not unheard of. Back then, women usually got pregnant within a few months of getting married.

Sometimes the police announce a reward to get people to help them solve a crime that has otherwise stumped them. Also, the victim could post a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the unknown person who committed ....

You're right. Sometimes the police resent someone who does their job better than they do. On the other hand, most government agencies, including police depts, enjoy good publicity. It might just depend on what mood they are in on the day the crime gets solved.

Very interesting.

So, how would his parents feel if and when they learn what their son's really been doing all this tme?

How would my MC defend himself should the bad guys decide to attack him? I mean, not all of them are going to be peaceful about being caught.

I'm a historian. You don't need me to answer those two questions. If I wrote the whole story myself, it would deny you the fun of it. I'll give you a hint about self defense: think about the equipment that a blind person has on or about them. There is more than one that would be useful in a fight.

Another thought that occurred to me: In the 50s there was a very sharp line between the genders. Men would never do certain activities, like domestic chores, because that was women's work. Similarly, women would not do things that were considered to be too masculine, for instance, mothers never took their sons to a barber shop. That was always a father-son activity. In your relationship, the girlfriend/wife would have to do some things for the blind character that men usually did for themselves, like drive a car or handle money. As you develop the girlfriend character, you might want to consider making her a little bit of a Tom boy, a girl or young woman not afraid to do some traditionally masculine things. And to keep the relationship fair and balanced, he might have to do some traditionally feminine things for her. You can't have a relationship where she does all of the giving and gets nothing in return.

So what got you started on this time period?

Originally Posted by C.M. Aaron

I'm a historian. You don't need me to answer those two questions. If I wrote the whole story myself, it would deny you the fun of it. I'll give you a hint about self defense: think about the equipment that a blind person has on or about them. There is more than one that would be useful in a fight.

Another thought that occurred to me: In the 50s there was a very sharp line between the genders. Men would never do certain activities, like domestic chores, because that was women's work. Similarly, women would not do things that were considered to be too masculine, for instance, mothers never took their sons to a barber shop. That was always a father-son activity. In your relationship, the girlfriend/wife would have to do some things for the blind character that men usually did for themselves, like drive a car or handle money. As you develop the girlfriend character, you might want to consider making her a little bit of a Tom boy, a girl or young woman not afraid to do some traditionally masculine things. And to keep the relationship fair and balanced, he might have to do some traditionally feminine things for her. You can't have a relationship where she does all of the giving and gets nothing in return.

So what got you started on this time period?

...a videogame. Basically, the game is based off of the beliefs of the people in the 1950s (nuclear war, the Soviets, aliens, etc), so I wanted to figure out how people of the 1950s really did their stuff.

As for how he'd fight? His cane was the first thing that came to me. He could swing it like a club at his opponet. Of course, he will likely have his friends with him during the struggle, so it's more of a fair fight for him.

I love history, so I don't mind if you go on about the 1950s and how my MC would live in that time period. It'd just fill me in with information and give me new ideas.

A cane makes a good weapon. So does a seeing eye dog.

I have a manuscript I am currently moving toward publishing that I have been working on and off for the last 20 years. I started writing without really knowing much about the time period, and the story drove the research. Have you watched a lot of old TV shows and movies made in the 50s or set in the 50s? You need to be careful there. Hollywood shows the audience what the audience wants to see, so when you see husband and wife characters sleeping in separate beds, that wasn't reality. In the 50s, people liked to pretend that sex does not exist, so that was what Hollywood gave the audience. And this is where the research value is: Hollywood is less of a historical record and more of a mirror of what people WISH life was really life. But TV and movies can help you get a feel for the time period. The 50s are not really my thing, so I'm hard pressed to come up with a book for you to read on the period.

The Escalation of History and the Work of the National Federation of the Blind

I grew up in the 1950's and '60's. In those days very few school districts hired blind people to teach. In the 1950's a school district in California was not willing to hire a blind teacher to teach sighted students in the regular classroom.

This writer talks about his life growing up blind. He did not get a cane until he was 16.

I knew they had blind schools back into revolution days, because Laura Ingles-Wilder(little house on the prairie) wrote about her sister going blind. So I was pretty sure blind people were not normally institutionalized.