Jack R. Gannon - Get Your Elbow Off the Horn: Stories through the Years

Deaf Lives
A Series Edited by Kristen C. Harmon

Gallaudet University Press
Washington, DC 20002
http://gupress.gallaudet.edu

2020 by Gallaudet University
All rights reserved. Published 2020
Printed in the United States of America

ISBN (paperback) 978-1-944838-65-2
ISBN (ebook) 978-1-944838-66-9

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gannon, Jack R., author.

Title: Get your elbow off the horn : stories through the years / Jack R. Gannon.

Description: Washington : Gallaudet University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references. | Summary: A collection of short stories about Jack Gannons life and family. Many of the stories also detail and recount Jacks experiences as a student, teacher, and coach at schools for the deafProvided by publisher.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019050715 (print) | LCCN 2019050716 (ebook) | ISBN 9781944838652 (paperback) | ISBN 9781944838669 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Gannon, Jack R. | Teachers of the deafUnited StatesBiography. | DeafMeans of communicationUnited States. | American Sign Language.

Classification: LCC HV2426.G36 G36 2020 (print) | LCC HV2426.G36 (ebook) | DDC 371.91/2092 [B]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050715

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019050716

This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992
(Permanence of Paper).

Cover and interior design by Eric C. Wilder

To Rosalyn Lee Gannon, with gratitude for making everything possible.

There would be no book and no life without you.

Jack R. Gannon, my father, has dedicated his adult life to the Deaf community. He has been an important leader and activist, a prolific author, and has had many more significant roles in helping improve the lives of Deaf people. He has always staunchly advocated for full access to American Sign Language, for the importance of Deaf role models for younger Deaf youth, and for raising awareness in the hearing world of what Deaf individuals are capable of achieving.

To me, his most important role is that of my fathermy Pops. He has been my dad, my teacher, my support, my editor-in-chief, and my first friend. In our parent-child relationship, I wasnt able to call out to my parents, and as a result, got stuck in a tree longer than the other kids on the block or had other similar unique experiences (some shared in this collection). Still, I have always viewed my father being deaf as a blessing. It provided him with opportunities he otherwise would have missed, including being mentored by many influential Deaf leaders and obtaining a college education that was covered by vocational rehabilitation.

This collection of stories captures many of his poignant experiences as a Deaf man, leader, husband, and father. These memories pay tribute to a great mind that has served my father well and allowed him to give so much to his beloved Deaf community. My hope is that these memories of the way it was will be preserved and cherished for their positive messages and insights into the life of this extraordinary Deaf man.

* * *

My dad has worked on this book my entire life. Now, just a couple of years away from my fiftieth birthday, I am filled with great gratitude and joy to read his last book. On these pages my dad generously opens his life up for his readers. He shares his confusion and hurt when illness leaves him deaf as an eight-year-old boy. Little did that sweet Ozark hillbilly and Mamas boy know that that moment would open the wide world to him. Within ten years, he became the first in his family to go to college, where he thrived. He fell in love and got married. He became a respected leader, mentor, and historian. He wrote books. He curated a national touring exhibition that was displayed at the Smithsonian Institution and eleven other sites. He played a key advisory role for a PBS documentary about Deaf life in America and was interviewed for the film. He has shaken hands with presidents and traveled the world. He has made a difference.

To me, though, hes Dad. And thats who I want to share with you.

Weve always been close, in spite of a few bumps along the waylike when I grew my hair long, wore a black leather jacket, and worked hard to be a rebellious teen. In the grand scope of our time together, that was nothing. Even then, we shared a love of work, of sweat and dirt. We both love old pocketknives, fine tools, pickup trucks, wood split for the fireplace, and a good days labor. I was probably not more than twelve when my dad had me shimmy twenty-five feet up a large wild cherry tree. I set the rope that controlled the direction the tree would fall when, moments later, my dad took a chainsaw to its base, and I tugged the rope out in the yard.

We lived in Silver Spring, Maryland, the heart of suburbia. But my Dads hillbilly soul slipped out around the edgesthe large garden plot in the backyard, the shed cluttered with planting pots and wood scraps, the woodshop in the basement, the pickup truck in the backyard loaded with mulch. That hillbilly soul, full of grit and determination, runs deep. My Missouri grandfather left school in the third grade after his dad died and started working to help support the family. That hardscrabble man grew up, made a living, and married my grandmother. Together they had four kids, the third being my dad. In 1938 he and his wife packed up their kids and drove to California to work for the war effort. There, my grandmother became one of the original Rosie the Riveters while still managing to care for her four kids. The Gannons have always been tenacious.

Hillbillies make great storytellers, and my dad is no exception. My dad, still a young boy, was a student at the Missouri School for the Deaf (MSD). His family could only afford bus fare at Christmas and summer break, so he mostly lived at school. But those long bus rides were memorable. Young Jack surveyed the other passengers for the most interesting and successful person, maybe a doctor, or a lawyer, he could converse with. He would pull out his notepad and pencil and write, Hi, my name is Jack. I am deaf. What is your name? On one of these trips, he was disappointed to learn that his distinguished seatmate was an artist, but he managed to hide his disappointment and continued his conversation. The man was L. L. Broadfoot, a Missouri artist whose work chronicled life in the Ozarks. That day he kindly offered his young friend Jack, along with Jacks classmates, a tour of his studio followed by sandwiches during one of the bus pitstops. Thus began a lifelong friendship. My dad has always been curious and friendly. He learned from his old friend L. L. Broadfoot that people will always surprise you.

My hillbilly grandfather came up tough. That meant never showing his tender heart, never telling his son how much he loved him. Lucky for Jack Gannon that he met and married Rosalyn Lee. The Lees were an affectionate lot, full of love and hugs for their new son-in-law. Lucky for me, too, because my dad vowed that he would always tell his future children, I love you, and he would show them too. Lucky for us all, I have never in my life doubted that full heart, that love.

This book is a collection of stories from a lifetime; none of it lived alone. I had the great benefit of caring parents who gave all they had. I had thoughtful teachers, many of whom were Deaf, who encouraged and challenged me. Deaf mentors guided me and gave me the tools to advocate for myself. Chance encounters enlightened me in ways both positive and negative, but the awakening is part of my understanding of human relations. Dear friends have helped in ways more numerous than I can list, especially as I start to slow down. Most of all a loving family has sustained me.