On Sunday, July 13, we celebrated Mom & Dad's 60th Wedding Anniversary. Westside and Eastside family contingents merged in Ellensburg. Pam, Greg, and Sharon Crockett came from Spokane; Mom, Dad, Steve, Mo, Kathy (McGuire) and I headed over from Seattle.
We first attended a one-hour "Chimposium" at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute on the Central Washington University campus. At CHCI, we learned about and visited a group of Chimpanzees that has learned many elements of American Sign Language. There are four Chimps in this group, most of whom were taught ASL during "cross-fostering childhood", in which they were raised as infant human children. The youngest Chimp (Loulis) learned all of his ASL from his Chimpanzee adoptive mother (Washoe). This is particularly remarkable - that Washoe would pass along the ASL she learned from humans to her adoptive offspring. You can learn much more about the Chimps and their language abilities at http://www.cwu.edu/~cwuchci/index.html
After the Chimposium, we gathered at the Yellow Church Cafe for a late lunch, and to celebrate Mom's 79th birthday and their 60th Wedding Anniversary.
Here are a few pictures from the day.
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| The Westsiders explored the CWU campus while waiting for the Eastsiders to arrive. | We found some interesting objects d'art, this one in need of repair | Speaks for itself | This memorial is for one of the signing Chimps at CHCI, Moja, who died last year. |
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| Mom and Dad are signing "Hug Love" | Greg appears to be limp-wristed (?), but I believe he is simply demonstrating the pronated wrist that humans are asked to display when visiting as a sign of submission | Here's the whole group (minus Mo) after the Chimposium | We're all demonstration our pronated wrists |
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| Lunch at the Yellow Church Cafe | Mo and Kathy tried to distance themselves from the Smedleys | Steve recalled being sentenced to clean blackboard erasers for grade school misbehavior | The Smedleys at the Yellow Church Cafe |