[misc.handicap] ASL lit.4

James.Womack@f14.n300.z1.fidonet.org (James Womack) (04/17/91)

Index Number: 14995

[This is from the Silent Talk Conference]

        Most deaf people should know that story.  That's a good
example of how a story has been passed down through the generations.
(Response:  There are also ABC poems.)  Yes, ABC stories are another
example.  Does anyone know the motel story?  Yo u do?  See, you are
ready!  Some of you don't know the motel story.  O.K.  That's another
favorite story.
        A deaf husband and wife are driving along on their vacation.
They become tired and decide to stop and stay overnight at a motel.
The husband asks his wife if she would mind registering them for a
room while he goes and gets a newspaper.  Th e wife agrees so the
husband leaves to look for a newspaper.  When he gets back, the office
is closed.  His wife has already registered and gone to their room.
The husband doesn't know the room number.  He doesn't know which door
to knock at.  He th inks about it for a minute trying to decide what
to do.  He backs up his car into a parking space and blasts the car
horn.  All the light in the motel rooms go on except for one!  He
knows that the dark room is the room his wife is in.
        That is another example of an ASL story.  That story is
essentially the same no matter where you hear it.  That is an example
of what literature is.  It is passed down through the generations.  If
it is oral literature, it must be a story tha t most people know and
that has existed for a long time by being passed down through the
generations.  The motel story and the hitchhiker story are examples of
literature that we have already established in our culture.  We have
oral literature.  (Re sponse:  Another example is the "but" story.)
Yes, that's right.  The "but" story or the train story is another
example.  Do you know that story?  No?  You can't remember it?  O.K.,
I'll tell you a third story.
        A  deaf man is driving to work.  The traffic is backed up at a
railroad crossing because the crossbars are down.  The man watches and
waits for the train to pass but no train comes.  After a while the
deaf man notices a booth at the side of t he railroad crossing inside
which a man who controls the crossbars is sitting.  The deaf man waits
and waits for the crossbars to go up.  He is becoming worried that he
will be late for work.  He decides to get out of his car, walk over to
the booth, and find out what is going on.  When he gets to the booth,
he pulls a pad of paper and a pencil out of his shirt pocket and
labors over how to write his request.  He writes "Please but" and
shows it to the man in the booth.  Of course the man looks at the note
and can't understand it.  That's another famous story!

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