According to the audiologist I visited a few years ago, the trouble is not with hearing, per se, but with age-related difficulty in distinguishing ambient sounds in a room from intentional voices. Having "perfect hearing" is not a protection against being unable to hear well in crowded spaces, she said.
The eight other people at the table last night might as well have been speaking another language--it was all a jumble of sounds, along with music and other tables full of people.
This morning at breakfast, we had a drummer drumming, someone looking for a lacrosse stick, someone playing a video, another putting whipped cream on his face for laughs, six people cooking together, along with the clatter of pots and pans--and I went mute and crazy for a minute, as noted by my two adult children.
I'm accustomed to the sounds of silence, but I am going to miss this crowd so much tomorrow afternoon and wish for a few moments of noise insanity! So I'm not complaining--just noting it for future reference and help if anyone else experiences this.
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