Hi guys, My name's Kyle and I'm Larry's transcriber. I helped him a lot with his last two books and during our stoney work breaks I've also told him a lot about the internet, including reddit, and came up with the idea of an IAmA as a way for him to 'talk' to the internet community! His books Blind Chance & La Familia are now available online and so we're taking a break before his 3rd book (about life in the Haight in the 60s and 70s) to get the word out and answer any questions about the books or Larry's life - which are sometimes one and the same. Without further ado, here's Larry's self intro

Ask me anything about having seven guide dogs

Ask me anything about how you work a dog, how every dog is different

Ask me anything about how it feels to go from one dog to another

Ask me anything about how eventually the dog wins your heart

Ask me anything about getting lost in a neighborhood that you know

Ask me anything about how a blind man raises a sighted little girl

Ask me anything about a blind man having a sighted wife

Ask me anything - I was a husband, I was a father, and I brought in a few dollars.

Ask me anything -

http://i.imgur.com/6OxtquN.jpg

Thanks for the questions you guys, Larry has had "a lot of fun with this shit". Unfortunately I have to go now but we'll be back later to answer any remaining questions.

Comments: 52 • Responses: 14  • Date: 

jj_foxx10 karma

Is the whole "Other senses develop" thing bullshit?

Larry_Aguirre13 karma

The way it is, is that we use what we have, and reducing the senses to hearing and touch and smell - if you're sensitive, you will pick up on the reality that is around you.

akdigitalism4 karma

I smoke pot as well! Have you had any adverse health risks from smoking so long?

Larry_Aguirre8 karma

Outside of a cough, nothing. It has been a lifesaver - being blind and having the good old herb

Genericamel3 karma

How has weed in relation to potency and quality changed over your lifespan?

Larry_Aguirre7 karma

Over my lifetime there has been Mexican, Columbian, and assorted Thai, Panama Red - then California, which trumped everything else. It was a time

Genericamel3 karma

That sounds interesting, thank you for answering by the way. You seem like an outstanding man, I've never heard of your books but I will be giving them a try next time to the book store. Stay easy and keep on smoking :)

Larry_Aguirre3 karma

Hey thanks for the good words. Larry's books are independently published so you won't be finding it in your book store yet - they're both on Amazon.com though just look for Lawrence Aguirre!

legendoflink33 karma

Do you find that your sense of hearing is a lot more refined when you smoke?

Larry_Aguirre4 karma

If my hearing isn't sharpened, something seems to envelope me, and through some weird hollow tunnel it all funnels. If I'm lucky, and its the first hit of the day, and if the sun is just right and the light bends just so, it makes a difference.

CertainDuck3 karma

How difficult is it to grow a strong bond between you and your multiple guided dogs considering how many you've had? Also, have you ever tried psychedelics such as LSD to experience sight again?

Last question, how did you become blind?

Larry_Aguirre5 karma

1) At the beginning, there was no problem because a dog was a dog was a dog, and having to get from one place to another - for me, the motion was huge and going from one dog to another was easy. Then, as I got older, the dog had become a buddy, someone who knows everything and will not tell.

2) Yes, I tried psychedelics - and I stumbled onto an inner world that had its own lights. It made the simplest act huge out of proportion. I felt an experience that took me to the very edge. It was late at night, my family was sound asleep, and so when the house was sleeping I dropped my tab. I was in the kitchen, lying on a quilt when I remembered that there was some leftover roast. And as I stood, reached for the refrigerator door, I began to change over to a furry creature. It was as close as I wanted to go. I saw that - and nothing else.

3) I was 12 years old. School had just terminated, and for a young boy at 12 the summer was before me. A few of the boys ran over a bridge and down below there were lots of traffic - trains and streetcars. Before arriving onto the bridge we stopped and gathered all kinds of bottles and rocks. nothing was too heavy for us for we were warriors, running to discharge their load. And so it happened that a bottle or two struck the smoke-hatch of the train. The train stopped with a shriek of the wheels and someone with blue overalls waved their hand at us - and summer just before us. My friends ducked and ran down behind the sidewalk, and I - thinking I was Frank Merriwell from Harvard - ran out into the street - and the bottles that I was carrying was what did the damage.

Douglas_G2 karma

What's your biggest regret?

Larry_Aguirre6 karma

My biggest regret was that I never told my wife that I loved her. It wasn't that I wasn't loving and caring, but when you came down to it, when I looked at our relationship I get the feeling that I did not convince her. If I have any regret, that's the only one

gilfpound692 karma

how do you smoke? do you roll, do you use a piece?

Larry_Aguirre6 karma

I have a big glass pipe, with a large hole, and I break the buds and light a match, then I do what comes naturally.

f6fhelldweller2 karma

What do you remember most from WWII?

Larry_Aguirre6 karma

What I remember most from WWII is that something was happening far away. In 1943 I was ten years old, and the bad guys were Japs and Germans. For a ten year old boy living in the ghetto, the war was far, far away, only to be experienced on news reels. For at 10 years old, I had sight and saw Japanese Zeros and German Messerschmitts flying in american war movies. Audie Murphey was not my hero

icybluetears1 karma

[deleted]

Larry_Aguirre3 karma

As a matter of fact, Big Band and Broadway musicals are what I cut my tooth on regarding music.

JamesW891 karma

Favorite strain of pot? Can you identify your pot strains via smell easily now? ( I can do this somewhat accurately but more based on sight & smell not smell alone).

More serious how hard was bringing in cash and supporting your family? What struggles did you face as a blind person we sighted people would never even think of?

EDIT* Spelling thanks guys...

Larry_Aguirre2 karma

1) I have learned the shape of the sativa. The true shape of indica was a heavy dark cola. I have had my shot at pot - beginning with Mexican and thereafter - so, smoking it is the ultimate test, touching it, seeing how much spring it is, how dry it is, how young it is; smoking it and touching it. The smell, often, can be deceiving.

2) For one, sound being my tell-all, was huge, but as the world turned and things evolved I had to believe that everything was jake, and I guess you live with your hands on the keys in case you have to split. But it was all in the flow, no big rush, for every day would come regardless of what I did.

ImWritingABook1 karma

Do you think the feel and the mood of the country changes a lot (in terms of assumptions, enthusiasm, priorities) from decade to decade? Or is that something that stands out more strongly in looking back, and at the time you're less aware of it and just focused on living your life?

Larry_Aguirre2 karma

Every generation, as the generation of the 60s that I write about in my book Blind Chance, came like a rush. And the young generation that was 18 or 19 got a pass to heaven. Ma and Pa would pay the bill, and they would go to the university. The generation of the 60s had rock'n'roll, which gave permission to young and old, to get down, to forget that mercy isn't what we're going to settle for. Every moment has its own truth, every truth has its own moment. Seconds can make the difference.

iizar1 karma

What do your dreams depict? And do you constantly dream?

I've noticed I don't dream much while smoking heavy.

Larry_Aguirre7 karma

Ever since my yellow female Lab, Anna Lee, was put down - its hard to imagine but so much time has gone by. Almost from the very beginning I wanted my Anna Lee to enter my dreams. Most of my smoking is early in the morning before I work out. I have a whole program that I do physically, it's a good hour to an hour and a quarter. Another time, when I smoke, is before every writing session, before the person comes that's going to take down the dictation I smoke a little bit, twist my mind, allow something to creep up, then slowly put arms and legs, a torso, a head. I also smoke when the getting is good and life is doing its best to meet me halfway. Right about then, I blow a little weed.

alliancejetpack1 karma

Do you like to dance?

Larry_Aguirre8 karma

Dancing in the 60s, with acid in my head and the Grateful Dead jamming Johnny B Goode was a highlight for me - but before dancing came wrestling. I was wrestling champion in 1948 and '49, and that wrestling gave me the balance that I needed for dancing with 10,000 Dead heads.