Communicated with somone without sharing a common spoken language...

I am not really sure of how old I was when this happened, I would have been just starting or finishing 6th grade.

My mom had loaded myself and my four siblings into our white Astro Van and we were heading from our home in Pocatello, Idaho to Utah to visit some of my mom's family. I believe one of my cousins was getting married somewhere in Southern Utah. Anyhow, fairly early on our drive we passed a hitch hiker who was heading South on I-15. We passed him, but my mom decided to turn around at the next exit and go back for him. That is exactly what we did.The hitch hiker's name was Rusty. He was doing some traveling but I can't remember where he was headed to specifically. I do remember discovering that hitch hiking was something he had wanted to give a try so he was doing it. The catch - Rusty was deaf. He could not speak and no one in my family is very accomplished in sign language. My older sister and I had taught ourselves the alphabet in sign language, but that was the extent of our repertoire. Otherwise we communicated with Rusty through good old fashioned paper and pencil. We spent about two hours in a crowded van with a complete stranger whom we couldn't talk to. He was a pretty accomplished lip reader, however, so it made it easier for him to understand us (then again that probably didn't make it much easier, he was riding in a van with 5 children who were generally all talking to him at once - even if he could have heard us he probably wouldn't have understood us).

I have always found it strange that even though I couldn't have been more than 11 at the time, I still vividly remember signing and writing to Rusty, I remember his name, I can even remember sitting next to him sharing a bowl of grapes and some popcorn. There is so much of my life during that time, and even after, that I can't recall to memory.

(Top: My Older Sister Cheri, Rusty the Hitch Hiker Bottom: Youngest Brother Bengi, Younger Sister Maggi, Audri, Younger Brother Henri)

My mom took this picture of Rusty with me and my siblings when we dropped him off. No one in my family has ever heard from or seen Rusty since, we can't even remember his last name. I do remember, however, that he was one of the nicest peopleI have ever met.