Sign with Me

It's interesting how many people I've talked to at the zoo who know ASL (American Sign Language). I usually notice them when I'm working upstairs. I ring them up just like I always do, and at some point I glance up and catch a few signs that I recongize. At this point, I get pretty excited and ask, "Is that sign?" When they confirm that yes, it is sign, we usually get into a lively conversation about why they sign and how I want to learn more. I tell them how I am hard of hearing and how my dad wouldn't let me learn sign as a kid because he was told that I wouldn't learn to talk if I was taught to sign. In any event, I learned how to sign regardless and I love to sign with people at the zoo.

Yesterday (7/7/07) while I was on my ten minute break outside, a woman asked me (and signed at the same time) if I was deaf because she saw my hearing aids. I replied that I wasn't, but that I am hard of hearing. She told me that one of the guys she was sitting with was deaf. Interested, I asked him how he was doing in sign lanague. He replied (and spoke too) that he was fine. They told me they were at the zoo for a company picnic (T Mobile). I told them I work in the gift shop and they asked me if we sold water. I said that we do and told them how big the bottles were and how much they cost. At one point they asked me where the fish were. At that point, I had to spell out the name of the reptile house with my fingers, which took awhile. We had a nice time chatting before I had to go back inside because my break was over.

Also yesterday, a woman told me that she started signing with her husband and her two year old because she wanted her kid to be able to tell her what it wanted without screaming all the time. I didn't see the two year old, but the mother told me that the kid can sign pretty well. This had to be the best idea I'd ever heard. I am totally going to teach my kids (when I have them) how to sign. Although, I'll have to teach myself first.

Defintely the Strangest Question Ever

Sometimes I think there should be awards given to the people who ask me the strangest questions while I'm working at the gift shop. There are common questions of course, such as:

-Where's the bathroom (or some version of a bathroom question)?
- How much is/does this cost?
- Can I pay for this up there? (we have two floors)
- How much do memberships cost?
- Do you sell water in here?
- Where's the sunscreen?

That being said, I doubt anyone could ever top the question a short, somewhat chubby 8-10 year old boy asked me one day while I was working upstairs.

Boy: Do you have...um...a building that has hunting stuff in it?
Me: [confused] You mean like toy guns and stuff?
Boy:No . . .do you have a building or a place where . . .[thinks] a shooting range?
Me: [dumbstruck] A firing range? I don't know of anything like that around here and I don't know why the zoo would even have a place like that. So, no we don't. Sorry about that.
Boy: [looks disappointed] Oh, ok.

He walked away after that, leaving me standing there wondering why a litttle boy would think a zoo would have a shooting range. Maybe he didn't quite understand the purpose of a zoo, I thought. As it turns out, there are some old zoos in places like the south that have carnival-like shooting ranges that are sarafi themed. Mondern zoos don't have stuff like that. I know this only because I asked a manger about it later.

So, yeah. . .that kid wins the strangest question ever award.