The most striking landmark from my childhood.
Growing up, books were essentials. Life was filled with puzzles and camping trips and novels. Running around on the Prairies and summering in Montana or the Rockies are probably the among most memorable pre-teen moments; and I remember pretending to be in Owl and the Family and other influential children’s novels. By the time I was 10, the school board was accusing the parents of doing the homework since I was already reading novellas and texts designed for post-secondary. However it wasn’t a child prodigy in the making; simply, there was nothing else to do.
See, I don’t mention the following detail before because it’s irrelevant, and it still is, but I am Deaf, with the big D, the one which implies ethnic identity, born to hearing parents. American Sign Language is the first of six languages; and I learned how to read and write years before being able to speak. In fact, I didn’t speak until after the critical window of lingual acquisition has closed; which would be around the age of 7 or 8. Or that’s how life goes.
However the mainstream seldom even acknowledges I am deaf because the stereotypical accent isn’t there and it’s not apparent until one starts looking for faults. Technically, the phrase, “you speak really well for a deaf person,” is a backhanded compliment; even if it’s sincere, subconscious mind is not subtle. However, “Hard-of-Hearing” is not really an appropriate label as it implies acquired hearing loss. Even the politically correct “hearing-impaired,” or merely suggesting “disability” or
“welfare,” is a sure-fire way for me to go out of my way to purposely discriminate against the coverts unfiltered. So what does the above reality have to do with anything?
You know the black box with white texts? That. Captioning was first demonstrated in 1971; and while there were a few shows such, as The French Chef with captionings, they did not become an integral part of American lives until about three years after the Americans with Disability Act of 1990 passed; and the Television Decoder Circuitry Act the following year. However even in the early ’90s, not everyone had the means to afford a new TV with a decoder chip.
My family was one of those who could not afford to purchase new technology. If we wanted closed captioning, we would have to rent TeleCaption II, a bulky decoder box produced in the late ’70s; or wait until school starts for an interpreter stand beside the screen. Remember, Canadians tend to be technologically behind Americans by five years. Most of the time, we would head over to a more affluent household, but even then, it was majority democracy; and in monolingual North America, most born-and-raised find captionings to be distracting– sometimes even offensive.
For instance, Jurassic Park is one of the all-time favourite childhood movies since its premiere on the big screen in 1993; however every time it was shown on VHS, the captioning was always disabled. I don’t recall ever knowing the dialogue until the year 2000, two years after purchasing a new TV during the big move to the boonies. It wasn’t until I became socially withdrawn as a teenager, captioning and subtitle became a regular feature of my life. Then it occurred to me: why am I bending over for the mainstream? This epiphany came about the age of 21.
To a large extent, people say they are egalitarian; but many seldom practice it. I still have fights with girlfriends, obviously all are now exes, and roommates, all former, over this issue. Don’t touch the freakin’ TV. If I am chipping in my share, or if I own the lease, don’t even think about changing the settings. Doing so otherwise is being hypocritical about equal access. So shove it.
Before taking pity, or being condescending: save it. It just brings out the fiesty side. Consider this: if I was “hearing”, the end result would be a self-compromising under-educated slack-jawed roughneck judging by the standards of the rest of the family who more or less share the same philosophy and are equally just as “intelligent” if not of higher IQ. They pretend to be stupid so they wouldn’t be rejected by their peers, but are actually quite articulate during the downtimes. That lifestyle is not one bit appealling. Not one bit.
However, despite the lack of access to captionings growing up, TV was still an integral part of my life. The huge thing was nature documentaries; and lots of them. Even though the narrators often mumbled, the shows strengthened the neurons into dense synapses by applying book knowledge upon observations. Everything made sense. Even to this day, it is still a preferred methodology: read, observe, apply, attempt; quite unorthodox for someone whose true strength is rooted in hands-on learning.
So why the long-winded discourse? Read on. It will makes sense.
One of the favourite shows was John Acorn’s Nature Nut which airred throughout the the last decade of the 20th century. After all, he was an Albertan like me, and he likes bugs like I did! The tune was in my head, but the lyrics was never revealed until an Australian friend transcribed it few months ago. Now the words echo loud and clear. Although there is a set floating around the ‘net, it never occurred to me to even bother searching. The show means a lot, and there is no copy of the song or the lyrics anywhere on the ‘net other than a MP3 hosted on the official website and this clip:
The lyrics, courtesy of Chez, is as followed:
Well, I’m a nature nut, I’m not afraid to admit
I’m wild about the wild things and I’m proud of it
I’m just a simple case, open and shut
No doubt about it, I’m a nature nut!Today we will go bird watching
Tomorrow we’ll catch toads
The next day we’ll take photographs of bugs along the road.I never get the feeling that I’m in a rut
that’s why I’m a nature nut.Well, I’m a nature nut, I’m not afraid to admit
I’m wild about the wild things and I’m proud of it
I’m just a simple case, open and shut
No doubt about it, I’m a nature nut!
From my experience, most people don’t listen anyway; they hear, but they don’t usually remember; however such a silly singsong is quite nostalgic. In hindsight, it is so much more fun not knowing and trying to figure things out one’s own through applying what is already read. So, there is no regrets.
It is tadbit like this which are precious. It has been eons since this show was last airred. Sadly, there are not a lot of demands for nature documentaries anymore these days: and many which still exist are “reality shows”-inspired or are Crocodile Hunter spinoffs. Granted, Jeff Corwin and David Attenborough are still popular and are greatly admired, but they are part of a dying genre.
Images
Music from the Soul Marathon : Shawn Pinder’s Interview 2008. ahotu Marathons. http://marathons.ahotu.com/archives/139-music-from-the-soul-marathon-shawn-pinder-s-interview (accessed August 7, 2011). [Image: Richard Peat]
Follow Us!