Shel so many thanks for starting this thread!!! You have gotten so many of the old timers to appear. I am an "in betweener" compared to a number showing up having jointed in 2011.
I do miss much of the old site and still feel that the banning was taken toooo far.
I don't know if any of you remember my experiences regarding ASL. I grew up single sided having lost the left ear after an infection in that ear following measles at the age of 5. By then I could really talk but don't remember hearing from both sides. But the right ear remained very good into adulthood so all I did in school was sit close to the teacher (most at the front of the class but one in high school used a blackboard (really a blackboard written on with chalk) that was at the side so I sat close to that. I was in my 30's when the right ear had gone down enough start wearing a hearing aid. I was sometime in the 1980's that Kaskaskia College (local community college) offered night classes in ASL. I took it two different semesters and made NO contacts to use it afterwards. It has been soooo many years since I saw anyone use ASL and only once that I am sure of with no idea of the date. My right ear is now very profound and I really make use of apps like Live Transcribe by Google and InnoCaption. I have also use the Relay on my landline since it started.
I have long since been retired. In 1989 I went from no houses to two in a week and one day. My mother had been the last one of the previous generation and she died a week and one day after I closed on the house I still live in. She had been in the one that my grandparents added on to as they had 7 kids. It had/has two large bedrooms, living room, dinning room, kitchen, hallway/laundry, a bathroom and enclosed back porch on the first floor. Upstairs were 3 more bedroom one of which you had to go through to get to either of the others. An attic just off them was also high enough in the center to stand up in. What I bought is two bedroom, one bath, dinning area, kitchen and laundry all on one floor. The only thing I have added is to enclose the front porch so you don't go directly into the living room. I sold the big one which my grandparents and an aunt who changed it to an enclosed back porch had added to from the 3 rooms it started as in the 1890's.
Well I got kinda carried away with remembering things. But rather than edit I will let you skip over whatever bores you. For me it has been great to read things from those that had been missing and hope more show up.