Next time you think you are having ...

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Next time you think you are having ...

Postby media » Sat Oct 16, 2004 11:40 am

Next time you think you are having trouble getting something done...check this guy out.

DURAND, Mich. (AP) -- Every day for the past 15 years, Harold
Riley has worked 16-hour days in a small workshop in the basement
of his home, creating scale models of antique automobiles and
trains that sell for hundreds of dollars throughout the state.
And for the past 15 years, Harold Riley has never seen one of
his finished products.
"I don't think of myself as more special than anyone else who
is deaf and blind," Riley explained through the help of his wife
and interpreter, Donna. "This is who I am, and making toys is what
I do."
Riley, 62, acknowledged that he has never heard the excited hum
of one of his four table saws as he gets ready to create yet
another of his more than 25 wooden designs.
He admitted he's never seen his finished antique fire truck,
complete with an extendable ladder, or his 1930 Ford Coupe with the
convertible top.
But he knows they're right.
"There's no mistakes with these," he signed excitedly on the
top of his wife's right hand. "They're perfect because I
remember."
Riley, who has been deaf since birth, was also born with Usher
Syndrome, a rare degenerative neurological disease that affects the
hearing and vision of its more than 10,000 victims in the United
States, or about 3 to 6 percent of all hearing impaired children in
the U.S.
But because vision loss with Usher Syndrome is degenerative due
to retina piginentosa, Riley was able to live a full life in
Durand, working as a press welder at F & E Manufacturing in Corunna
for 28 years.
And in 1989, when Riley lost his vision completely, that did not
stop him.
"They call me the most profitable guy they had over there,"
Riley signed with a big grin. "Even when I couldn't see and the
company was closing (in 1991), I was the last person they let go."
"Harold was the last worker there when F & E's doors were
locked," Donna Riley said with a smile. "That says something
about his character."
Before Riley became blind, he spent spare time constructing
wooden replicas of antique automobiles, airplanes and trains. Most
designs range from 6 to 10 inches and sell for as little as $30 or
more than $200.
Riley would go to hobby shops across the state, locate a diecast
model, and reproduce a scale wooden version of the machine within
weeks.
"He works a lot slower now," Donna Riley explained as she led
the way to her husband's workshop in the basement. "The models he
did before, he remembers. But when someone requests a new one, or
he wants to try something out, it will be months before he will
think it's correct. It's the perfectionist in him."
As his wife signed to him her explanation of Riley's working
environment, a grin started to spread across her husband's youthful
face.
"I have thrown out so many versions of my designs," he signed,
laughing. "Even though I can't see them, I can feel them. I know
when they aren't right. I won't keep something that isn't right."
"I've tried to help him once," Donna Riley said, smiling.
"But I was fired pretty quick. I wasn't doing the wheels right."
Riley has even been asked by the Michigan International
Speedway, through the help of Self Help for Independency in
Michigan Equalizing the Deaf Blind to recreate a pace car for the
raceway.
"The stuff he makes is just amazing," said Jeff Smith, vice
president of the organization. "Harold is truly an inspiration."
Riley estimates he has built about 25 different designs of
wooden models, which he sells at art trade shows across the state.
Donna Riley noted her husband of six years had the most success at
an art show for the deaf and blind in 2003.
"He just completed all the orders he had from that this
summer," she said with a smile. "There was one lady at that show
who doubted his disability -- she was hearing impaired as well. She
said there was no way someone deaf and blind could create work like
that. We proved her wrong."
Although Riley has made thousands of dollars from his work, he
is trying to take a step back from filling the many orders he's
received from word-of-mouth sales. He noted he would be just as
happy if he could continue to make them only for himself.
"There's some that he just won't sell," Donna Riley said,
laughing. "He's trying to slow down the pressure a bit. He can get
flustered more easily when working to fill orders, and that's when
mistakes can happen."
Riley held out his right index finger and traced along its side.
"Eleven stitches here," he signed, laughing, referring to a
years-old mishap with one of the larger table saws. "I've had five
stitches on the other hand. But I know what I'm doing. Sometimes,
it's just hard working under pressure."
------
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Postby RatherNotSay » Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:03 pm

Thanks for posting this article.
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Postby Kasca » Sat Oct 16, 2004 3:43 pm

Humbling, isn't it.

One of the bravest people I have ever seen, bar none, is a fellow who used to live up the street who was quadrapelegic. He must have had some mobility above the neck as he used to drive himself to classes by navigating his electric wheelchair with a plastic tube in his mouth, textbooks in a basket on the back. It was a fairly good trek in a wheelchair to school, about a mile, with several busy streets and main intersections to negotiate, but off he would go, every morning and afternoon, right smack down the middle of the road.

I would see him, say hello, never really had the occasion to speak with him, but my husband had several times at length and said he was a first class jerk.
"...That was some weird shit."

- George W. Bush, after hearing Donald Trump's Inauguration speech. January 20, 2017. Washington D. C.
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