Doll ID. and "The Help"

I hope this works, at least for a little while.  A friend set Blogger back to old format, while it lasts.

First, anyone have any luck identifying the blond, blue eyed Hasbro doll I gave numbers for?

Second, I found the book "The Help" in audio and am about halfway through it.  I had a personal reaction to it which was Thank God I wasn't born in Mississippi!  My familly worked to ignore Native blood, wouldn't have fit in with Choctaw people.  They deny any African American heritage and are Probably right, though I wonder, so we would have been "poor white trash" looked down on by both the maids interviewed and who carry the plot of the book, and the upper class white people they worked for.  But worse, it is likely that my grandparents would have taken part in racist activity.  And the state school for the blind their would have been segregated.

I am thankful to have gone to the state blind school I attended, (awful as it was) because I had African American room mates, we shared a communal shower, hung out together, read books about African American young people together, etc.  I am not claiming that there was no racism on the part of staff or students.  I am just Thankful for growing up knowing that African American kids were just blind kids, like me.  Yes, they used different hair care products than me, spoke differently, and had some different issues to cope with.  But I listened to African American Church services via the radio on Sundays, (music was a lot better and the way the preacher and choir worked together was interesting) and learned things I simply would Never have known growing up Either in the Ozarks, Or in a segregated state.

We had a Japanese care taker and I had the chance to meet different kinds of people Because I went to state blind school in St. Louis.

I love the land here, Hate many of the attitudes, and try to Confront the prejudice I do encounter against Jews, Catholics, Buddhists, and African Americans.  There are also Wiccans here, quietly going about their business.  I try confronting That prejudice, too.

Ann, who came from Fort Wayne, Ind. where race relations were Much better than here, said this was the South.  I said it was the Midwest and she had come from the upper Midwest.  But in reading "The Help" I know this Isn't the South, it's more an extension of the Appalatians.  Because reading "the Help" is like visiting a foreign culture.  Growing up, I remember the murders of Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Dr. King.  And when I was older I felt Horror at those murders.  But this book has given me a much better picture of what life was like on a day to dday basis for a large group of African American women in the South while I was growing up.

Hope this is Legible, tried to publish it yesterday without sighted friend's help and with old format.  Computer wouldn't speak and it ended up in "drafts".

Guess we people with disabilities are maybe last to know, Microsoft is supporting Windows XP for just Two more years.  Ok, Will their Next Windows Program be speech and disability friendly?  Vista was buggy! 

Finished "The Help."  The courage of those women and their kindness to children who would grow up to look down on them is amazing!  We all do what we must to survive, but to do it with so much Heart and Bravery!  I know there is much I don't understand about being so busy one Needs Help running a household.  But I feel thankful to be able to do my own dishes and laundry and Not to have any Silver to polish!  And I am Thankful for the Kindness of my healthcare aide, I respect and admire her and am Grateful for her help in dealing with printed stuff and other such problems.

Well, second time today to try and publish this.