Helen Keller Driving School Opens In Tuscumbia, Alabama
John Cadbury has his famous chocolates, William Colgateâs toothpaste is a household name, and now, Helen Keller has a driving school named after her.The first blind and deaf woman to earn a bachelorâs degree in the United States was author, humanitarian and educator Helen Keller. Born in 1880, Keller overcame the effects of âbrain feverâ at the age of 2, which left her without sight or hearing. Â What would have held others back only fueled Keller to overcome these âdisabilitiesâ and inspire millions throughout the world.âTuscumbia is her birthplace, and weâre proud of her,â says Margaret Cullen, co-owner of what was known as Cullenâs Learn-2-Drive up until last month.Â  âSheâs always been my hero,â said Cullen, âand I wanted to pay her tribute.âCullenâs âtributeâ has made headlines at the expense of the 58-year-old driving instructorâs school, and the town of Tuscumbia.âI never meant for this thing to be taken the way itâs been taken,â said Cullen.Â  âAll of these prank calls and such have started, and I donât appreciate them, not one single bit! Â Helen Keller met Eleanor Roosevelt. Â Thereâs nothing funny about that!âPrank calls have only escalated as word of the schoolâs renaming has spread.âI had a man call up and impersonate a guide dog over the phone. Â He asked me if he could come in and help his owner learn how to drive.Â  He disguised his voice and made a lot of âruff-ruff woof-woofâ words and I heard lots of giggling in the background.Â  Distasteful and disrespectful, I say.Â  I hung up butÂ they just called back again, this time pretending to be âToonces,â that cat that could drive a car on that comedy show I used to watch. Â I donât even know if there is such a thing as that.Â  Who has the time to train a cat?âLocal CW affiliate WHDF-TV assigned reporter Carl Lucerne to cover the story as a local feature.Â  âI had no idea this little local story was going to blow wide open,â admitted Lucerne.Â  âWhen I mentioned to Mrs. Cullen that the story did have an ironic kind of humor about it, she told me that people had become âtoo meanâ these days.Â  I asked her what her husband thoughtÂ about the sudden notorietyÂ brought to the town and to the driving school, and she said that the two werenât speaking at the present time.ââMy husband and I are not discussing it right now,â said Cullen.Â  âHe thought the calls and attention we were getting were funny, and said âI told you soâ when I first came up with the idea of renaming the school.Â  He said âdonât mess with the name,â but I saw things differently, and just wouldnât listen.ââOn the serious side, many blind people are asking us if we can teach them how to drive, but we arenât equipped for that.Â  I suppose it can be done, but we donât have that kind of technology to do it,â said Cullen. Â âI read in the paper last month that some designer eyeglass company in China named their eyeglasses after Helen Keller. Fancy designer frames that I canât afford, but I didnât see that as a joke.Â  I thought it was a nice tribute.Â  It was like saying she could see beyond all her limits.Â  Thatâs all I wanted to do, but now this thing has turned all wrong.Â  Itâs a shame,â she added.Cullen plans to turn a deaf ear to the ridicule her company is facing.Â  âThis town and our school are not laughingstocks,â she said.Â  âIâm just going to pretend I donât see or hear these mean things.Â  After all, I have a business to run,â she said.Cullen has no plans to rename the school or revert back to the original âCullenâs Learn-2-Drive,â a town institution since 1971.âThe signs and cards have been printed,â she said.Â  âWhatâs done is done!â