I start preparing the thirteen vegetables. Of all the things I could be doing with my time this appears to be the most bizarre thing I could choose to do for a household that shuns vegetation of any kind. [translation = meat too]
I’d like to have at least six of them [translation = sides] done in advance as well as the stuffing [translation = fixings ] I realize I lack sage. A quick dash to the supermarket.
It's busy at the check out. [translation = there is a line {sub translation = a queue}] I chat to someone in line because I am lining? [translation = queuing] I explain that senior daughter will not be with us as she’s going to England. The woman is sad for me because all families should be together at thanksgiving if at all possible.
I explain that the fares are cheaper now than they are at Christmas. She finds this surprising. She asks the where abouts of her destination? I explain that she’s going to Plymouth, where the Pilgrim Fathers came from. She is surprised to know that there is a ‘Plymouth’ in England. [translation = Plymouth in England = Plymouth 101, Plymouth in the US = Plymouth 102, although there are several of them, Plymouths in the United States that is to say]
I consider a snapshot history lesson, but think better of it. [translation = British students study of history terminates at about the same time as the Pilgrim fathers set sail. {Sub translation = Brits lost interest}]
As the packer packs my bags she asks if my thanksgiving cards have arrived in England? I pause thinking of the correct response. I haven’t sent any. I did send some the first year we were here because I thought they were so funny. [translation = I don’t know why exactly British people [some] think that turkeys are such a source of hilarity]
I reluctantly mutter that they don’t celebrate thanksgiving in England. Now she is shocked. What kind of philistine’s bags is she packing? I grab my trolly,[translation = cart] thinking of how to escape gracefully; I disguise my accent to tell her “I think you’ll find that they only celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States of America,” and skidaddle. [translation = run away]
47 minutes ago
1 comment:
Madeline: Glad you found my blog and left the comment you did there.
Lovely story about Thanksgiving and how it's perceived by Britons and Americans.
Oddly enough, though you probably already know this, Thanksgiving didn't become a national holiday in the States 'til 1864, when Abraham Lincoln issued a proclamation making it such.
So, them bloody Pilgrims from the Home Counties(am just guessin' on that there)via Holland 'ad nowt t'do wi' it.
Yours, D., the Canuck-Limey Trapped In a Yankee Body.
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