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| Now reduced to my car number plate |
I arrived in the USA on December 30, 1965 and left in mid-April 1972.
These six years bestrode a tumultuous period for the US, heavily influenced by the Vietnam War. Now, I feel slightly sorry for LBJ who might, had there been no war, have introduced telling welfare legislation. But he only served one elected term and chose not to run again,
When LBJ departed Tricky Dick took his place. Thus I watched Watergate (June 17, 1972) unfold from afar.
My personal experiences of US politics were brief and comical:
Phone rings 1. I am asked if I care to support the Republican candidate for whatever.
RR: I fear I can’t do that, I’m not enfranchised.
Her: Wuzzat?
RR: (Always the smartyboots, loving long words) Enfranchised.
Her: Is that… like being…. a Democrat?
Phone rings 2. Same question. Different, more sympathetic voice.
RR: I’m sorry, I don’t have the vote.
Her: Why’s that? You pay your taxes don’t you?
RR: Yes, local and federal.
Her: I’m gonna look into this. You should have the vote.
RR: You don’t understand. I’m an alien.
Her: (Genuinely distressed) Oh no! I’m sure you can’t be that bad.
Both times my English accent went unnoticed. I must say most Americans have a tin ear for accents. Queueing for lunch, my friend said to the check-out girl: “Hey, this guy (ie, me) is just in from foreign parts. See if you can guess.” I say something. She: “Albanian?”
When I was 12 years old in 1964 LBJ was running for President, and it was the first time I ever went to a polling place. I went with a friend and a pro-LBJ sign, and we marched around. Outside the restricted zone, but still visible. By 1968, I was marching in anti-war protests and shouting "Hey hey LBJ how many boys did you kill today?" It was a long, hard four years.
ReplyDeleteI love your conversation with that pollster.
robin andrea: It wasn't LBJ's war, of course, JFK started it. But as Orange Man is presently discovering with The Plague, whoever's in charge gets the blame. And it couldn't happen to a nastier guy.
ReplyDeleteLOL....! I have to translate for my Kiwi friend any time she has to spell anything...seems Kiwi's have vowel issues that can't be deciphered by the American ear. What an interesting time to be here, too bad what we were forced to learn then, didn't stick.
ReplyDeleteSandi: I started out keen to impose my form of English on that spoken in Pennsylvania. At work I was successful to a certain degree, amused when workmates cursed themselves for saying "shedule" instead of "skedule".
ReplyDeleteCertain US usages pleased me. I enjoyed saying "downtown" because there was no direct UK equivalent. Nor could I discuss baseball - which became one of my manias - without plugging into an extensive and esoteric vocabulary. But when I was faced with the US's wilful misunderstanding of "alternate" and "alternative" I baulked. Since part of my job was to rewrite techno stuff to make it easier to understand I sneaked in quite a lot of English English.
One pleasing moment. I was editing a book called Understanding Lightning written by a Ph D from Princeton, also a Phi Beta Kappa. In it I replaced his "in back of" with "behind" and he thanked me for that.
But normal day-to-day activity required I spoke American. One particular morning I visited various hardware stores (I'd say "shops") looking for the sort of bottle opener one screws to whatever vertical space is available in the kitchen. It's amazing how many aspects of the kitchen have differing US/UK terms. I came away exhausted.
Interesting, I still find myself speaking in 'Danish-German' syntax even though I really don't speak either, and of course the 'of' issue, which we are so fond 'of'. LOL, ending a sentence with a preposition, ugh!
DeleteMy mother entered school not speaking a lick of English, and both my parents families were first generation Americans. As an only child, my speech patterns were formed from listening to garbled syntax. Consequently, I find it often difficult to wrangle a respectable sentence.
Sandi: Keep sentences short and do away with the definite article. Pretend you have to pay for each word you utter.
DeleteI think you've written about this telephone call before? If not, I probably dreamt it.
ReplyDeleteColette: You're probably right about the phone call. It gets a bigger laugh in the UK.
ReplyDelete