"My whole life is this escape; my whole life is this wave I drop into, set the whole thing up, pull off a bottom turn, pull up into it, and shoot for my life, going for broke, man. And behind me, all this s--t goes over my back: the screaming parents, teachers, the police, priests, politicians, kneeboarders, windsurfers. They're all going over the falls into the reef, headfirst into the motherfucking reef, and 'bwah'! And I'm shooting for my life. And when it starts to close out, I pull out and go down the back, and catch another wave, and do the same goddamned thing again."
Miki Dora
Annie Sullivan’s parents, Thomas and Alice, left Ireland during the Great Famine. They were poor. Annie Sullivan was born in Massachusetts in 1866. Her parents were good. She and her father were best friends. Annie had trachoma; she was partially blind. Her father took her on long walks and told her all about the world.
Annie could not read or write. Who could teach her. When Annie was eight, tuberculosis killed her mom. At ten her father’s alcoholism was severe. He disappeared. Annie had a brother, Jimmie. He was two years younger. They were best friends. Annie took care of him.
Annie and Jimmie had a lot of family in Massachusetts. By the time she was ten, Annie was not a pleasant child. She was a horror. Tough. Independent. Angry. Confused. Lost. Do not talk to me. Do not come near me. I will not do anything anyone says. I will wreck it all. I will destroy. I will scream and kick and bite until I win or pass out.
“Back off Warchild, seriously.”
Patrick Swayze
Annie’s and Jimmie’s extended family had a meeting. They decided none of them wanted the children. They called for the Black Maria - the enclosed wagon with no windows and a padlock on the back door. The Black Maria was used to take murderers to jail.
The Black Maria took Annie and Jimmie to the State Infirmary, aka the poor house. Tewksbury. They were put with the sick and insane. No children, rotten food, lots of rats, no school, no games, no family, no friends, no fun, no forests, no rivers, no meadows, no ocean, no hope. Old people suffering and dying. Reports of cannibalism.
“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.”
Dante
“How did you get here children?”
“If you ever get out, never ever come back. No matter what.”
She and her brother slept together. He was sick. She cared for him day and night. Her brother died two weeks after they arrived at Tewksbury. Annie’s eyesight was getting worse.
Two or three people at Tewksbury wanted to help Annie. They knew she had to get out. A visiting physician noticed her. He oversaw multiple surgeries on her eyes.1 Failure. Her eyesight was getting worse.
When she was 14, another team of state inspectors toured Tewksbury. She knew they were coming. She had been waiting for them. Annie grabbed Franklin Benjamin Sandborn. She. Would. Not. Let. Go. She begged for help.
“One thing you learn from surfing is how to operate in the present.
It’s really what the surfing experience is all about.”
Jerry Lopez
A few months after seizing that man and reaching for a future she wanted, she began a new life at the Perkins School for the Blind.
19th-century eye surgery. Hmm. I don’t want to know more about that.