Another writer from one of the memoir classes I lead in Chicago has hit the big-time: a story about the beautifully-named Bindy Bitterman was on the front page of Friday’s Chicago Tribune. Friday being Valentine’s Day and all, the article was about Bindy’s unique collection of three-dimensional “pop-up” Jewish Valentines. An excerpt:

Bitterman, who is Jewish, conjectures that the valentine’s cards became popular among Jewish immigrants to the United States in the early 1900s, but despite her efforts, which include contacting the Smithsonian Institution, she has never been able to pin down a reliable history.

Bindy takes the memoir class I lead at a senior living center called The Admiral at the Lake, and while her fellow writers there applauded the story, some questioned the headline’s emphasis on age. In the print edition of the Chicago Tribune, the headline read like this:

The old lady and the Jewish valentine mystery

Online, the headline reads like this:

An 88-year-old Chicago woman and the mystery of the Jewish valentines

”How the first headline got through the editors in this day and age beats me!” one of Bindy’s fellow writers said in an email to me. “That guy — and it had to be a guy right? — should be sent to some kind of sensitivity training class on how to be respectful to seniors!” Was it necessary to give Bindy’s age, they wondered? Her age wasn’t that relevant to the story, they said. “And anyway, if she’s living here at The Admiral you know she’s of a certain age…”

The headline reminded them of a woman who lives there at The Admiral who wouldn’t divulge her age. “My reaction was ‘Oh come on, who cares?’ but when I kept bugging her, she fired back “Well how
much do you WEIGH?” Touché! No answer there.

The Tribune column was written by Mary Schmich, and by the time I woke up Friday morning the link to the online version was already in my in box: one of Bindy’s proud fellow writers had already written to let me know it had made page one. I emailed Bindy right away to congratulate her, and she emailed right back to let me know her new best friend Mary Schmich had contacted her already that morning. “Mary wanted to let me know she hadn’t written the headline.”

Having only read the online version, I wasn’t sure what all the headline fuss was about. Bindy had seen the “old lady” print version but didn’t seem all that concerned, either. “After all,” she wrote to me, “I am an old lady!”

So many of you were impressed with the post our guest blogger Ali Krage wrote way back in 2016 when she was starting at Northern Illinois University (NIU) and figuring out how to get around a new campus without being able to see. Ali sure mastered that very well – she graduated from NIU in December! To celebrate, she took a round trip flight to Houston to see friends last month – her first time flying without her parents along. Part One of a three-part “Flying Solo” series she wrote for Easterseals was published on the Easterseals National blog yesterday, and here it is now for you Safe & Sound readers to enjoy as well.

by Alicia Krage

Photo by Dolores Pantaleone

I love traveling. I don’t need a big, extravagant trip to feel pleased about my travel abilities, either. Just taking the train to downtown Chicago is enough to make me feel proud of myself, simply because I did it by myself – or at the very least, without my parents.

I’ve taken cabs, buses, Ubers, Amtrak and Metra trains all by myself. I’ve flown many times before, but always with my parents.

I have friends who are also blind and have flown countless times, and thinking about them always left me feeling a mixture of pride and envy. I was proud of them for their independence, but also envious, wishing I had that kind of courage. I really wanted to challenge myself, so I set a goal: this year, 2020, I would fly alone at least once.

A friend of mine who is blind flew out to Chicago from Houston in November to celebrate my birthday with a group of friends, and while Juan was here we discussed my “first solo flight” idea further. I asked him question after question about everything. What airline do you recommend? Any specific airport? Do you do curbside check-in or go to the counter? How did your parents react? Juan’s parents seem similar to mine, especially in how they raised us as children with disabilities. So hearing how his parents reacted to him flying alone gave me the last boost of confidence I needed. Juan invited me to come to visit him and his family in Houston, and I started looking up flights. Imagine how hard it was to get through finals week – my last finals week, no less, as I graduated in December! – spending every minute of my free time looking up airfares. The affordable prices were taunting me.

I was so tempted to act first and think later – buy the tickets, then tell my parents about it. Realistically, I’d never do that, but checking fares and checking my bank account, knowing I could actually afford this…it all amped up the excitement. I can do this!

My parents were very encouraging, and my dad helped me book my flight on the Southwest website. I was pleased that the Southwest website provided me the option to check a checkbox indicating I am blind and needed gate assistance. A few days before the trip I had been waiting so long for, an anticipated snow storm threatened to ruin the entire thing. I spent the day before and the day of the trip asking our Google home device how much snow was expected, already jumping ahead and asking Juan for alternative dates for me to fly from Chicago just in case. He wasn’t worried at all. “This is how Chicago always is!” he laughed. “You’re always supposed to get a storm – it won’t happen.”

And it didn’t!

Stay tuned for Part Two, where Alicia talks about waiting for airport assistance, getting through airport security with a white cane, and, eventually, sitting in the plane ready for takeoff.

I rarely go to the movie theater these days, and Beth and I have never gotten into the streaming thing, so each year, when the Oscar awards are broadcast, I typically say, “Why botha’?” I don’t have any dogs in the hunt. And each year, I end up watching the Oscars. Somehow, I can’t look away.

I don’t know if it’s just a deep-seated habit, having grown up watching every minute of every Oscars with my family. Or that somehow, every year I am actually entertained. Probably a little bit of both.

I do get sucked into some of the acceptance speeches. And Bong Joon Ho, Parasite director, was pretty much worth the price of admission last night. (He may still be drinking in celebration.)

And the Oscars usually has it’s intended effect—that is, it gets me to get out and see some of these movies. So I expect to see Parasite, Little Women, and Ford vs. Ferrari sometime soon.

Oh, and also Hair Love, which took home an Oscar for animated short. And that one’s easy—you can stream it free. I learned about it—as I often learn about pop culture things—from Beth. She listens to lots of public radio, and she heard an interview on WBEZ with filmmaker Matthew Cherry  (Chicago native and former NFL player) and Karen Tolivar, the producer.

She said they were terrific and personable, and that he was inspired by his daughter to make the animated short. He wanted to show more African Americans in animated work, and to, as he puts it, “normalize” black people’s hair.

I’ve learned from our black friends that hair is a big, big deal for them. And unfortunately, it’s sometimes a big deal and (shouldn’t be) in the broader community.

Me, I just wish I had more hair in some places and less in others.

Meantime, congratulations to Hair Love, and enjoy.

On this, the day after the Super Bowl, an annual circus in itself.

A Super Bowl won by a team that plays in Missouri, a victory for which the American president congratulated the people of Kansas (not mentioning Missouri at all).

On the day of closing arguments during an impeachment trial of said president.

On the day of the Iowa Caucuses, an absurd way to start a primary season.

At a time in history people make 3D models of themselves.

And when people pay for alcohol-free booze.

On this day, all I got is George Carlin. Man do I miss him. But his wisdom is eternal:

“When you are born in this world, you are given a ticket to the Freak Show, and when you are born in America, you have a front row seat.”

Try to have a good week.

Okay. Only one dog-related reference in this post. Honest. I promise.

That’s Wanda and me.The two of us are always happy to be together, can you tell? Photo courtesy StoryCorps.

Because here’s the thing. We are wayyyy overdue on news about Wanda Bridgeforth. If you’ve followed our Safe & Sound blog for a while, you know who Wanda Bridgeforth is: she’s witty, she’s talented, she’s 98 years old, she’s been attending the memoir-writing class I lead in downtown Chicago for over a decade now, and guess what? She’s in the news again.

This time it’s The Streeterville News, a Chicago neighborhood paper. She was profiled in a story called Chicagoan Ready for Round Two of the Roaring 20s! The story explains that the year 2020 gives us another opportunity to celebrate the Roaring 20s,and Wanda still remembers growing up in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood during the 1920s. She especially remembers yearly visits to downtown Chicago to see the Christmas decorations during that decade. “We got dressed up to come downtown with gloves and hats!” As a kid, Wanda saw neighbors stick together through thick and thin. “The Depression came when I was about six or seven,” she said. “That’s when everybody’s life turned upside down. We had a closeness and a strong community spirit that we don’t have now.”

Wanda credited that same togetherness for helping her when her husband was stationed overseas during World War II.

“When he went overseas it was 56 days from Chicago to India,” she said, explaining that she wasn’t allowed to know exactly where he was stationed, she just knew he was far away from home.

I was interviewed for Wanda’s story, too, and when the reporter asked me how it was that she and I hit it off so well from the minute we met, I told him the truth: everybody hits it off with Wanda right from the start. When he pressed me for more about our enduring friendship, I tried my best to come up with something brainy and important, you know, to make me sound thoughtful and heady. I pointed out to the reporter that Wanda has been profoundly deaf since childhood, and I am totally blind. Maybe our disabilities contribute to our bond, I said. “We both acknowledge our disabilities without letting them defeat us,” I told him. “We both are resourceful, we have to figure out ways to do certain things that others do with their ears and eyes.”

And now, dog-reference spoiler alert. When the reporter asked Wanda that same question about our special bond, she told the simple truth. The story ends like this:

Bridgeforth said there was another reason she was drawn to Finke. “We clicked immediately,” she said. “Primarily through Beth’s guide dog. I love animals.”