Looking for the Fall Colors

Lesson Plan and crew heads south tomorrow. Frank and Carol Kersting join me for this leg of the journey. As we head south the colors of fall should be showing themselves on the trees along the Tennessee River and the Tombigbee River (the Tenn-Tom does not have many trees along its banks).

Ah, the colors of Fall. I remember when we lived in the U.P. we would take a drive every year toward Marquette to look at the colors of the leaves on the hillsides up near the ski mountain. It never seemed that impressive to me. I thought maybe because it just takes more to impress me. But then in my early 20’s I discovered why that drive never impressed me. 

I got laid off for the winter and was having a hard time finding another full-time job. I worked the oil rigs for a while but that didn’t last long. So I decided I would join the Air Force (it was a good career for my dad). 
I went to Louisville for the physical and ASVAB test. One of the last steps in the process was choosing a job. I was talking to the recruiter about all the jobs open and available based on my test scores. He had three pages, single-spaced, of jobs open and available. Then someone laid the report from my physical on the desk. He gave it a little extra tap when he laid it down (I guessed afterwards that was a silent message saying; hey you need to look at this). He picked it up the folder and said: Hmmm, I see you are color-blind.

Me: I am?! - It was a shock to me.

The recruiter printed off another sheet of jobs open and available for color-blind recruits. It was less than a third of the sheet. None that really interested me. So we agreed to shake hands and depart as friends.

I started thinking on the bus ride home why I didn’t know this before.

You would have thought that my Art Teacher, who was constantly fussing at me about not mixing the primary colors correctly to come up with purple, or jade, or any other color, would have said: Hey this kid might be color blind.

Or maybe Dad. I would sometimes try to help dad on electronics projects. Dad: Doug, hand me the 5ohm diode, the red/green/blue one. Me: Here you go. Dad: No, son that one is green/blue/purple. Me: Oh, ok here it is. Dad: I’ll get it myself.

Or my wife. When we started dating I was still working at Butler Shoes (I thought it would be a great place to meet girls, but that’s a whole other story). She needed a new wallet. I told her we have three colors in stock, black, orange, and dark green. She said, bring me the dark green one. I’m not sure about it but maybe it will work. When she saw it she said: This is brown. Me: well in the store light it looked dark green. Or in some of the other discussions about the color of cars, buildings, etc. Now that I think of it, she may have suggested a time or two that I was either color-blind or crazy. I just thought it was her tactic for winning the debate. Ok, as Jimmy said: It could be my fault.

Fast forward 15 years to when I got my pilot license. I think I was the only one to ever show up to the Owensboro Airport Control Tower who wanted to study for a color vision test. But a week later I passed my proven proficiency exam (although I was as shocked as anyone when the FAA guy told me I passed).

For my USCG license, I had to find a place that gave a certain kind of color vision test, that I was pretty sure I could pass.

Lesson Learned this time is for the readers. I always try to educate people on the difficulties of having color vision deficiencies. Little things like when the light on the refrigerator filter turns from green to red, I can’t tell. Or when the support person on the phone says it the indicator light green or red, I don't know let me find somebody to tell me. Why don’t the engineers of these products make it one light green and two lights red, something like that. Weather charts that show the amount of wind, rain, etc in graduating colors are very difficult to read. 

The best example of what the color-blind person sees is this picture.

Both pictures look the same to me - if they do to you too, you 
are color-blind (I am told there is a great bit of difference in the two).

And the "condition" is hard to explain. One time when I was working as a mechanic my boss learned that I was color-blind one afternoon. I happen to be painting an engine when he says to me: If you are color-blind, you probably don’t even know what color you’re painting that engine. I said: Of course I do, I am painting it Alpine Green. But how do you know. Me: It says it right here on the side of the can. I may be color-blind, but I can read. 

Yes it could have been Apple Green coming out of the can, and I might not have known, but you have to trust in some things.

I hope the next time you make a pie chart or a graph or use color indicators, you think about the color-blind population.

Hopefully Frank and Carol will be able to enjoy the colors of Fall along the rivers. And now they know part of their responsibility is to look to see if the mark ahead is green or red.