What color is this?

Lucky for me, working with the wee folk allows me to hold up paper or crayons and ask, "what color is this?", without appearing suspicious.  Although, every once in awhile one of them will notice how often the question comes out of my mouth. It's a laughing matter to my coworkers and although I laugh along with them, it can be frustrating not to be able to buy a rug, towels or a can of paint without N's assistance. I deal with the clothing issue by wearing only jeans or khakis. That way it doesn't matter what color my shirt is.

My first memory of realizing that the colors I see are different than what the majority of people see, was clothes shopping with my cousin Clarissa. We were looking through a big display of striped socks in a Tacoma mall. Our goal was to find a pair that matched a clothes item one of us had already purchased. It's when we realized we were both afflicted with the same defective genes. We spent the next half hour, joking and laughing while accosting strangers, "excuse me, can you tell me what color this is?"

Not along ago, I learned a niece inherited those genes. She and I shared some links to different online tests, until she found the information below that gives a name to what we have. How many people in my family have this colorblindness? It seems to have originated via my mother's side of the family. Out of 4 children, she and her sister, Betty, both have it. Out of Aunt Betty's 6 children, only Clarissa ended up with CB. Out of my mother's 5 children, 2 sons and 1 daughter have it. All three passed it onto our children. Only my daughter, Fran escaped.

In case it's impossible for you to read the jpeg I pieced together below, here's the link to the original piece. This is the type of color blindness I have. Here's a link to an interesting color blindness test: Color Arrangement Test.