If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
I had just sat thru roughly a half hour session conversing with one of my hard-of-hearing Buzzy friends at the counter.
Having several such individuals who come into the Store quite frequently, I am well practiced, to paraphrase Mick, at the “art of reception” i.e. conversing with semi-deaf people. I lean in, I speak up a little, try to be patient, hit the repeat button and muddle thru as best I can. It’s not too bad overall because it is the usual barroom banter about weather, life, people, places and things. In general, I don’t mind it too much even if I do have to keep repeating myself.
That said however, after my first hard-of-hearing dude left, a second semi-deaf friend came in and he too sat down at the counter. I guess my patience quota for interacting with the deaf had pretty much run its course by this time because, like Dale, I hit the wall. After a few repeat and repeat volleys with my friend, I felt the ole clock in my head ticking to the point where I go off and yell at him.
Instead, I excused myself to re-load the beer case which really did need reloading. Thus, my second HoH friend had no idea just how close he was to hearing very clearly, without me needing to repeat it, what I really wanted to say to him which was “GET A GODDAMN HEARING AID WHY DON’T YOU!” (Ok, so maybe Mick was correct after all about this being the “art of deception.”)
You know the Stones’ version of this, but check out Susan and Derek’s cover. Catch Derek’s solo at 3:55 and stay for the “art of deception” verse sung by Mark Rivers (5:35.) Jimmy Herring then finishes up with another great solo.
