Historical February–March 2018 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
As a relative newcomer to America, I’m often asked “Where are you from?” when someone hears my accent for the first time.
My first response of “England” does satisfy most of the questioners, but sometimes it is met with a reaction of, “well of course, but whereabouts in England.” This question presents a dilemma to me: should I recite the many towns I lived in during my 50 plus years in the country, and risk the boredom of my listener at the list? Maybe I could just say London, but while it is true that I lived in many different suburbs of the capital city for much of my life, each one was different, and none of them are the “London” that the average visitor will know. Instead, I often say that I was born on the south coast, lived around London for most of my working life, and then moved to the East Coast when I took early retirement.
I recently vacationed back in England, and while no one questioned my accent, I had a similar issue with where I lived now.
Most people have heard of St. Louis, many because of the film “Meet me in St. Louis”, and most of the questions are if it should be pronounced Lou-is or Lou-ee.
After that, few have any real idea of our location, and it is difficult for those from that small island to comprehend the size of this country. Before I moved here, I lived in a small market town called King’s Lynn.
It is an ancient town, and, in fact, the apartment I lived in was a converted warehouse built in 1773, three years before the Declaration of Independence. At first, it is easy to imagine that the two places are entirely different and that there is almost no area of connection between the two.
It is true that, in terms of infrastructure, King’s Lynn is more isolated than St Louis, and it has about a third the population and almost none of the fame of St Louis.
The climate is vastly different (but not the fact that we complain about it), and although we officially speak the same language, the way we do so makes it hard, at times, for natives of the two areas to understand what that other is saying However, in some ways, there are significant similarities between my old and new towns. Both are historical river cities and important ports. Both are heavily influenced by the trade they once undertook, St Louis by its French roots, and King’s Lynn by its historic connection with the Germanic states. Both celebrate their history while looking forward to the future. Concerning the population, one could at first say that they are very different too, indeed in terms of ethnic mix.
But at the same time, there is something about the feel of the people that are similar.
When I was new in both towns, many old-timers told me about the glory days of the place, but even so, the townspeople were often staunchly loyal to their neighborhood. Outside of the town itself, there is the same feel of the slightly arcane, the country folk of Missouri and the population of the rural areas around Lynn presents the same kind of hillbilly image to the rest of the world.
The distances are enormously different, of course, but even so, the landscapes are familiar.
When I drive up to the Chicago area, the flat fertile lands of Illinois remind me of the farmland of Lincolnshire just to the west of Lynn, even though the English equivalent is vastly smaller.
The county of Norfolk, of which Lynn is a part, is much like eastern Missouri, with its mix of rolling hills and pretty villages. That is why I find it hard to answer the second question that people ask me after where I am from: what is the main difference: I see now I’m an American resident. Because, while there are a lot of differences, even the differences are the same.
When the weather changes, we complain about it.
We celebrate our histories, and we move on from them. Above all, we each live our lives one day at a time, doing the best we can. Maybe I should change my reply to the initial question to “I’m from planet Earth,” because if we look for the differences we will find them, but underneath is a more significant similarity.
Original photograph caption
Skinker De Baliviere or England?
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, February–March 2018.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2018_02.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
