Sign Language

Rick and I were trying to remember some of our American Sign Language last night.
We took classes and used it a great deal when we owned a cookie company.
We had a customer who was so excited one day when she came in with her friends and I could sign to them. They thanked me. 
It made me really see how much they miss out on as far as a community outside of a deaf one. We would get a lot of relay calls from the deaf and on one of them, I told them that we could sign if they wished to come into the store. That began the deaf community spending a lot of money with us. That was never our plan. Our plan was that it was probably something we should just know. We also thought it would be fun to know.

After a few classes, Rick was able to help a man who had fallen in a grocery store and was very hurt. 
As he was passing out he hit his head on a freezer. 
When he came to no one could communicate with him.
Rick was so pleased with himself that he could talk to him and relay to the manager and paramedics.
All the employees at the store just yelled or spoke so much louder.
It's funny if it weren't so sad. He's deaf, yelling won't help him hear you dip shit. 
It's just natural to do that. Just like when you smell something burning or odd in your car and you turn down the radio.
C'mon admit it, you've done that before.

We were taken on a field trip by our instructor to a place called the Silent Club. It was a club of deaf people. 
They had a speaker there and at the end they applauded.
I admit I didn't "catch" all of the discussion. My God, they do that quickly was my first thought. But I understood most and I was thrilled I got any of it at that point.
That was also the first time I saw their "applause"  
At first, it struck me as odd.
But dumb ole Margaret then realized that they would not hear anything if one were to clap their hands together. You see if you don't know this like I didn't, their version of clapping is putting their hands in the air with arms at their sides and using their hands and fingers almost like a clap. 
I found this whole field trip exciting and fun. 
And it made me think about things I never thought about like how alienated they must feel most of the time in a hearing world.

One time for a class project we had to go to dinner and only sign. 
We were concerned about this exercise for many reasons. 
We had to go to dinner and only sign all night. 
We weren't worried about the signing but about another deaf person seeing us and if we made mistakes or if they thought we were making fun of them because we were so much slower - that type of thing. 
Seriously we were so slow they may have thought we were mentally challenged.

Can I tell you how hard it is not to laugh when the waitress begins to talk louder and louder? We had to not look at one another or we'd have lost it.
We signed to one another but pointed to the menu for our waitress.
She continued to speak to us very loudly. It was hard not to chuckle.

The couple that was seated a few minutes after us were to my direct right.
The woman went on and on about how sad it was that we were deaf.
Her husband told her it was no big deal because they both are deaf so they could talk to one another. Then the woman spotted my shoes. 

She LOVED my shoes. She coveted my shoes. 

That was all she could talk about. 
She wanted to know where I got them. Do you think I could write her a note and ask her?  Do you think that would be offensive? My God those shoes are cute.....and on and on.
Sadly I could hear. She was annoying the shit out of me if I am being honest.

Rick and I made it through our evening signing. We tried very hard not to laugh at people and the things we could hear them say about us. Amazing. They just assumed we both could not hear. We could have been like our ASL instructor who is a hearing person married to a deaf person. The cool thing about our instructor was that she taught us bad words as well. For some reason, I have remembered all of those. I think that says something about me and it's not necessarily good now, is it?

As we were leaving the restaurant I leaned over her table and said, "I got my shoes at Bakers at the mall" and I smiled.
The look on her face was priceless. I turned and walked away.
Looking back now I think that was mean of me to do. 
Very much fun at the time but maybe not so very nice of me.

Rick and I don't use it much and we have lost so much of it from lack of use.
But we still have been in situations where we have used it. 
A rock concert was one. We went to see Aerosmith. The opening band was Skid Row. We couldn't have cared less about Skid Row, we were there for Aerosmith. It was so loud and the kids in front of us were doing their head-banging thing. My husband said to me, "How do they not have a headache after all that headbanging?"  
I couldn't hear a word he said. I kept saying, WHAT? 

So he began signing what he was trying to say. We continued to sign because it was easier than screaming over the band. When the opening band was done the lights came up and everyone was talking and now we could hear them. We heard the kids say behind us, "why would old deaf people go to a concert?"  The kids behind us were screaming their entire conversation about us and it was hard NOT to hear. 
Rick did turn to them to tell them we were not deaf, possibly old (late 30's at the time)  but it was hard to talk with the band playing and we thought it was a good idea. They laughed and said "cool man" So they were not offended. I think they were so stoned nothing would have bothered them. 😉

We've signed at a bar a couple of times to get the hell out of there when one of us is across the room or when we can't hear one another. We have been in social situations and done it as well. We've even made a couple of signs up incorporating a couple of words that of course just make us laugh!

But last night Rick asked about the sign for something and I couldn't remember.  That really bothered us both. 

Why did we let this go by the wayside?
Could we do this again at this age?
We are both losing our hearing so it may be something we want to look into.
Although he insists he can hear just fine. 
Yet when I speak he hears nothing.
He tells me that is because I am white noise. Nice.

Do they have Rosetta Stone for American Sign Language?