My wife was looking for a clean duster. I surprised her by producing a brand new one, forty years old. A BBC archive clip of programs I wrote for deaf children reminded me of it recently (the one-minute clip is here). Someone gave me the duster at that time.
We decided the duster was much too nice to use as a duster, so it went back in the drawer.
I never did manage to learn the sign alphabet. I can spell out my name, but little else.
Memories churned around in my head, as often happens these days, and in the middle of the night, out of nowhere, there emerged a song.
To the tune of the old British music hall song Let's All Go Down The Strand:
Let's all go through the codes (Have a banana)
Let's all go through the codes (Gertie Gitana)
A B C D / E F G
H I J K / L M N O P
Q R S / T
U V W X Y / Zee
A B C D / E F G
Let's all go through the codes.
What a great way to learn it:
He's as daft as a brush.
Right, who wants a part in The Semaphore Version of Wuthering Heights, or Julius Caesar on an Aldis Lamp?