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Mr. Bush’s nationality on the maternal side is German and on the paternal side is English and Scotch. He met Mrs. Bush while they were both going to school in Vinton, a school for the blind and has five months training in addition to this in reading for the blind. He was born October 24, 1927. He was born blind and all his siblings are blind, as well. The doctor had told them that this was a congenital defect in the mother and that it was definitely hereditary although Mrs. Bush’s blindness was not and none of the children have shown any symptoms of sight deterioration. 

There was one touchy subject asked and this was Mr. Seabrook’s query of their marriage date and after nervous laughter, Mrs. Bush stated that they had been legally married in 1958. Therefore, this means that both Dick and Shirley were born out of a common law arrangement. 

Mr. Seabrook asked Mr. and Mrs. Bush to relate a little bit in their opinion of what these five children are like and the following is a parental opinion of the individual children. 

Dick: Mrs. Bush said that Dick bears watching, that he will take advantage of them or other people, that she feels he has a sneaky streak. They also feel that he is pugnacious yet has demonstrated warmth, cooperativeness, helpfulness, gentleness and is quite an inquisitive young man. He also knows the value of money and can discriminate between different coins. In kindergarten he was a 

behavior problem and although they feel he is quite intelligent, there were certain problems that he had to overcome as far as his bossiness and selfishness before he could make an adequate adjustment into kindergarten. They also feel that he has a lack of common knowledge which has been their fault, they say in that there are so many things that they are unable to show him and questions that they are unable to answer. Also, they feel helpless in that they are unable to supervise homework and that he does ask intelligent questions and is quite an affectionate boy. 

Shirley: Shirley, they stated, was generous and generally quiet and cooperative. They feel that she is intelligent but like all their children is not a genius but is just a good child and are nice children. They stated she is prone to temper tantrums and has had no schooling yet and that all of the children have had their immunization shots except David, who had had none. John, Dick and Shirley have had measles, and Dick has had a tonsillectomy. 

John: Mrs. Bush said, “He is hard to describe.” He is a nervous child, affectionate. He once had a stuttering problem but by working with him and talking with him, this has now disappeared, they feel. He is an insecure lad. 

David: “Very energetic”. He is 16 months and is not walking yet. They stated there is no physical reason for this not walking. It is just he needs this extra push which they can’t seem to give him and do not seem to have time to help him. Mrs. Bush stated that she had helped with all the other children in that they had made it over this in this period of their lives, but with David this has been impossible. Mr. Bush related at this point that it would possibly have worked out had Mrs. Bush been able to have had some help. For example, had they had relatives living nearby so Mrs. Bush could have had a respite for say two or three weeks during the summer, but this had been impossible.