markdeafsmith

I said goodbye to a departing colleague yesterday. We've spent many hours together over the past two years, but he found a better job for his living situation. As I shook his hand, he hands me his business card for his new job. He encourages me to stay in touch. I had not really thought of that, due to the age difference. I'm still on the good side of 50; he's still on the terrific side of something under 30, I think. Unsure of what to say, I ask if he wants my email address.

He grabs a pen and piece of paper.

"Mark," I start.

He writes it down.

"Deaf," I continue.

"D-e-f?" he asks.

"D-e-a-f," I reply, then add "Smith at yahoo dot com."

He looks very puzzled.

"Mark is my first name." He's no longer puzzled, just smirking.

"Deaf Smith is my hero," I explain. I briefly summarize the Texas scout's hearing impairment. I briefly describe the first time I saw him in the painting depicting the surrender of Santa Ana. The wounded Sam Houston is on the blanket, accepting the surrender and Deaf Smith is kneeling there, hand cupped around his ear so he can hear better.

I suggest that my colleague look up Deaf Smith on Wikipedia sometime. Deaf Smith really is a hero of Texas' struggle for independence. But like most hearing impaired people he kind of sinks into the background because he doesn't communicate much.

So I get home and open up Wikipedia to look up something else. What's the feature of the day? It's something called the "Grass Fight." I missed this one when I took Texas history, as far as I can recall. It's not hard to see why the loyal daughters of Texas who were teaching elementary school in the 1960s would skip past it.

The war had just started. The Texans spot a supply train from Mexico. Thinking it's full of ammo, guns, and payrolls for Mexican soldiers, they attack. The supplies turn out to be grass for horses.

Not sure why Mexicans felt they had to bring their own grass. And, no, I'm not talking about that kind of grass.

Anyway, the Wikipedia account of the Grass Fight includes this sentence: "On November 26, Texian scout Deaf Smith brought news of a Mexican pack train, accompanied by 50–100 soldiers, that was on its way to Bexar."

Well, OK, Deaf Smith was just a rookie then. When you have a moment sometime, read accounts of the rest of his life.