Why did I not love this country before???????
Sep 17th 2019, 4:54 pm
#61
Born again atheist
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
I too come from a very blue collar dark and depressing northern mining town, and my wife grew up in the dark satanic mills of Lancashire in a very blue collar family
We also planned to just spend summers here and actually set everything up and started the process, with a home in Texas and one in Yorkshire. It lasted all of one summer and we are so happy to be back! To be fair we had spent the previous 6 years living outside of Texas during the summers but during every Texas winter, frost and snow free though it was, we found ourselves desperate to leave again. The long summers away included various other US States, Canada, Australia and Ireland. Over 3 years back here and every day still feels like we are on holiday.
Sep 17th 2019, 6:34 pm
#62
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Joined: Aug 2013
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Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Did you know that George Washington’s family is from Durham and their family coat of arms is above one of the doorways in Durham Cathedral? The Washington coat of arms of Stars and Stripes was said to have inspired the US flag.
Sep 17th 2019, 8:25 pm
#63
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Joined: Jan 2011
Location: A Proud Height, Northumberland UK
Posts: 1,163
Sep 17th 2019, 11:41 pm
#65
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2011
Location: England
Posts: 118
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Ha, describes me to a T. Hope I can return soon; 32 years and counting.
Sep 18th 2019, 8:13 am
#66
Born again atheist
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Certainly do, in fact we were very close to it on Saturday when we went to Kynren at 11 Arches in Bishop Auckland.
Did you know that George Washington’s family is from Durham and their family coat of arms is above one of the doorways in Durham Cathedral? The Washington coat of arms of Stars and Stripes was said to have inspired the US flag.
Sep 18th 2019, 8:16 am
#67
Born again atheist
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Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Sep 18th 2019, 8:52 am
#68
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Location: A Proud Height, Northumberland UK
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Sep 18th 2019, 12:25 pm
#69
Joined: Feb 2012
Location: Not in Paris
Posts: 18,193
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Wikipedia suggests that the names were applied by local landlords to their property - Quebec to farmland and Toronto to a mine - inspired by the Canadian cities and the villages that grew up around them took them on. Really quite interesting given we’re so used to the reverse happening.
Sep 18th 2019, 12:43 pm
#70
Born again atheist
Joined: Jul 2005
Location: Europe (to be specified).
Posts: 30,259
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Wikipedia suggests that the names were applied by local landlords to their property - Quebec to farmland and Toronto to a mine - inspired by the Canadian cities and the villages that grew up around them took them on. Really quite interesting given we’re so used to the reverse happening.
Sep 25th 2019, 12:34 pm
#71
Just Joined
Joined: Sep 2019
Posts: 4
Re: Why did I not love this country before???????
Backstory...left UK in 1977 for Pennsylvania, Florida and Vermont. Retired and came back five months ago after 41 years.
I love this country! I love walking down to Folkestone Harbour, buying a £2 pot of cockles, dousing them in vinegar and eating them while watching the fishing boats dip and sway in the tides.
I love the fact that I can walk to anything I need: doctors surgery, optometrist, library, bus station, Folkestone Centrai railway station, Boots, Debenhams, TK Maxx, Bon Marche ,Sainsburys, Asda, Lidls, , WH Smiths, Waterstones...especially Waterstones!
I love the fact that I don't need....nor do I want....a car.
I love going apple and plum picking on a sunny afternoon.
I love sharing an allotment and eating my own butternut squash, Blue Lake beans, Pink Fur Apple spuds, red and blackcurrants and rhubarb
i love sitting on the top deck of the bus and seeing the Kent countryside, the sheep, orchards, woods and meadows on the way to and from Canterbury.
I love the fact that Ottinge Court Farm has a machine that dispenses raw milk into one's own containers for £1.00 per liter!!!!!!!!
I even love the seagulls who, nightly, roost on my apartment roof, preen, pull out their loose feathers and spit them with deadly accuracy onto my bedroom balcony.
But why did I not love this country before I left?
The callousness of youth. Not seeing the wood for the trees and thinking that the grass was greener......
I missed a lot. I missed seeing a pessimistic country mired in gloom, strikes, power cuts and mismanagement bloom into a country that is, for all it's faults, pretty forward thinking, efficient (in it's its own wierdly inefficient ways) and, despite the shadow of Brexit, thriving.
In a huge number of ways the grass in the US was greener on 1977. I went to a country that was forward thinking, optimistic, and happy. I went to a country that was inclusive; which fostered the belief that anyone could get an education and achieve anything they wanted if they worked hard. I lived in a country that had such promise only to watch it slowly disintegrate into the realm of racism, sexism, homophobism and third world ideas governed by a lunatic that is the US today.
Anyway, 41 years of water under the bridge and I'm thrilled to be home. Unlike many Brits who completely lose accents, settle and become truly American I never assimilated. Rather like Herdwick sheep, I am hefted to this countryside and this country. My accent and inflections do give me away and I find that embarrassing but given time they will fade.
Well this all got a bit deep, didn't it?
Time for more tea and Hobnobs......
I love this country! I love walking down to Folkestone Harbour, buying a £2 pot of cockles, dousing them in vinegar and eating them while watching the fishing boats dip and sway in the tides.
I love the fact that I can walk to anything I need: doctors surgery, optometrist, library, bus station, Folkestone Centrai railway station, Boots, Debenhams, TK Maxx, Bon Marche ,Sainsburys, Asda, Lidls, , WH Smiths, Waterstones...especially Waterstones!
I love the fact that I don't need....nor do I want....a car.
I love going apple and plum picking on a sunny afternoon.
I love sharing an allotment and eating my own butternut squash, Blue Lake beans, Pink Fur Apple spuds, red and blackcurrants and rhubarb
i love sitting on the top deck of the bus and seeing the Kent countryside, the sheep, orchards, woods and meadows on the way to and from Canterbury.
I love the fact that Ottinge Court Farm has a machine that dispenses raw milk into one's own containers for £1.00 per liter!!!!!!!!
I even love the seagulls who, nightly, roost on my apartment roof, preen, pull out their loose feathers and spit them with deadly accuracy onto my bedroom balcony.
But why did I not love this country before I left?
The callousness of youth. Not seeing the wood for the trees and thinking that the grass was greener......
I missed a lot. I missed seeing a pessimistic country mired in gloom, strikes, power cuts and mismanagement bloom into a country that is, for all it's faults, pretty forward thinking, efficient (in it's its own wierdly inefficient ways) and, despite the shadow of Brexit, thriving.
In a huge number of ways the grass in the US was greener on 1977. I went to a country that was forward thinking, optimistic, and happy. I went to a country that was inclusive; which fostered the belief that anyone could get an education and achieve anything they wanted if they worked hard. I lived in a country that had such promise only to watch it slowly disintegrate into the realm of racism, sexism, homophobism and third world ideas governed by a lunatic that is the US today.
Anyway, 41 years of water under the bridge and I'm thrilled to be home. Unlike many Brits who completely lose accents, settle and become truly American I never assimilated. Rather like Herdwick sheep, I am hefted to this countryside and this country. My accent and inflections do give me away and I find that embarrassing but given time they will fade.
Well this all got a bit deep, didn't it?
Time for more tea and Hobnobs......
