35
Amy
By the time I reached middle school, I started to enjoy my time at the dorm and my involvement in sports. I was less and less homesick. At home were all my possessions and I missed some of them, but I felt they were safer at home. I never gave much thought to the fact that John stayed home and I went away to school. I just thought hearing kids go to one school and Deaf kids go to a different one. That was just how my life was.
In middle school, I didn’t have a deaf house parent, but a hearing one with a strange name: Verda. She was an old lady with reddish-white hair, and her clothes seem to have been frozen from the 1950s. She was not an excellent signer like my previous Deaf house parent, Kathy, but Verda would be my house parent for the next two years.
Naturally, I got into more mischief, because Verda could not understand what I was signing. I signed dirty words or insulted her. I laughed, and so did the other girls.
One winter, Verda had a cast on her leg, as she fell on the ice and broke it. I asked her, “May I draw a picture or sign something on your cast?” At first, she resisted, but later agreed. I took a brown marker and wrote “Lewob.” She asked me what the word was.
I said, “It’s my friend’s pet’s name.” Actually, it was a word I had learned in science class several days ago, but I spelled it backward: Lewob meant bowel. I find that odd as Verda did not even bother to ask why I wrote friend’s pet’s name instead of my name or pet. After several days, the other house parents figured out what it meant and scolded me, but Verda still had no clue.
The girls on my wing decided to create a song called, “My Pet’s Name Is Lewob.” Tricia, one of my classmates, brought a recorder with a microphone from home. Tricia and I sang so loud we drove Verda nuts! It was so funny. Finally I was caught when Verda figured it out. I no longer could sing the song called, “My Pet’s Name Is Lewob.
At school, I usually was on my best behavior, not acting like I did in the dormitory. During the fifth and sixth grades, my classes rotated among three different teachers. It was much different from my primary years when I only had one teacher. Having three teachers and getting a chance to walk to the next classroom was fun. All of my teachers were not excellent in sign language, but I understood them anyway.
I’ll never forget Mrs. Flowers, who loved to assign an overload of homework each day. I am pretty sure she set the Guinness World Record for giving the most homework. My hand would cramp trying to finish all the homework she assigned that was due the next day. NSD usually finished the school year on the first Friday of June. Mrs. Flowers gave me and my classmates piles of homework the last week of school. It looked like a whole year of homework. I thought, there is no way I can finish this by tomorrow. The school year is almost over. Give me a break.
My classmates and I all complained. “We can’t do it. It’s way too much.” We were so harsh with her, she ended in tears, and told us not to do the homework. Of course, I was jumping with joy, and so were my classmates.
In the seventh and eighth grades I moved to the opposite side of the hallway in the dormitory and had a different hearing house parent. Another old lady, this time one with dyed brown hair. Her name was Mrs. Jolly. She was funnier and less strict than Verda, but I still had mischief with her anyway.
One night I really shook her brain, making her very confused. I turned the light switch upside down in my room and changed the white light to a blue light bulb. Then I screamed on purpose, so Mrs. Jolly would come to my room and ask what was wrong. Sure enough, she came and tried to figure out the light switch. When she finally did, her mouth hung open wide when she saw the blue light. I laughed so hard. She said I was crazy!
Another time, I wanted to move into a room further down the hall, so I unhooked the air conditioner in my room. It was spring time and the room was muggy and hot, so she allowed me to move. Later, a mechanic told Mrs. Jolly that somebody had unhooked the air conditioner on purpose. I was sure Mrs. Jolly knew I did it. Ha ha!
There were plenty of pranks I did, but I can’t tell them all as there were too many. I would not do them at home, only in the dorm. I thought it was so funny to do pranks on the houseparent. I did not really think or intend to be a mean to them. Well, maybe the “lewob.” Most of my pranks were when I was in middle school. What do you expected from a teenager! I just wanted to make dorm life filled with many fun memories.
I came to expect that I’d live at a residential school for the rest of my school years. Once in a while, I stayed at NSD for the weekend, but not too often, usually just one weekend a month. Was it different from staying in the dormitory during the week? Yes, because not many of the girls stayed there over the weekend. On the second floor, there might be eight girls on a weekend compared to thirty during the week. On the first floor, where the high school girls lived, more of the girls stayed over the weekend due to sports activities.
Since I was only in junior high, I did not have weekend athletic games. We played our sports on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our weekends were boring, but once in a while the house parent would take me and the other girls who were staying in the dorm to a park or zoo if weather permitted. We went to the mall, watched our high school sports, and spent Saturday night watching open-captioned films. Some weekends the dormitory was filled with boredom.
Why did I stay in the dorm on weekends when I knew it would be so boring? I am not so sure, but my mother told me to stay there. Maybe it was a way to prepare me since in few years, I will be in high school. The high school sports were usually played on Fridays and Saturdays. Meaning, I would have to stay there over the weekends. In my whole primary years, I think I stayed once or twice on weekends. During middle schools, I stayed at the dorm on weekends once a month, but in high school, I usually went home only once a month during sports season.
In seventh grade, my classes were held in a different building. This time, I rotated among eight different teachers. I had classes in the high school, vocational building, and gym. My schedule was much different from my previous years when I spent all my time in one building. I always enjoyed going to school more than staying in the dormitory.
In middle school I played many sports. Sports allowed me to get away from the dormitory, which was filled with many unnecessary rules, such as no food or drink in the living room. No playing outside without adult supervision, even though it was safe outside. Also, we had study hour at specific time, and even if I didn’t have any homework, I had to go. These rules were broken many times. Sometimes we might be grounded and had to stay in our room for the evening. Usually, if one of us did something wrong, all of us would be punished. There was not usually punishment for just one person, unless it was serious misconduct.
From primary through middle school, we always had school plays two or three times per year where all students acted in front of the audiences. The audiences were usually NSD high school students, staff, teachers, and students’ parents. The primary and middle school plays were performances by holidays. For example, at either Thanksgiving or Christmas, the primary students gave the performance, while in spring, for Easter, middle school students did theirs. Then next year, primary students did the spring play and middle school did the fall or winter plays. Being involved in the school plays was fun things to do. I enjoyed acting and learned to memorize the lines or new songs.
When I was in seventh grade, each class level had a performance about an international culture. As for my classmates, we did the Japanese culture. The boys in my class did judo for the play and the girls wore kimonos. I was thrilled wearing one and also shoes that had two pieces of wood on the bottom. It was difficult to walk with that kind of shoes. We sat on the floor on huge pillows drinking tea. When we practiced and practiced for the play, the tea pot was empty. But, the director told us just act like you were pouring. I gave an idea to the director. “Why not add a soda pop to pretend it was tea.” We drank and drank a lot of soda pop during the play.
Each year, before the school year was finished, awards were given to outstanding students, sports awards and others. In junior high, I was honored by the Women’s Chamber of Commerce in Omaha as an Outstanding Eighth Grade Girl. I also had many honor roll awards. Twice I earned awards as the Most Valuable Player—once for volleyball and once for track.
I was so excited when school ended knowing I will be home all summer long, but summer always seemed too short. I would feel like I just got home, and here would come August and my big blue suitcase would be brought out.