Can You Read The Signs?

There are a number of activities at the resort here…some just for fun and some educational.  One that piqued my interest this season was a sign language class.  I’ve always had a fascination with languages having taken French for half of 1st grade (teacher got pregnant and was never replaced J), Spanish in high school plus some in college, and sign language on my own to some degree when I was younger. I had a card that showed the fingerspelling alphabet and watched a PBS show that taught sign language.  Of course, as with all things, if you don’t use it, you lose it so I never

really became proficient at any of them.  The woman teaching this class, Kathy, is from Canada and was born deaf.  It was held for an hour once a week, and except for 2 weeks when company was in town, I didn’t miss any.  There were generally about 8 - 10 of us each week, with occasional visitors, but the core of the group has known Kathy for a couple of years and “speak” with her all the time while they’re all here but are still learning, too.  Unfortunately I didn’t know about this class last year so missed out on a whole season!  Each week we reviewed the alphabet, learned new words, reviewed the previous week’s, had pop quizzes, and had to create our own sentences which we would have to sign in front of the class to see if they could understand

what we were saying (talk about nerve wracking!)  One thing we learned is that the hearing world is not very expressive when we speak whereas for the deaf, facial expression is a key component to what is being said. Shoot, we were too busy concentrating on what we were trying to say!

One week classmate Vickie shared something very special with us.  Every year her family has a reunion and there’s a talent show.  She says she can’t sing, dance, or play an instrument, but last year she had worked hard at learning to sign
a song to perform for the family, and in tribute to Kathy, she performed it for us.  She signed along to singer Israel’s version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow/ What a Wonderful World, and I tell you there was not a dry eye when she finished.  What an incredibly beautiful gift for all of us.  This class brought together a great group of people, and I can’t say enough wonderful things about Kathy.  Not only was it educational but she definitely made it fun and has the patience of a saint!  Can’t wait till next year…guess I better practice!

 

I’ve also had the opportunity to once again visit the Sisters of Sound Chorus (www.sistersofsound.org) this winter.  You may recall that they are part of Harmony, Inc. (www.harmonyinc.org), the other women’s barbershop organization, and the group that I got the chance to sing with Christmas 2013.  I’ve stayed in touch with a couple of the ladies, and it was so good to see them again as well as their director, Shannon, who was out of
town when I sang with them.  He always makes me feel so welcome!  On this particular evening they were going to be coached by two of the organization’s judges, Susan Wood (Music) and Trayce Elenteny (Singing), a couple of extremely talented women.  (For my Sweet Adelines friends, keep in mind that their judging categories, song selections, performances, and competition standards more closely mirror the men’s Barbershop
Harmony Society guidelines thus the different terminology.)  I knew ahead of time the coaches would be there and looked forward to watching and learning from them.  Once they started working on the contest songs, I stepped out, observed, and took photos.  Shannon directs the chorus on one of the contest songs, and asst. director, Tatiana, directs the other so while one was directing and
being coached by one of the ladies, the other would be listening and picking up tips from the other coach.  At the end of the evening, they had me, another guest Nada, and the coaches join Shannon in front of them while they sang a welcoming song to us called Prelude to Harmony.  What a great ending to a wonderful evening.

 

Every winter we’re in town, I make it a point to get together with one of my best friends.  Linda and I have known each other since 4th grade, but she has lived in Tampa for years.  She makes it a day
trip coming to see me, and this time we decided to head up to the historic downtown Clermont area to hit the shops.  When we arrived, we discovered a Farmer’s Market and evidently it’s held every Sunday…I had no idea!  We had a great time checking out all of the booths and saw a restaurant we wanted to check out for lunch.  Now the funny thing was that the minute we walked in the door, we both realized it was the same place where we had eaten the year before!  Cheeser’s Palace Café
(www.cheeserspalace.com) has a nice selection with exceptional customer service.  Afterwards we hit a big thrift store a few miles down the road, visited some more over Starbucks, and then it was time for her to take me home and head back to Tampa.  Before she left, Russ took our picture behind the neighbor’s lawn art. J  No matter what we do, Linda and I always enjoy our time together and hope we get another chance before I leave town.