Deafness

Until my oldest brother dropped out of high school, my father worked at a fish hatchery near Springfield. I was twelve then, and I mostly just remember details about that last year. We lived in a little government house beside the water. My father rowed me out sometimes as he worked; ours was the only boat allowed, and even then it was attached to a tether that stretched between shores. My brother called the work low class, and I know that embarrassed my father. He quit when that brother left, and for all those dozen years I couldn't tell you how a hatchery operates. My father rowed carefully along the water, and the fish kept multiplying. Deafness, though, became common knowledge in the family. My father bought a hearing aid shop and renamed it "All American Hearing Aids." I was expected to work for him. We all were.