Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Wed, 4 Nov 1992 09:22:30 EST
From:         "(Esther A. Paris)" <esther@DEMAND.ED.RAY.COM>
Subject:      not recognizing sounds...

This discussion about whether hearing people would recognize the sound
a plane crashing into their homes in time to escape reminds me of a
very important sound that I heard but did not recognize.  Forgive me if
this sounds morbid, but ...

I used to live in an apartment which was the second floor of a
three-story house.  On 1/10/1990 at about 5:30 in the morning, my
downstairs neighbor shot a man to death (about 12 times in the head and
upper body).  I did not recognize the sound.

I had fired rifles before when my dad taught me to shoot.  I knew what
rifles sounded like.  But I did not know the sound of a small caliber
gun, and how it would sound when it was fired downstairs.  To me it
sounded just like taking two pieces of wood and slapping them together
really hard.  That is, a rather high frequency sound of very short
duration.  A "crack" sound.  I couldn't figure out why my downstairs
neighbor would be slapping wood at 5:30 am and why his live-in's baby
would be screaming screaming screaming so much.  I thought he was
fighting with his live-in.  (This would not have been surprising.)

Anyway, later that night when the police found me and wanted me to give
them a statement about what I knew, I had to say that I heard 12 shots,
but that I had not known that "crack crack    crack crack crack
crack    crack crack   crack crack crack   crack" coming from
various locations in the apartment below was the sound of gunfire and a
fight and someone's last few feet of running.  While this was traumatic
enough, I had to go before the grand jury and testify.  That was
traumatic, too.

A few months later there was a long feature story in the news about
this particular case.  (There were lots of interesting sub-plots to the
whole story, which I won't get into here, but involved drugs, the
Mafia, at least one corrupt judge, the county sheriff who'd been fired
by the governor, etc.)  I was quoted as "the upstairs neighbor heard
the sound of short pieces of 2 by 4 being slapped together".  I felt
like an idiot. And was reminded painfully again about the guilt I
carried for not recognizing the sound.

Ever since I've been very sensitized to guns on TV and in movies.
Believe me, what you hear from Hollywood and learn to recognize as the
sound of gunfire from a small caliber gun does not sound anything like
the real thing.  It makes me really mad.  Don't count on Hollywood's
productions to teach you the sound of gunfire so that you can call the
police in time to save someone's life.

Moral: even hearing people might not recognize sounds well enough or
fast enough to save someone else's life or their own lives.

Forgive me if you have been offended by this story.  Every time I tell
it, I heal a little bit more.  The guilt I feel and the terrible tragedy
of the whole situation just stays with me and hangs over me like a New
England fog on a wet October morning.  At least he guy and his live-in
are both in prison now.  I don't know what's become of the baby.  The
sheriff is back in office.  The governor is out of office.  The head of
the state police is also out of office.  The city still has a convicted
felon as its mayor, but that's a story for another day... I've moved
out of town and changed my name.  I feel much safer now.

Esther Paris, Raytheon EDL, Marlborough, MA
esther@demand.ed.ray.com
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