Beggars on the corner

Crimson1967 said:

I saw the guy on more than one occasion and I'm pretty sure he was really deaf and mute. A guy I knew at the time who had owned a restaurant in the area said he used to come in his place until he kicked him out.

I never game him any money.

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I wouldn't have given him anything, but there's a bit of a background. When I was just a kid, there was a barber in the shop where I got my hair cut that was deaf mute. He seemed lonely, so I started in to learn ASL. Never forgot it. Years later, perhaps eight or so, I was in college and with a group driving down from from T-Town to Mobile. There was a chain gang working in the median, near Mobile, when #69 went to four lane somewhere around Theodore. They'd slowed traffic down and I looked over and the former barber was on the chain gang. He and I locked eyes for a very long several seconds.

They're frequently misunderstood. Years after that, I had a friend whose client was also deaf mute and was accused of aggravated assault. He was a tree nursery worker. He'd cold-cocked two guys with two right hooks. ("Deaf" does not mean "weak.") As I questioned him, his story, naturally came out quite differently than theirs. They were harassing him; it was almost dark, and, basically, he didn't know what was going on. When they moved in and got physical, he took care of them both. With their broken jaws, they wanted redress. I volunteered to interpret.

At the trial, the two guys with broken jaws testified first, and then our defendant did. When the assistant DA, a fine man, I might add, got up, he said "Earle, aren't you going to interpret for me?" I said "Jim, you know I don't have to." However, I did. He failed to put me under oath, but I played it down the middle. The judge was very deaf and wore two hearing aids, so, as you might expect, the defendant was acquitted. In fact, the judge tried to get me to take him to Beltone. I had to explain that he had been profoundly nerve-deaf since birth and there was no help for him, at that time.

After the trial, the prosecutor told me that, when the defendant described what he'd done to the complainants, he pounded his fist into his hand, "I thought I had him then." I just smiled and didn't remind him of the two wires dangling from the judge's ears...