Temple Grandin

by Anita Lesko

  She continued, “I read about the head designer at Playtex, and I remember one line that I thought was really funny. They said one pipe from the tank went to the girdle factory and the other went to the spacesuit line, and they put the best bra seamstresses on it. Those seamstresses never got any credit, but if they didn’t do it correctly the astronauts would have died. The designers at Playtex had no degrees, they have graduated from the ‘school of hard knocks.’”

  I had to share this with Temple, “I had the opportunity to meet two astronauts back in 2001: Commander Robert “Copa” Cabana, and Commander Wendy Lawrence. They had both just returned from the International Space Station. I asked them the most profound part of their experience, and they both said the moment they were up in space, looked out the window, and saw the Earth. They also described the launch and what that felt like. I can remember I reached over, asking them both if I could touch them! They laughed and said yes. I touched them lightly on their shoulder. I got goosebumps! Just knowing these two people were up in the International Space Station was mind-boggling.”

  Reminiscing about her younger days, Temple said, “I can remember the moon landing, and going out in the back yard and looking up on the moon and saying, ‘There’s people up there, walking around.’ That was when I was in college, during the summer I was living in a rental house with a roommate and doing my internships.”

  A New Perspective of Earth

  Temple was still excited, “I’ll never forget those pictures that show the Earth as a blue marble floating in space. It gives you a totally different view of our planet. I can remember I was in high school, just starting at the Hampshire school, when the Mercury Seven group was formed. When I was young, it was something that seemed so far away … I couldn’t even imagine being allowed doing something like that.”

  “My Cape Kennedy trip had the most profound effect on me. I stood there looking at the vehicle assembly building and thinking about what we accomplished. I get all choked up at Kennedy’s speech, ‘We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.’ When you look at the technology we have, when I went inside the launch platform, the kind of piping and gauges they’re using even now look like something out of Jules Verne. When I looked inside, there was so much iron work. I realize they had to assemble the rocket upright because it was so heavy. They still use materials that looks like they’re out of an antique shop because it’s very reliable, and with rocket fuel you need really reliable. It’s not the place to experiment.”

  Okay. Do you know who Jules Verne is?

  I was in a store the other day and saw a National Geographic magazine all about astronauts, so I got one for Temple and one for myself. I sent it right out to her, but since I’m finishing up this book I didn’t have time to even touch my copy. No worries. Temple is telling me every detail of all the articles in the book. She got a case of the giggles as she shared with me the part about the Russian cosmonauts who took vodka into space with them, and the astronaut who decided to take a pastrami sandwich with him to eat once in space. I do hope he ate it before it spoiled. I’m soon to know every last detail about spacesuits, as I’ve just sent her an early Christmas gift of two books she mentioned about them.

  Temple and I talked a lot about NASA and spacesuits. This is one of her big passions. I guess she’s got me into it, too, as I had the craziest dream the other night. I dreamt that Temple, myself, and Elon Musk were at NASA at midnight, going around inside the buildings and playing with all the rockets and equipment. It was like the opening scene of a Stephen King novel.

  Photo courtesy of Temple Grandin

  Photo courtesy of Temple Grandin

  Photo courtesy of Temple Grandin

  CHAPTER 16

  Fear of Flying

  Temple is walking into an airplane three, four, sometimes five times a week! Now she sleeps during flights, or catches up on reading. No more white knuckles.

  “When I was in my twenties, I was really scared to fly. There was a situation where we had to make an emergency landing, and it took me about three years to get over that. I was a white-knuckle flyer during those years!” I asked, “How do you go from white-knuckle flyer to all the time you now spend in airplanes?” Her reply was, “I had to make planes go from scary to interesting, so I learned all about how planes work.” There’s that logical side surfacing again.

  “Here’s what happened. It was my third flight. I was coming home from the ranch, and a jet airplane was still a novelty. That was my first time flying alone. My first flight was with my roommate, the second time I flew with my aunt, but the third time I was by myself. I was actually having fun, listening to the music and anticipating being served my meal. Back then, everyone dressed up in really nice clothes to go on a plane. I had on a white flowered summer dress; I had to wear dresses to go on a plane! And there were headphones that were like a stethoscope to listen to music while flying. I was sitting on the right side of the plane, about three quarters of the way back. The next thing I know, the plane lurches to the side while we’re at thirty thousand feet. We were over Kansas when it happened, and we ended up landing in Salina, Kansas. The plane lurched to the right, and all the trays flew up into the air. They hadn’t served me yet, only half the plane had been served. The flight attendants started throwing the trays on the floor and yelling for everyone to put their seatbelts on, and to prepare for emergency landing. Emergency landing! The plane was then descending really fast, and we had no explanation for what was going on. I was sure I was going to die. We landed with the pilot jamming on the brakes and fish-tailing down the runway. The plane stopped, and the doors opened to the slide chutes being deployed. The flight attendants started yelling, ‘Abandon plane! Abandon plane! There’s a bomb on the plane! Once you hit the ground, start running and don’t look back! Just keep running!’”

  Temple’s voice was all excited as she went on, “That was back in the day when there was no overhead storage bin, just a shelf. I had my bag with me that I had my cameras in, my two prized possessions. They grabbed it out of my hands and flung it into the galley. I jumped out of the door and down the slide I went; then I ran. Finally, we were all standing around, and the pilot told me there was a woman on the plane who had looked at her watch at was ten minutes to two. She said, ‘At two o’clock, we’re all going to die. And I don’t know which bag they put my bomb in!’ So, the pilot thought he had ten minutes to get on the ground from cruising altitude.”

  “They started unloading the baggage, but they didn’t have the equipment to get it all off. Then they just started shoving it all out of the aircraft, crashing to the ground. They finally found her bag, and the bomb squad came and took it away. Then they took her carry-on bag and threw it into a ditch. They decided to go through all the bags in one of the hangars. I was standing next to a man who had a briefcase, and when he opened it up there were some weird electronics in it. Security wanted to tear it all apart. He started hollering, ‘No, please don’t do that! I’m a salesman for luminescent light bulbs and this is my demonstrator!’”

  “I’m sure everyone was pretty jumpy at that point! No wonder they freaked out!” I added.

  Temple shared the rest of the story, “And then we had to go back on the airplane and get our belongings, which had been thrown in the galley. Back then carry-on bags weren’t allowed, only coats, hats, and purses. They had taken every purse and dumped it out in the galley, so everyone was going through all of it to find their stuff. I was able to find my things, including my two cameras. Then they brought another plane in from Chicago. I got back on, but then after that I was totally scared when I had to fly.”

  Aviation went from Scary, to Interesting

  “So, tell me how you got over that?” I asked. Temple said, “By making airplanes go from scary to interesting. I had a chance in the early seventies to go to a meeting called the Animal Air Transportation Association. I got to go to their cargo area down in Miami, and
travel on their constellation (the ‘Cow S—t Connie’) to Puerto Rico with a plane load of heifers. They had holes drilled in the floor to drain out the waste. I got the opportunity to ride in the cockpit, which was really fun. So, planes went from scary to very interesting!” I thought for a moment as I envisioned that and said, “Well I’d have loved to ride in the cockpit, but not in the back!”

  This isn’t for the faint of heart, so reader discretion is advised! Here she goes, “Later that night, they told me they had a real treat for me. I was going to see a bloody plane! It was a 707 retired from passenger service, whose new job was to haul naked quarters of beef. The holes in the floor from where the seats were bolted down were now used to attach the nylon straps to hold down the quarters of beef. They’d stack it up to the level of the bottom of the windows! They also put it in the baggage holds, and when they opened that up … I can still remember the smell of it. It should have made me more afraid of planes, but instead I found it really interesting. It was the same exact kind of plane that I was in for the emergency landing—same exact kind of plane.” I’m now envisioning her description of the crate full of frozen pig guts.

  Temple is always seeking to learn more, and this was no different. “I also read a lot about planes and how they fly, and that also helped me to get over my fear of flying. Now, I sleep on planes. I sleep through take off, but not through landings, because that’s a good way to wreck your ears.”

  The topic of panic attacks was mentioned. “When I was afraid to fly for those three years, I’d have a panic attack on the way to the airport. But you know what? I did it. I simply did it! Today when I listen to people talk about having panic attacks, they shut down. I’d be having such a terrible panic attack that I’d be choking, but I did it. I’d get panic attacks having to face some of the feed yards, too. There were lots of things that gave me a panic attack, but I’d do them all. That’s the difference in people today, they don’t do it. The other day at an airport, I talked to a nineteen-year-old boy who had never shopped or taken public transportation. I said to his mom, ‘This summer he’s going to learn to shop and ride the bus.’ This is ridiculous that these kids are being sheltered like this.”

  Temple is spot on with this statement, as always!

  Here was another unpleasant flying experience. “Many years ago, I was on a Boeing 737 from Tasmania to Australia, and the turbulence was so violent it was like a giant dog had the plane in its mouth thrashing it around. They had announced ahead of time that it was going to be rough. We were flying over the Australian Bight, which is known for having rough air. It was the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced.”

  Okay, I’ll let you in on this little tidbit. Anything concerning bodily functions will instantly get Temple giggling and snorting like a little kid. It’s highly contagious, and you won’t be able to refrain from joining her. “Then, there’s the world’s worst vomit flights! This was about twenty years ago. We get twenty minutes into the flight, and a man stands up in the front of coach and starts barfing. But instead of using a bag, he starts walking towards the bathroom, barfing on everyone as he’s walking along. He managed to get it on a third of the plane! (Temple is now giggling like a young schoolgirl, squealing in delight.) Fortunately, I was sitting far enough back that I didn’t get hit.” Now the sound effects came, with Temple imitating the sound of someone vomiting. “People started throwing their blankets on the floor to cover the vomit. I can remember the flight attendants trying to push the drink cart over the blankets, and seeing vomit all over the wheels.”

  “There was another flight I was on, flying out of Denver. We had just lifted off, when this girl leans over next to me and starts vomiting! I unbuckled my seatbelt and jumped out of my seat, as the flight attendant started yelling to sit down and buckle up. Fortunately, there were some empty seats two rows down that I quickly slipped into and put my seatbelt on. I looked, and there was vomit all over the seat I’d just been in. Instead of using the bag, that girl leaned over to puke on me!”

  I’m having a laughing jag at the moment, but then came more: “Just recently, Teresa was on a flight, sitting next to this girl who vomited all over herself, and she just continued sitting there. The flight attendant came and told her to go to the bathroom and clean herself up.”

  Don’t ever be sick on a plane if you’re flying with Temple. Or at least don’t aim at her!

  CHAPTER 17

  Getting in the Back Door at Colorado State University

  I called Dr. Bernard Rollins, the professor that Temple contacted all those years ago to seek a teaching position at Colorado State University. He was one of the people that got up to speak at Temple’s seventieth birthday celebration. I could hear that he was speaking from his heart as he talked about Temple, telling the huge crowd about that phone call he received many years ago from the young, persevering Dr. Temple Grandin.

  “Dr. Rollins, thank you for taking the time to talk to me about Temple,” I stated, “What do you recall from that day she first called you?” He replied, “I’m in a different field from Temple, so I can’t talk about research we’ve done together. Here’s what I remember about when I first met her. She already had her PhD, and was doing research and making a name for herself. She called me stating she wanted academic affiliation. I assumed that was for a number of reasons. One, of course, was for credibility. When you send in papers, you want it to say, ‘Temple Grandin, Colorado State University.’ The other thing she wanted was colleagues. She definitely wanted to be in agricultural cattle country, and it’s a great town. It all seemed incredibly rational to me!”

  Curious, I asked, “When did you figure out she has autism?”

  “I think I knew that from the get-go, back in the seventies, but it didn’t matter to me. I told her I didn’t know if I could get her a job there. When I approached the department heads in vet medicine and animal science, I already knew of her reputation and all the positive changes she had made, so it wasn’t that hard of a sell. She wasn’t looking for a bunch of money. I think it’s been great for the kids, and it’s been great for the school. As far as having autism, everybody has things that are better and worse. Temple is terrific with the students. Remember at her birthday party when all her graduate students got up to sing her ‘Happy Birthday?’ Well, she’s not married; these students are like her children, and she’s like their mother, in a very good way, a very nurturing way.” He continued, “Were you aware of the fact that she totally funded eighteen graduate students? Everything. They walk out the door with their PhD, totally debt-free.”

  I said, “Well, I just learned this at the party when Temple announced it. I was truly shocked.” Dr. Rollins replied, “I know professors all over the world, and have never heard of anything like it.”

  He continued, “I’ve never once seen any sign of arrogance or having grandiose feelings. She’s always the same. And she’s gotten better with all her social skills. When she came over to hug me at that party, I was in tears. When I first met her, she wouldn’t even shake hands. You know, there’s nothing I’d want to change about Temple. I think the world of her. Her work is her life, and it’s a very worthy life.” I agreed wholeheartedly, “Indeed, it is.”

  I enjoyed talking to Dr. Rollins, both to listen to his New York accent, but also listening to him talk about Temple. That was another pivotal point in Temple’s career.

  CHAPTER 18

  Jim Uhl the Building Contractor—A Big Door Opens

  I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to talk to Temple’s good friend, Jim Uhl. Jim sought her out to help with a project after someone told him about her. Temple’s career really took off once she became friends with Jim. They spent the next ten years together nearly every day, mostly with Jim and his crew, and often Jim’s wife, too. Temple has had numerous long-term friendships and business partners over the years. Yes, this book is about Temple and all the stories she has shared with me, but the people whose interviews I’ve included in this book are the one
’s Temple has had a relationship with for many years, often twenty or more. That’s pretty impressive for anyone, but even more so for someone on the autism spectrum. You learn a lot about Temple’s character hearing these stories. The rest is history, as they say.

  I started out the conversation by asking Jim how he first met Temple, where they met, and what his first impression of her was. Here’s Jim’s story about Temple, in his own words:

  “First let me back up a little and tell you why I met her. I had a background in concrete and steel, and a long, long road of growing up in Arizona with cattle people. This was back in the seventies, and there was a big need in the cattle market for contractors to do specialized work for livestock handling and holding facilities. That just fascinated me, and I wanted to do it. I got to know a fella that had been the vice president of a large company and had specialized in these facilities. He and I became friends, and I told him that I was just starting out and only had one or two men with me. We can’t do something that big, but we can certainly help the local people who had asked for smaller jobs. I said that I see the animal handling facilities, and I understand how to build them, but I don’t know the exact dimensions and the designs. There was no such thing as an architect who designed these things, you just sort of built it. He then went on, ‘Well you know, there’s this young woman who graduated from Arizona State University in the livestock department who seems to have a great knowledge and fascination for this type of thing. She has a scientific mind and enjoys drawing, but may be difficult to meet. She may be reluctant to meet you, but I’ll give you her name.’”