“YOU SHOULD INTERVIEW THEM,” said Kai, my husband who was then my boyfriend, while casually gesturing toward a family signing in American Sign Language (ASL). He seemed to have caught on that my yearning eyes were continually flickering in their direction.
I was doing on-the-street reporting about a Fourth of July parade for the Fulton Sun newspaper based in Fulton. With notebook in hand, I had spent the day confidently speaking to the Fulton community decked out in red, white, and blue, but when I saw the family fluently signing in front of me, I felt cemented to the sidewalk.
I had spent many years in college studying ASL and had truly fallen in love with the language. I adored how this expressive language was a full-body method of communication. Yet, after countless hours of having poured over all the ASL study material I could get my hands on, approaching the family felt daunting.
This didn’t stop Kai from nudging me forward—giving me no other option than to introduce myself. “Excuse me, my name is Andrea, and I work for the Fulton Sun newspaper. I was hoping to ask you a few questions about the parade,” I signed with trembling hands to the family of three: a mom, dad, and their teenage son.
As I fumbled through my signs—with improper ASL grammar, I might add—I saw their eyes fill with excitement. Then, they each introduced themselves in ASL with sureness and ease, while I attempted to catch each letter of their name as one motion blurred into the next.
I then asked the same question I had asked everyone else at the parade, “What is your favorite part of the annual parade?”
Signing is the easy part of ASL; the hard part is understanding fluent signers. So as the teenage boy began to rapidly sign all that he loved about the parade, I felt dizzy and completely lost. As my heart thumped louder, it signaled my defeat, and I signed, “I’m sorry, can you please sign slowly?”
The teenage boy’s shoulders sagged slightly as he looked at his father. His father repeated his signs, but I still didn’t seem to understand. I then asked the father to write it down. He wrote a shortened version of what they were signing: “It’s a salute to America.” My cheeks burned as I realized I didn’t know the sign for “salute.”
The father could tell I was embarrassed, so he gave me a gentle smile and thanked me for the opportunity for his family to be interviewed by the media. The mother further comforted me by signing that I was doing great with my ASL.
I have worked at five newspapers in my career—the Fulton Sun, Maneater, Columbia Missourian, Sedalia Democrat, and Benton County Enterprise—and this moment stands out to me as one of the most impactful. I set aside my pride and did what I went into journalism to do: open the doors for unheard voices.
This moment helped prepare me for other stories I’ve written that gave voices to people who are often overlooked, such as my “Train Travelers” story, which was published in Missouri Life’s July/August 2025 edition. I can’t wait to continue to dive into the voices of Missouri!
Andrea Kaneko would love to do a story about the Missouri School for the Deaf community in Fulton. If you would like to be interviewed about this, please email her at [email protected].
Newspaper Heritage Trail Our readers often send us story ideas from their community newspapers or websites, and it is clear that local news is an important part of our readers’ lives. Missouri newspapers have played a critical role in our state and nation. See our story about the Newspaper Heritage Trail. We think you’ll be surprised.
This article was originally published in the September 2025 issue of Missouri Life.
