As I placed my breakfast on the counter at the newsstand just outside of Federal Triangle Metro, I was going over some ideas in my head, as usual. The clerk broke my spell by asking “What do you have?” I looked up to find that the cashier seated before me was a blind man, and there was a sign behind him that read “On 15 minute break, will return shortly.” I replied “I have a Snickers bar, a Payday, a Baby Ruth, and a 16 oz. Coffee.” He replied “That’s the large right?” To which I said “yes,” spellbound. He punched some buttons on the register and said “$3.69, no wait, yeah $3.69.” I handed him $4 and said “That’s 4 one dollar bills.” He reached into the drawer and grabbed my change, all with one movement, and handed it to me. I watched him as he did this, lifting a quarter with one finger, a nickel with a second, and a penny with a third finger. I walked out in disbelief. So many questions were churning in my mind, I couldn’t put this experience down. After finding out that I was at my job site an hour too early I decided to back and have a conversation with “The blind cashier.” It was obvious to me that this person was worth a second look.
“I publish an on-line journal, and would love if you would answer a few questions for me, I am fascinated by your set-up here,” I said in my best friendly journalist-of-human-interest-story voice. “Well if you have a minute, I would love to tell you about the whole program," Charlie replied. He asked Shirley, a woman seated near him reading a paper to cover the register. “You see it all started in 1936 with a senator from West Virginia named Jennings Randolph. He was responsible for the congressional mandate. It was called the Randolph-Sheppard Act, but Randolph was the main player in the legislation. This mandate set aside jobs in government buildings for the blind. Every state appoints an administrator. It is ironic that these programs are meant to foster independence, yet I have to be administrated all the time!” He laughed. I asked him if Shirley was his administrator, and he replied that she was his assistant.
“You see, if you give a man a chance to do so, he will expand his livelihood," Charlie explained. "That is what happened here. You might notice there is a sign here that says “Newsstand.” That was our main line of business until a newsstand opened up nearby that was more popular, now we sell a lot of different things.” I asked him if he decided which items to sell. “The government puts a limit on what I can sell; the final decision goes through them. That might explain why I have an empty freezer back there. I think the government had originally thought I would sell frozen foods, but they changed their mind.”
I realized as I was talking to Charlie that I kept eye contact with him and used hand gestures. I knew this was a little absurd, but I couldn’t stop.
Charlie was born blind, which he explained was easier for him because “He never had any sight to lose.” I asked Charlie if anyone, in his 30 years as a blind cashier, had ever tried to take advantage of him. He told me that one day someone tried to go into the register and take money, but Charlie got a hold of his hand, took his own money and some of the thief’s. The thief yelled “You took some of my money!” Charlie replied “You go get security, and tell them why I did it, and I will give you your money back.” Another time a man gave Charlie a ten dollar bill and told him it was a twenty. The man escaped with the ten dollars, but made the mistake of trying again a short time later. Somehow Charlie recognized him, and held up the bill to others in line and asked “Is this a twenty?” To which the line replied “No.” The man said “Oh hold on, here it is,” and produced a twenty. Charlie kept the money and didn’t give the man his change. The would-be thief had the nerve to go and get a security guard, explaining that Charlie had taken his twenty. I guess Charlie was the more credible witness, because he ended up winning the argument. That’s character.
Another time, Charlie told me, he was walking down the street and bumped into another man. He apologized, and the man told Charlie that he was blind, and needed help crossing the street. Charlie told him that he was blind too, but he knew how to get across. So Charlie walked the blind man across the street, laughing to himself that “the blind was leading the blind.”
After I explained to him about my journal and told him that I had quit drinking he replied “Quit drinking, you ain’t been around long enough to really START drinking!” We talked a little about his philosophies on life. He commented that “people think God must exist because all of this must have come from somewhere, but when they get to saying that this is the something that came from nothing, that’s a paradox.” When I told him about Frankl’s gorilla metaphor he replied dryly “That’s a psychological boost!”
Charlie is very capable. He has High Speed Internet access at home, and is trying to figure out all of the keyboard shortcuts for programs like RealPlayer and Windows Media Player. He has a lot of old records that he would like to make digital copies of, and thinks he could make some money doing this for others. He is concerned that people in DC don’t know how to dispose of batteries properly, and are harming the environment by throwing them in the trash. Charlie is a very remarkable character, and I was glad that I had the chance to talk with him. Being a cashier allows him to serve people, but being a blind cashier affords him a special opportunity to serve humanity.
