The Story Behind Grandpa’s White Cane

Mr. Jim Hoxie moved from Michigan to South Dakota to start a career in forestry and ended up raising his family there. In 2017, he developed glaucoma which led him to the Hines VA Blind Center for training. His experience at the Blind Center gave him improved skills and confidence. It also gave him a sense of purpose when he returned home. One of his instructors suggested he educate his community about blindness to help address some of the problems he was experiencing in his small town where he was the only blind person.It was from that suggestion that the book Grandpa’s White Cane came into being.

 

JD: How did your experience at Hines influence your decision to write the book Grandpa’s White Cane?

 

JH: When you initially come into Hines one of the things they like to do is ask you about your goals. I was invited into Chuck Brancheau’s office, and we talked about my goals. I emphasized to him that I was really interested in orientation and mobility and learning about the tall white cane. I had been using a cane, but my instruction was very limited in Spearfish, South Dakota. I wasn’t doing too well with it. I had taken a few falls, so I expressed frustration. In Spearfish there were some people who knew what the tall white cane was, but in my opinion, there were many people who had no clue what it was. When Chuck heard my frustration with my community, he said, and I’m quoting, “Jim, would you consider going back to Spearfish after your time at Hines and going into the elementary schools and educating them about the tall white cane?” That is how the first seed was planted. When I returned to Spearfish I recruited several people, including Joanna Jones, the co-author, and we did just that.

 

JD: Wow, it was simply that one suggestion that served to circumvent the problem you encountered AND offered a new challenge... to go into the schools and educate, starting with children!

 

JH: Absolutely, that was so meaningful to me. I had to ponder it for a few days and had a few conversations with Chuck about it. He was really encouraging, so when I got back, we hit the ground running.

 

JD: How did you choose which age group to focus on?

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JH: Well, Joanna Jones was an educator, and she had a lot of influence on that decision. She suggested that teaching third graders would be a meaningful age where students would be attentive.Together we came up with a teaching plan and part of it was using tall white canes. We built 14 white canes from wooden dowel rods. I painted them white with black handles and a red tip to give the students an opportunity to use the cane. I would teach the students about sweeping, tapping, the sense of smell, the feel of the linoleum and we would try to locate the cafeteria, and they loved it! We did eight classes that first year.

 

JD: What a great response! Then, how did those presentations turn into the publication of a book?

 

JH: Oh, it has been fantastic. It really has.I am continually amazed, but that book idea wasn’t mine either. After two years providing education at Creekside Elementary, at the American Legion and with other various groups around the community, Joanna turned to me while we were driving home one day and said, “Jim, we need to write a book.” I was stunned by that. I responded, “Really? Are you sure about that?” She said, “Absolutely. We are educating Creekside and Spearfish, but we need to reach out with a book that could go out across the nation. So, we started writing the book.

 

JD: How long did it take to write it?

 

JH: It took a full year. Joanna has experience of being an author, so we got to work right away. An illustrator, Alex Portal, was recruited and he created a caricature of me, like a cartoon, that was super-imposed on photographs of Spearfish. That was a process, and we reviewed the book repeatedly to make sure the cane was held properly, the pacing was correct, that I was standing tall and looking great. He is a very handsome dude in the book. By White Cane Day, October 15, 2020, we had the softcover books ready. The local Lions Club purchased 175 books, and we were able to give each third-grade student at Creekside a copy of the book. And what we found, interestingly enough, was not only were we educating the children, but then they went home and read it with their parents. The parents were learning and their brothers and sisters were learning. I could tell that was happening because around town, people started saying “Hi, Jim.” and “Passing on your left” and tooting the horn on their bikes and people started stopping way back at the intersection, so it has been very well received.

 

JD: How gratifying that the message spread through the whole community. The book was a brilliant way to bring your message first to the students and then to find out that it spread naturally to their families.

 

JH: Yes, but that is not all. We found that other blind people around the nation, with the help of the Lions Clubs, started doing their own presentations all around the country, even in Canada, by using this book. It continues to astonish me.

 

JD: The book gives others a tool and format which makes it easy for them to follow in your footsteps. So, how did you find a publisher?

 

JH: Well, again, Joanna is an expert in that. She had published several children’s books. I don’t understand the process very well, but Joanna accomplished that.

 

JD: The book is now also available as an audio book with the National Library Service on BARD (Braille and Audio Reading Download) as an app.

 

JH: It is. That was another project that took several years after the book was published. Josh Easter, who works with the South Dakota Talking Books and Braille Library in Pierre, our capital, began recording our book at the state studio. It has to be done in a certain manner for the Library of Congress to accept it. It took three recordings to hit all of the key points. In 2003 it came out and people can now download it on their phone.

 

JD: You have grandchildren, right? What did they think about it?

 

JH: One of my strongest memories is when Olivia, who was 9 or 10 at the time, heard we were going to print a book. Her first response was “Grandpa, I want to buy a book.” Of course, I was already going to give her a book. When it came out, we actually travelled to Gillette, Wyoming to do a presentation for her class. It was a wonderful experience for us both.

 

JD: Another terrific outcome happened because of your project. You won the award for Outstanding Individual with a Disability from the Governor of South Dakota just this past October.

 

JH: I was quite humbled but happy to go ahead and accept it because I considered it as another way to advocate. So, I said “Let’s go!” We traveled to Pierre, South Dakota for the ceremony. It was great. The Governor put on a nice banquet for us and it was in all the local papers.

 

JD: It is truly inspiring that the simple act of educating a third-grade class has grown to such a national and even international level. It wouldn’t have happened without the commitment to action on your part. To take the suggestion from your time at Hines seriously and turn frustration into something positive. You took the bull by the horns and made it all happen.

 

JH: And there are a lot of cattle out here in South Dakota! It took a lot of support and a lot of teamwork. We all took that bull by the horns, exactly.