Category: Safe Haven
Hi All, How many of you have broken canes? I've broken one at high school already, freshman year, first quarter, and my friend has broken two. So that means three per uarter, four quarters in a year, four years of high school ... that's ... um ... a lot? Lol. Well, it's 48 canes by the time we get out of high school! I cant' believe I jsut did Math on the weekends (vomits). But seriously. That's al ot of canes! We actually are going to get these canes that are specially made for the user. If anyone's heard of these, could you let me know what they're like? Thanks!
Caitlin
Yup twice. First time in sophmore year of high school (when I started using it.) it was tords the end of the year and my aide was walking me and my cane bounced off her foot, the rock, her foot again then one last time off the big rock and it just went to pieces. The other time was when I was a college student at the community college. Thank goodness I knew the building layout pretty well. But I always buy 2 just incase one breaks.
i haven't broken any yet, though whe I was running in the track i made it a little bend since it pushed against me... and I felt it was quite curved, and when they asked me why, I just told the same thing I am writing here. lol
haha.. I have an interesting story to share... One time I was casually walking in the city, I was going to meet a friend at this one restaurant. Anyway, I had my cane in one hand, nd clly using it aswell, whenthere was this person who approached me. She actually tripped over my cane, and it busted in two! lol... she was so embarrassed, and i thought it was hilarious that she didn't seit!
Lol yay. I'm not alone!
Caitlin
P.S. Keep the stories comin'...
when I was in year 7 (first year of secondary school here) I was walking to my form room, and walking across a car park and a car backed over my cane. they were only going slow but it sure snapped it! nah I didn't get hurt but I just stood there, mouth opened with a dangling cane. turned out to be a student teacher who was very apologetic but I had to call Mum and get her to bring up my spare cane. .. apart from that, not a lot else .. oh one time (I actually can't remember if it was before or after) I was sailing on a lake with another blind friend and we leant over to feel the water, and for some odd reason I had my cane in that hand, and what happened? .. you guessed it, I lost grip of it so down it went .. to the bottom of the lake! .. Lol When we go there i am still making jokes going "well my rusty old cane would still be down there. But even better I guess, sometimes the lake gets emptied Lol .. imagine how my cane would look? half rusted and burried? maybe they thought they struck gold! haha
I've had broken canes a few times too. I forget the first time how I broke one, but I remember having a loaner cane because of it and I remember tapping that one too hard on a driveway and breaking it in two (it was a straight cane, but not the nfb type, it was the golf grip type) Then, I've had a couple folding canes with elastic that snapped. And I'm on my second NFB style cane because Mom stepped on the first one. My dad's car is long enough where I can put my cane between the passenger seat and the door and when Mom was getting out of the front seat, the cane moved and she stepped on it. I've had a couple tips break off of NFB canes too. Once, I was walking in the woods and stressed out that day and was banging my cane against every tree and rock and whatnot that was in my way and made the tip come off. The other time, it wore off and the metal top ring part broke away from the metal bottom flat circle part.
Lol rotfl! I love these stories! Lol RdFreak you need to talk to my pal Doodgeman, his brother dropped a walkie-talkie in a lake! Lol! And Melodica, wow, you've gone through your fair share of canes. And lo l... all of you are jsut so funny! I love this! ...
Caitlin
At 5 yrs old I established and held the record for smashed canes 20 in all and I enjoyed every minute of it.
Grin
I have a mangled 1 about here somewhere a relic from an argument with an aggressive door on the underground...In Italy this 1 is famous among my friends so I'm reluctant to throw it out,the door grabbed a hold of the cane and partly devoured it as if it hadn't had a decent feed in months! I was left dragging along on my cousin's Giancarlo's arm he was 9 at the time and didn't he take the piss in Italian which sounds beautiful but its still humiliating
My cane gets stuck in doors sometimes. That's how my friend broke his first one.
Caitlin
I've only broken one cane of mine, that I remember. Caitlin already knows this story, but here goes for the rest of you. I was walking happily through a parking lot a few weeks ago on my way from one of my classes. I was just tap tap tapping along when all of a sudden my cane kinda started feeling funky. I picked it up, because I thought something was dangling from it... something was, the tip! Lol fortunatley, I had an extra one in my backpack. I also broke a friend's cane once when we were having a cane fight. She said go, I went whack!! Then we heard this little clank as the bottom half of her cane fell to the floor on the other side of the room. She, unfortunately, didn't have an extra cane..
After breaking my first cane, I switched over to California Canes. And let me tell you the abuse I put on my canes I'm surprised I get 2 years or more out of them. That durable. The only thing I can't stand about getting a new cane is breaking into it, not breaking the thing.
Lol California Cane worksw? My friend got one and it broke within the week, without him even doing anything whatsoever to it. Lol! That musta been a coincidence.
Lol Tyr, love that story. Storeis, I should sayu.
Caitlin
now, me and canes. Well, I have about six of them, and they're all in storage against the time when I next break one. I get mine broken by members of the public thinkin they can jump the cane, and not managing it. It costs a lot to keep replacing the dam things! Our social services are meant to give us a cane, and that they do, give us one cane. one cane's not enough! You need to carry two, one for use and the other for emergencies. Then you need one for backup. this is why I have six of them at home, two in my bag that goes with me everywhere, and my working cane. I pay for my own sticks, as I find I can then dictate what kind of cane I have. I can buy the best, so I get more use out of it than I would a normal bend as soon as you look at it cane. The RNIb has made a lot of money out of me and my cane purchasing habits.
Yup, my mom bought me backup cane already. It's in my room, but we're thinking of taking it to school and locking it up somewhere for safe keeping, since I generally use my cane dominantly at school. So yeah. Lol. Oh and and kids jump over mine all teh time, but I haven't broken it that way yet. oNly gotten it stuck in a few corners and stomped on.
Caitlin
ah. I've never had a problem with any of the canes I got from there. May have been a defect in the elastic cord.
I don't remember. I think that may have been what happened. I'll either ask Derek, or have him log on and post about it here.
Caitlin
P.S. Love all these stories.
I have had 1 flattened by a horse Stella I'd remembered this habit of his after heavy rain...Unfortunately I'd forgotten everything else! Including the damned cane!. This really made the family laugh and Uncle Gino decided it would be better if I used a metal pole instead of struggling with this flimsy cane.
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Italian's you have to laugh.
Hahaha, will the hilarity never cease?
I have broken my share of canes from students tripping over them to busses running over them.
Troy
Tell us more, Troy? About the hilariousity of these situations, perhaps?
Caitlin
Well there's not much to tell just that students have triped over them and busses have ran over them because some bus drivers can't drive.
Troy
Lol! Evil busdrivers! You should have just hit their buses with your broke cane hehe jk.
Caitlin
Okay, this topic is almost three years old, so here I go with my bit of information about a cane that wasn't exactly broken. A friend of mine back in elementary school jumped on it or something and my vision teacher had a hell of a time straightening it. lol It was pretty bent up.
I've had one carbon fibre cane that I was using quite properly, walking across a pedestrianised street, when, Bang!, a member of the public walked straight into it, the cane snapped fine as you like, and I heardthe botton section go flying across the street and hit something. I then had to follow the sound and pick the now smashed remnence of the cane up. carbon fibre is sharp when snapped, so I went to a store and bought some tape to put over the jaggid ends before I collapsed what I could and then threw it in the nearest bin. there's often no point in straightening metal canes, as it's almost impossible, and it needs to be straight to give you the right warning and protection. I throw any that are bent. fortunately, I don't have many rightoffs now.
okay. I was at camp once, and was playing a game. well I jumped for the ball and sn'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'n'nap! my teloskoping cane snapped in to so needless to say, I wasn't a happy camper after that, and one of the staff members had to fix it the best that they could and I had trouble telling where things were. I didn't have a spare one, so yeah.
Ah, well, shit like that hapens. That's why it helps to have a spare one with you.
I broke two canes. The first time was when I slamed the car door on it, and it broke. Another time as when I was at a blindness training center, and when I was using the cane the elastic snapped and my cane came apart. It was terrible since I was going home the next day. Thank goodness the dorm supervisor was an O and M instructor and she was able to tape the cane up. The next day, I went to the student store and got a new one. I've had some people jump over my cane and I've even had an elevator door close on my cane.
Damn, that last one sounds horrible. how long was it before you got it out, and what did it look like when you finally extricated it from the door?
I remember one time in I think was the 5th grade, I was using my cane and someone though it would be fun to jump on the cane. When it happened, it snapped so my V.I teacher gave me a yard stick to use since they had no other canes.(man that was horable)
Well, I got the cane out as soon as the door closed. It didn't hurt the cane, surprisingly.
oh wow. all of these cane stories r funny. i remember when i was in high school, i had my fair share of canes broken, my first 5 were tripped over, the next 3 were stomped on by accident as well, and the last 4 were broken by kids who thought it would be funny to see the blind girl stumble around. when the last one was broken in this manner, luckily, my aide saw what happened and came over to me. she asked me what we should do. so i had her take me to my sisters classroom because i was on the verge of tears. when i showed my sister the cane, she started crying in front of the whole class and asked her teacher how anyone can be so cruel as to intensionally break my cane.
It's because lotsof high school students just don't give a rat's arse.
Man that's messed up how people can do mean things like that. *frown*
I only remember 3 times I broke my cane. I know one was where we were in a class with couches at a church, and I had forgotten I had the cane leaning over the couch to keep the place of where I was sitting, but I had forgotten and had sat on it. It wasn't really a big thing because I think class was already near over anyway. Another time was at the School for the Blind and I was at the library and the cord broke and the sections just fell apart. The librarian was able to take me to my dorm, and my friend Rebecca had to guide me to dinner. I always thought of that as funny because of the "blind leading the blind" thing. *smile* And the last time , I forgot how it happened, but the top section broke. I also have a cane where the cord broke but the cane itself is still good.
yeah alot of high schoolers r just very very cruel
oh yeah and when i was in middle school. i was in a blind school and the chord broke on my canes 3 times i believe. so i have gone through alot of canes from middleschool onward. i now have 2, a crappy spare one with a cylendrical grip that i hate, and a nice one with a ribbed grip. the ribbed grips r the best in my opinion. they r comfortable on your hand, and they dont make your hand smell like rubber like those golf grips do.
The last cane I broke my cane, it was last year when I was at Loughborough and my nan and grandad had come to see me. Nan decided she was going to walk in front of me when we were crossing the road and tripped over it and broke the bottom of it. Then I got a new one in May and lost that one in December here at Hereford.
Well, I've got a couple stories about canes.
The only cane I ever actually broke was in a Catholic church. I was at Mass with a couple blind friends, and we all had straight canes, so they were laying on the floor. However, it came time to kneel for part of the mass, so we put the kneeler down, and knelt. I hear this tremendous crunching noise. We all looked at each other like, "Oh crap," cuz we knew it had been a cane, and could have been any one of ours. As it turned out, it was mine. Yay. Cracked it right in half.
I dropped a cane down an elevator shaft once. I was walking through the elevator door of my apartment building, with a lot of groceries, so I probably wasn't holding my cane in the best position anyway. I started to drop some groceries, and in an effort to grab the bag before it fell, I lost my grip on my cane just as I was crossing the elevator threshhold, and it went right down the crack between the floor and elevator. Thankfully I had a spare. The ironic thing about that is, six months later, our maintenance people retrieved the cane from the elevator shaft. Somehow it had fallen in such a way that when they gave it back to me, it was completely unharmed.
I nearly got my cane stuck in the door of the lift once in a shop, but Grandad managed to get it out in time just as the doors were starting to close.
Sister Dawn, that's an amazing story of good fortune. The oddest place I ever "lost" my cane was on the roller coaster at the amusement park. It was a folding cane, and I'd put it in my pocket. It feel below the tracks when I was getting out of the coaster at the end of the ride. One of the ride operators got it for me. The second time, I was downtown in a strange office building. I hit the cane just right (or just wrong depending on your pont of view) on the corner of a doorway. It was one of the first NFB Telescoping canes. It really splintered one section. I had to get home, and the only option I had at the time was to go into a strange office, and ask if they had any scotch tape. Well, it got me to the bus, and to my front steps, then it fell apart worse than before.
Lou
a couple years ago, i actually lost my cane on a plane. and then a few months ago, i accidently left one at walmart. this current cane i have, along with the spare is the longest time that i have ever had a cane not get lost or broken lol.
I was walking around my college campus with one of those telescoping NFB canes, because, one, it's the only one I have that's small enough to fit in to a purse and easy to fold, and two, steven's not able to work due to stitches in his back. Anyway, I was scared out of my mind when someone tripped over it accidentaly. Thank God, it didn't break. think i'm going to order another folding cane like the one I used to use.
Good idea. Always good to have a couple spare canes around anyway.
Lou
very true. i actually have 2 nfb canes that they made us use at the center for the blind in daytona beach. needless to say, there was a revolution and now nfb is not invited back there, and the woman who instigated it all was moved to another part of the blind services because there were tons of complaints about the policy that she enforced.
I like the folding canes myself. I heard the telescoping ones were too fragile.
lol I've never lost or broken a cane, though I have worn down a few to the point where I absolutely had to get a new one. I also have a spair, just incase. Usually, I grab it when I forget the location of my primary cane. Btw, does anyone know if California Canes have started making new models? If not, can anyone recommend another light-weight folding cane? I can't stand heavy ones.
oh i would go with the graphite canes made by amputech if u want a light weight folding cane.
i actually think that the nfb should obandon those fragile fiberglass canes and go with something stronger.
I didn't know California Canes had stopped making them. Last cane I ordered from them, the cane was manufactured by Revolution Enterprises. The one thing I didn't like about the Ambutech design is that you either needed tools or about four hands to change the tip. The plus for that cane is the textured handle that gives you something to grip if you're wearing gloves in colder climates.
Lou
I like my grafite folding cane. My nan did trip over my cane once when we were crossing a road and then the cane couldn't even be fixed with a lot of tape. that was the only time I had a grafite cane that broke. All the other canes I've had until last August have been alluminium ones and they've either got too short for me, bent like mad or just stuck together and with a cane tip that won't come off. I did also try a telescopic cane, but that was so light I couldn't control it properly and because I walk so fast it was getting shorter as I was walking down the road!
I seemed to have a lot of canes broken when I was in junior and senior high school. I always used the folding ones, but they still break, but not as fast as those straight rigid ones. That can become pretty expensive and I didn't break them myself. Someone always managed to step on it just the right way. Anyway, I used the strongest tape I could find and wound it around the broken piece so it stuck to the rest of the cane, no pretty, but it worked until I could get another one.
I hate math, too!!! I think half the time they passed me so I'd quit coming to their office for help.
I broko one in a door once! I was trying to open it from the outside and my cane was blocking it from opening. I pushed really hard and the door opened, but at a price. I found out what that was a few minutes later. i took my cane up to my Mobility instructor named Dr. Lewis and she was like, "Only you could do something like this." But she was laughing. i really loved her.
I've been using a straight NFB cane since I started training at BLIND, Incorporated a while back and honestly, I like it a lot better than the stupid telescoping cane I had because it's much lighter. You just have to figure out how to fit them into tight places. Not too bad once you get used to it. I get better feeback from a metal tip than the other one I had on the previous cane I was using.
My last nFB cane snapped somehow, but that's all right. It was bound to happen anyway. I got a new one a little while ago.
I've broken or lost tons of them recently I dropped mine down the elevator shaft still amazed it didn't break or worse break the elevator. haha! but I've broken many even once I broke one after I was given it I was walking to the lunch line and this is a new cane, and so someone was running and ran over it and it broke so two new canes in a very short time, but I've had it run over quite a few times broke it by shutting the door on my cane, and erm..... a bunch of other stuff, a lot of it is also just ware and tear, the older one I have one of the metal joints are breaking, there's a little crack there.
I broke my Cane back in School, my Final Year and the Strings in my Cane was torn, it then broke into little pieces as I was unfolding it to go another class. BTW, in Australia Cane's aren't like the ones in USA.