A LITTLE BOOK OF HUMOR: THE FUNNY SIDE OF BEING A HARD OF HEARING KID You grow up the day you have your first real laugh – at yourself. Ethel Barrymore A big thank you to all the kids who shared their humor for this book! Being hard of hearing can be a challenge – it can be frustrating, embarrassing and tiresome. However, once you are able to step back and see the funny things that happen because you are hard of hearing, it can change your perspective! Suddenly, you don’t concentrate on all the negatives about having a hearing loss – you begin to see that if you can smile and sometimes even laugh about the embarrassing stuff – you become a lot more comfortable about being hard of hearing. I hope you enjoy this book! I also hope you will share your funny experiences with us so we can add it to this “little book” (and maybe someday it will become a BIG book!). Sincerely, Mary Bauer Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services - Metro E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 651/431-5957 TTY: 1-888-206-6513 A LITTLE BOOK OF HUMOR: THE FUNNY SIDE OF BEING A HARD OF HEARING KID Compiled and Edited by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services – Metro Office October, 2000 4th Edition NOTICE: Share the laughter… Permission is given to make copies of this book for your hard of hearing students and for parents of your hard of hearing students. SOME FUNNY EXPERIENCES… 1 [When I was about 6 years old], I was playing this video game [while my mom was shopping], and this little boy came up and asked if he could play. I said, “Yeah, in just a minute.” I finished my game and handed him the controls. The little boy said, “I need those things, too!” and he pointed to my hearing aids! The little boy’s big brother said, “No, those are his hearing aids!” Nick Jefferson Eden Prairie, MN 2 I was flying in an airplane with my sister to Maryland to visit my dad. An old lady right next to me heard me singing and she asked me if my hearing aids were a radio. I said no, I was just singing to myself. But I wish there were radios in my hearing aids! Angela Zellen Eagan, MN ******************************************* I was 3 ½ when I got my hearing aids. The little girl next door was 2 ½. She wanted “ear rings” like me. She thought they were cool. Then one day her mom asked her if she was listening and she said, “I need hearing aids like Mike.” Michael Welf Eden Prairie, MN ******************************************* We thought my hearing had gone down, but actually I had a piece of cotton stuck in my ear. Suzanne Haas Cottage Grove, MN 3 One day, I was wearing my FM system in the fifth grade. The FM system started to have the radio or the channel five news on it. So whenever the teacher was talking, I would not be able to hear the teacher then I would be listening to the radio or the channel five news. I didn’t mind! Tami L. Hemmingson Cottage Grove, MN ******************************************* One day when we were going to church and my dad had my hearing aid in his pocket (because I had my FM on). During the church service my hearing aid started whistling. People thought it was the microphones [in the church]. Then my dad realized it was my hearing aid! So my mom had to take it outside and turn it off. My dad had to go up front and tell them what happened! Everybody looked at me! My family and I were so embarrassed! eee ee e Sarah Roethel Detroit Lakes, MN ******************************************* There was this girl in one of my classes. She would talk to me as if I was really deaf. She didn’t know if I could talk because I didn’t talk very much in class. She wrote me a letter and asked if I could talk, and I looked at her and said I could talk. Her face got red, and I said it was OK because I didn’t talk much in class. From that day on she would talk to me instead of signing to me. Shing Thao St. Paul Park, MN 4 When I was 18 months old, I got my first set of hearing aids. When I ran down the hall, suddenly I stopped. I turned around, my eyes as wide as saucers, and said, “Mommy, mommy, my feet make noise!” It was the first time I ever heard my own footsteps. Sam Olson Fairmont, MN STOMP, STOMP, STOMP!! ******************************************* When I was little, about 6 years old, my family all went to a signing class. Our teacher told us to form a circle to play a game. One person stands in the middle of the circle with their eyes covered. Someone in the circle was to start signing or doing an action, and everyone else was to copy him. The person in the middle needed to open his eyes and guess who was the person changing the signs. When it was my turn to go inside the circle, I covered my eyes with my hands. The bell rang and everyone in the circle went and sat down, including my loving family. I stood there, in the middle of a nonexistent circle waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder to tell me to start. I waited and waited and waited. Finally I opened my eyes and I was so embarrassed. No one noticed except my family, and they laughed. At the time, it wasn’t funny. Now I can laugh about it. Jessica Urban Truman, MN 5 Last year I was in 7th grade math. I really hated math because it is always boring. My sister, Tami, was in 8th grade health. My class was right across from her class and we both were wearing a FM system. Then one day, I could hear her class but she couldn’t hear mine. It was funny because my teacher asked me a question – I didn’t answer because Tami’s class was more interesting than my class was anyway. Then my teacher shouted the question. I still didn’t answer. Everyone in my class started laughing. My teacher came up to me and asked, “Why didn’t you answer my question?” I told her, “It was because my FM system was interfering with my sister’s FM system. I was listening to find out what they were learning about in health.” I got away with it because our classes were so close to each other. Sarah Hemmingson Cottage Grove, MN ******************************************* When I was still using the FM system, the teachers would always forget to turn it off. Whenever they were talking to another teacher, I could hear what they were talking about. They would talk about what kinds of movie to show to the class, and they would talk about how their students were doing in class and how they were behaving. Shing Thao St. Paul Park, MN 6 When I was in preschool, my mom would drop me off at speech class and come pick me up in an hour. One day, my mom came into the school and heard someone yelling at the top of his lungs. My mom thought that someone was really in trouble and was catching the dickens. When she got to the other side of the school, where the yelling was coming from, she rounded the corner and realized the principal was yelling at me. My mom gave the principal a strange look and he said, “See, she can hear me.” My mom said, “Yeah, but so can the people 10 miles away!” Jessica Urban Truman, MN ******************************************* In dance [class] when my dance teacher said to dance, I made up a dance. Everybody laughed because I was supposed to do my dance part. Elizabeth Dropps Taylors Falls, MN ******************************************* A girl in my class never talked to me because she didn’t know how to sign. So one day as I was talking to the teacher, she looked and said, “You could hear the teacher?” I said, “Of course. If I didn’t, would I be getting a B in this class?” From that day on she would talk to me. Sometimes we got in trouble because we were talking too much! Shing Thao St. Paul Park, MN 7 THE ”POPULAR” QUESTION PEOPLE ASK WHEN THEY SEE A HEARING AID IN YOU EAR IS… “WHAT IS THAT THING IN YOUR EAR?” 8 HERE ARE SOME OF YOUR ANSWERS… ¾ An electric wax collector. ¾ [It’s my] third ear. ¾ My beeper. ¾ My musical chimes. ¾ What things in my ears? ¾ A new fashion statement. Suzanne Haas Cottage Grove, MN ******************************************* Ever since I was in Elementary School, people would always ask me, “What is that in your ear?” I had always been making jokes like it is a part of my earrings, a part of my clothes, etc. After I was finished with the jokes, I usually told the people that it was a hearing aid that helped to hear things better because I was hard of hearing. Sarah Hemmingson Cottage Grove, MN 9 • I don’t want to listen to the teacher’s boring speech so I use these to plug my ears. • It is my cool new radio my mom got me. • I am working with the FBI. This is a radio that I can hear what is going on down at the station. • They are a new earring style. Do you like them? Shing Thao St. Paul Park, MN ******************************************* ♦ Earplugs, so I don’t have to listen to the teacher! ♦ My radio communication with outer space. ♦ To keep my brain inside my head. Sarah Roethel Detroit Lakes, MN ****************************************** ♦ In school I get bored so I’m listening to the radio. ♦ No, it’s ok. I just got something from S”ears”. Jessica Urban Truman, MN 10 ¾ They are my pet aliens. ¾ They are my eyes. ¾ They are antenna for my brain. ¾ They are goo coming out of my ears. Andy Dropps Taylors Falls, MN ******************************************* What deers? I don’t have any deers! What? What’s wrong? A secret dialing device to call Superman! A secret phone. Lucus Wilde Eden Prairie, MN 11 Haven’t you heard? It is a new style and it is an earring for inside of your ear. It is my radio transmitter. I am working undercover for the St. Paul Park police. It grew in my ear during the evening. Tami L. Hemmingson Cottage Grove, MN ******************************************* They are arms for my brain. They are radios. They are ear coats. Alex Dropps Taylors Falls, MN 12 THOSE PESKY WORDS THAT SOUND LIKE OTHER WORDS! FAN or PAN ? BOX or FOX ? FIFTY BYE or FIFTEEN ? or 13 HI ? I was talking to 3 sisters (2 hearing and one deaf) and they were talking about a song they were doing for a dance recital. I thought they said the name of the song was “I’m a Doorbell.” I said to them, “That is the silliest title of a song I have EVER heard of! You’re a doorbell? Like, ‘ding dong, Avon calling’?” They all started laughing!!! I said, “What?” They said, “No, no! It’s, I’m Adorable, not I’m a Doorbell.” We laughed and laughed and then they went to tell their parents. Ever since then, every time I talk to them or they talk to me, my name is Mary “Doorbell” Bauer! So beware of words that sound similar – you can totally misunderstand. But just think – you might get a new nickname and you might laugh a lot when it happens to you! Mary Bauer St. Paul, MN (I’m not a kid anymore, but I have been hard of hearing since I was born!) 14 My dad once told me to get out the grill but I said, “Where is the drill?” or Lucas Wilde Eden Prairie, MN ******************************************* You said you want to see the rabbits. No. I said I’m going to see the cabbage. Alex Dropps Taylors Falls, MN 15 I was making tomato soup when my mom said to put it on five but I put it on high. Then the soup boiled over and spilled. Elizabeth Dropps Taylors Falls, MN ******************************************* I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America… …and to the Republican for Witches stand. GOP GOP GOP GOP Chris always wondered what that line in the pledge meant. Christopher VanDyke Hibbing, MN 16 When I was a little girl, we went to deaf camp at Lake Shetek. One part of the camp, the parents go to classes and the kids go do stuff around the camp. This year, it rained so we all went in to watch a movie. When my parents got out of the class, they asked what we did. I said we watched a movie. “What movie did you watch?” “We watched Four Skunks.” “Four Skunks?” I’ve never heard of that movie.” “Yes, mom, you’ve seen it.” “I’ve never ever heard of the movie Four Skunks.” “Yes mom, the man ran and ran and ran.” “Oh, “ my mom said, “You mean Forrest Gump!” Because I was too little to read fast enough [for the captioning], I just read people’s lips and Forrest Gump didn’t make sense to me [so I picked something that I thought made sense – Four Skunks!] Jessica Urban Truman, MN 17 Andy, can you go get some butter? Okay. Not the tape. Butter. THE END Oh… Andy Dropps Taylors Falls, MN 18 OLDIES BUT GOODIES! DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT… ? There were 3 deaf ladies sitting on a train. The first lady said, “It’s windy out there.”. The second lady said, “It’s not Wednesday, it’s Thursday The third lady replied, “Yes I’m thirsty, too, let’s go get a coke.” Retold by Jessica Urban Truman, MN 19 AND FINALLY… 20 …SOMETIMES THERE ARE ADVANTAGES OF BEING ABLE TO TAKE OFF YOUR HEARING AIDS! I’m sleeping in my bed without my hearing aid. Lindsey Sutter Eagan, MN 21 THE END If you would like to share a funny experience about being a hard of hearing kid, please see the center of this booklet for more details. We plan to update and expand A Little Book of Humor: The Funny Side of Being a Hard of Hearing Kid every year (IF we get enough new stories every year!). Compiled and Edited by Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services – Metro Office 444 Lafayette Road North St. Paul, MN 55155-3814 This information is available in other forms to people with disabilities by calling 651-431-5940 (Voice) or 1-888-206-6516 (TTY). For speech to-speech telephone re-voice services, contact us through Minnesota Relay at 1-877-627-3848. What are your responses (funny ones!) to people who ask you, “What are those things in your ears?” Name_______________________________________ Age_________________ Grade__________________ Town State Something funny that happened to me because of my hearing loss is... ( After writing about your experience, if you want to, you can draw a picture to go along with the story.) Name_______________________________________ Age_________________ Grade__________________ Town State Consent for the Release of Information For Public Information Purposes I, ______________________________________, give the Minnesota Department of Human Services the right to use my child’s humorous anecdote, name, and city as follows: Content of anecdote: example of using humor to successfully cope with being hard of hearing. Released to: Mary Bauer and Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services. For the purpose of expanding the booklet, A Little Book of Humor: The Funny Side of Being a Hard of Hearing Kid, highlighting humorous anecdotes to share with other hard of hearing kids, their family members, teachers, and other interested parties. I understand that I do not have the right to review and approve the anecdote prior to its release. I also understand that I may revoke this consent at any time unless the information has already been approved for printing. I also understand that I will not get paid for the use of this information. ____________________________________________________ Child’s Name ____________________________________________________ Parent/Guardian Signature (_________)______________________________ Phone Number ________________________ Date If you would like a copy of A Little Book of Humor: The Funny Side of Being a Hard of Hearing Kid please include your address: ____________________________________________________ Name ____________________________________________________ Street ____________________________________________________ City, State, Zip Code Mail your anecdote and this consent form to: Mary Bauer Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services - Metro 444 Lafayette Road North St. Paul, MN 55155-3814