33
Amy
Since I was athletic as a child and liked to do stunts and dance, Mother enrolled me in a dance class on Friday evening. After she picked me up from school or the airport, I hurried to change my clothes and put on my purple dance leotard. I was the only deaf child in the class.
Mother told me at first the teacher was not sure about letting me be in the class, because she had a bad experience a few years ago with a hard of hearing child named Melissa. Melissa’s parents expected the teacher to give Melissa special attention, and she caused problems in class. Mother told my teacher, “I don’t think Amy will be a problem. All I ask is that you let Amy be in the first row so she can see what you are doing. She will learn by watching, not by what you say.” The teacher agreed to let me try the class.
At first I did not care that I was the only deaf person in the class, since I wanted to learn how to dance. The class was a mix of dance and gymnastics. At the beginning of dancing class, the instructor lined us up and talked to all girls, telling them what to do. I basically followed the movements of the girls in front of me. When I saw the girls hop and skip, I did the same. Then, the next move, a cartwheel. I learned to stand on my head and make a tripod. Once I took my purple leotard to Grandma and Grandpa’s house to show them what I learned in class. Grandpa took my picture doing a tripod.
The instructor never really talked to me. I think the other girls attended additional classes during the week, because when I came on Fridays, I noticed they did new movements or were placed into a different group with more experience.
After a year or two, I felt like I was falling behind and could not catch up. I did not understand the instructor, and she never put in any effort to teach me compared to the other girls. That was when I decided it was not worth attending if the other girls practiced more than I did. Since I could not communicate with the other girls or the instructor, I was often uncomfortable. Sometime the instructor had me sit out and do nothing. I quit the class because of this and time conflicts.
I always looked forward to June when the school year ended. Off I went to home for three whole months with my family and cat. That was the best. I had many fun moments, since I could spend time playing with my brother or cat.
During several summers, I went to the week-long YMCA day camp. I was the only Deaf girl and not able to communicate. John went with me. Sue did one summer also. At camp, Sue and I hung around a lot together. If she was not there, I focused on doing my own things, making crafts, or doing other activities.
One summer, when my brother and I were at the YMCA camp, we had a sleepover for one night at the camp. Everyone slept in tents. John was in the boys’ tent while I was in the girls’ tent. In the middle of the night a thunderstorm started. There were so much lightning. A camp counselor woke me and my brother and said, “You two will have to move into the cabin to sleep.” I do not know why we had to leave our tent; none of the hearing children had to move, except John. Maybe they thought I would be scared of the storm, but how could thunder scare me? I can’t hear it.
I liked the YMCA camp. There were many things to do. I made a sand candle. We went swimming, and I shot a bow and arrow and a BB gun. The first time I shot the BB gun, I fell backward after I shot it. I did not know what to expect, because I could not hear the explanation about holding the butt close to my shoulder to lessen the recoil of the gun. I am sure someone laughed at me, but I don’t remember.
In fourth grade and higher, I was in a Girl Scout troop at NSD. One summer I attended Girl Scout camp in Grand Island. It was not too bad, but a little boring since I could not talk to any of the girls, but I enjoyed making many crafts. My goal was to get more Girl Scout patches on my vest, since at NSD I could not earn many patches compared to what the hearing scouts did.
Mother arranged for me to attend the local Girl Scout camp, because NSD did not have activities in the summer. She told me at first the leader of the Girl Scout camp was hesitant to let me attend, but once gain Mother explained to the camp leader, “If no one is using sign, Amy learns primarily by watching others, so let her be near the leader or the front of the group. Amy’s attended school since she was thirteen months old. She’s accustomed to watching others for cues. I don’t think she will cause any problems.”
“All right, but the camp is by the river,” the Girl Scout leader said to Mother.
“Amy knows how to swim. She loves the water,” Mother said.
“But the children can’t go in the river! How can I tell her that?”
The leader was very worried I would drown, I guess.
“Don’t worry,” my mother told the leader. “I’ll tell Amy to stay away from the river before she goes to camp.”
“Okay, but what if …” The leader had many other questions and Mother soon realized the leader did not know how to communicate with a Deaf person. Mother said, “Amy may be able to lipread what you say, but if you really want to be sure she understands, write it on a piece of paper. Amy just finished the fifth grade. She can read.”
“Oooh. I never thought of that,” the leader told my mother.
Mother shook her head when she told me this and said, “I can’t believe the leader did not realize you could read and write.”
Sometimes hearing people have a mental block on what to do with a person who has a disability. Deaf people don’t call themselves disabled, but in the eyes of political groups and the ADA, Deaf are considered disabled. There is a funny joke about a Deaf and hearing person. They were sitting at separate tables in a restaurant. The hearing person asked the other person for the ketchup. When the hearing person realized the other person was Deaf, he wrote on a paper, “Can you read?” The Deaf person read it and wrote back, “Can you write?”
Duh! It’s a folklore joke that has been passed along in the Deaf community for many years. Hearing people often don’t realize that Deaf people are intelligent humans, just like most other people, except we don’t hear.
In the summer John and I, and sometimes Mother too, would go to a movie. If there was a book about the movie, Mother would read it to me before we went so I could understand the movie.
When I was a little girl, I loved to watch Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Many little girls would pick Snow White as their favorite character, but not me. I chose Dopey. Remember, thirty years ago no movies had closed captions. Therefore I relied on visual actions to entertain me. Dopey gave me plenty of funny things to watch, so I could laugh while watching the movie.
It’s ironic that Dopey doesn’t talk, but he can hear. Some people thought I chose Dopey because he can’t talk, just like me, but I said, “Dopey can hear, but he chooses not to talk.”
In general, many Deaf people like a character that is funny based on their visual actions. One good example is Charlie Chaplin. In the 1920s, many Deaf people enjoyed his movies. He was a hearing person who did not talk in the movies, but did funny acting.
I liked cartoons for that reason also. When I was growing up, I usually watched Tom and Jerry cartoons. Without captions, I still could understand and laugh at the TV show.
I remember several times when I was older and went to the movie theater with Deaf friends. I do not remember the title of the movies, but in one, an actor made a funny facial expression, and my Deaf friends and I all laughed. All of sudden, hearing people stared at us. They were not laughing. Some gave us dirty looks. I thought to myself, maybe the actor said something sad, but his facial expression was so funny to Deaf. Again, I could not understand what the actors were saying, so I relied on visual expression, and when I saw something funny I would laugh.
Now that I can rent captioned movies and the TV is captioned, I can fully understand what is happening, but that was not always possible for Deaf people.