Revelation at the YumYum Palace
D.K. Said....." I see people signing on the metro every day. I've been told it's rude to watch - sort of like eavesdropping, so I try not to look, lest they think I'm prying..."
When I was sixteen I worked at Six Flags Great Adventure. Most sixteen year olds were smart enough to work in the Concessions Department, the Games Department or the Rides Department. For reasons unknown, I applied for Foods.
Foods was the Department you transferred from. They had the biggest need, and those who did not get the easy jobs wound up doing here. They took me with open greasy arms and didnt let go for three summers.
The people in the Marketing Department had the duty to fill the Park on days that noone would come. Spring and fall weekedays were extra dead with everyone in school. They would have 'Physics Day' and High Schools Science classes would bus in to ride 'Freefall' with a sign posted in the que describing gravity. They have days for various religeous groups and also a 'deaf awareness' day for Deaf Community Groups.
On Deaf Day I was working in YumYum palace. It was one of the larger indoor restaurants that sold overpriced hamburgers and ice-cream. The outside of the building was made out of Molded Fiberglass Colums that looked like stacks of hard-scooped ice-cream. The roof was made out of Fiberglass Whipped-Cream and cherries. In between the scoops was thick plate-glass windows that went from floor to ceiling.
I was wiping Ketchup and Goo from the tables that I realized that the restaurant was 1. Packed and 2. Completely Silent. All around me whole families we having wildy animated conversations with their hands. People stood in a line that went out the door, placing their orders with handwritten notes. Tiny chidren signed frantically for "ICE CREAM!, ICE CREAM"
One conversation I remember in particular was between two men who stood a foot and a half apart. One was outside and the other inside of the plate-glass wall. Their body language was comletely relaxed as they joked and pasted the time (no doubt waiting for somebody in line). Had you removed the glass they could have been at a BBQ or Cocktail Party.
2 comments:
I agree with Sangroncito, how interesting to think that a barrier like a plate glass window would make complicated verbal communications impossible for us, but it's no impediment whatsoever for the deaf.
And, come to think of it, a while ago I was complaining that the culture allows people to chat away on cell phones while on public transportation, which is extremely annoying - but the deaf are completely quiet, like everyone ought to be.
Your description of the facade of the restaurant sounds like a Dali painting... I've been to a Six Flags, but I guess I don't notice stuff like that. :)
it was the casulness of the situation that struck me. You and I would be talking loudly, fogging up the glass and using large sweeping motions to communicate in that situation.
I bought a book on sign language after that, but have since forgotten it all....
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