AVOIDING A CLASS REUNION IN HELL.

Did you ever dread attending a class reunion? I certainly did but for reasons different from the average alumni. Having suffered a total of approximately 58 months at Jericho Hill School for the Deaf and Blind, the last thing I wanted was to set foot on the grounds of the institution that traumatized me for most of my life.

From Deliverance from Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School), here is how I was invited by one sycophantic graduate of that pseudo-school.

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In the summer of 1991, I received a call from Brian McIvor. Certain Jericho alumni arranged a reunion in Vancouver during the first weekend in August, on the grounds as well as at a downtown hotel. After describing the event, he asked if I wanted to attend it. Brian felt shocked at my emphatic refusal.

"Why don't you want to come? It's going to be fun," he enthused. How could I explain my profound hatred for Jericho in one phone conversation? I felt stunned that he, who attended it for years, was incapable of understanding why I despised that place. After a short argument concerning Jericho's merits, we hung up. As with David, I never heard from him again. I received a printed invitation to that school reunion in my mailbox as well. I tore it up and tossed it in the garbage after only reading a few words.

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Deliverance from Jericho contains many more vignettes of what life was like in that government-run institution. These range from poignant experiences of homesickness to hilarious incidents of mischief. Click here to read more about this compelling story. You may also e-mail me directly if the comment form doesn't work.