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From: Russ Hicks
Date: 10/20/01
Time: 7:13:28 PM
Remote Name: 24.4.254.203
Yes and no. Yes, I met a LOT of stutterers at an early age so, unlike the majority of other stutterers, I never felt that I was alone. No, we worked exclusively on fluency in the 50's, and stuttering was NOT okay. It was a problem to be "corrected" and that's what we spent all our time on. It was only when I joined the NSA in 1984 did I begin to feel like it was okay to stutter. The COMBINATION of fluency shaping ("speech controls" we called them back then) AND acceptance of our stuttering made all the difference in the world for me.
I still treasure my days at Shady Trails. I really grew up there. Very few kids are that fortunate.
Russ