There are 50 states in the
United States, we come from one of the smallest (Maryland) of the 50 and live
in an equally small town where the most outrageous parties happen in cow
pastures and corn fields and if you’re lucky someone lends out their barn. The first
date I ever had with my husband was swimming in the town reservoir, which was
also the town’s drinking water. The second date, we fished in it. When we got
serious we camped out at a bonfire. So you can imagine my excitement when I got
word our first duty station was going to be in NEW YORK! We were actually going
to join the world and become city savvy! Ironically
enough, we are stationed in a town probably 10 people larger but instead of
fields and pastures we have mountains. It actually snowed in April.
I am in disbelief.
Accents are like flags, a
high flyin’ sign that ‘you’re not from here.’ Nobody thinks they have an
accent. We finally got a call that someone had moved out of their 3-bedroom
house on base and were eager to move in and get friendly with our new
neighbors! I always imagined myself being close with the people around me- how
could it be possible to live next door and barely know one another? Well, I suppose
that just shows I’ve obviously never lived close enough to any other houses to
have neighbors! HELLO! Nobody likes their neighbors!
I guess I kind of
fantasized the home we would live in as well. I thought it would be a cute
little house with a flag out front, a small garden in the back, maybe a porch
swing and the day we moved in all the neighbors would flock to our door with
greetings and warm wishes of friendship.
Not even close.
The closest we got to a
greeting was the lady to the left explaining that if we heard any knocking she
was merely just preparing for the homecoming of her deployed husband. Probably didn’t
have anything to do with the fellow stopping by every day after she got home
from work and making the huge ruckus departing at all hours of the night;
eventually she pulled me aside and explained how she didn’t like girls, they were
too caddy for her so she preferred to have only male friends. That’s nice.
The guy next to her
approached us completely intoxicated only to disclose the most personal details
of his recent de-motion. And the lovely couple to the right of us doesn’t seem
to speak any English.
Anyways, so accents and
dispositions are a true telling of where a person is from or rather that they
are new to an area.
Cramped up in a home of
boxes and empty rooms can get a little nauseating; for this reason nature walks
and playground visits have become a daily ritual for myself and the children. That
is until I got the email. I would have been perfectly content in never being enlightened
about the dangers within our homestead. Apparently, there was a small black
bear spotted rummaging through some trashcans. Well, this set our family on
lock-down. The rest of the neighborhood, who I’m sure received that very same
email, continued their daily routines of outdoor play before and after dinner
while I sat frantic by the front door rifle in hand for fear of a bear attack.
We must just be the new
family….
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