Travel - and the Case of the Rather Curious Persimmon Tree.....


In a couple of weeks the wife and I will be going on vacation out of the country. It will be a Caribbean cruise, and I'm getting pretty excited. I haven't been able to travel much lately, and rarely out of the country. But to be honest, I'm also getting just a touch of anxiety.

Peace Bridge in Buffalo, NY.
Leaving the country, and even leaving my region, can make me uncomfortable for some reason. I like Canada. Outside of the metric system, it's pretty similar to America. But I always feel more relaxed when I'm on that bridge, back to America.

It's not just out of the U.S. either. Sometimes it's strange just traveling in the Southern states. Maybe it's the accent. Sometimes I need time to get my ear accustomed to their lingo. One time I was in a diner in Memphis , Tennessee. I had to ask a young waitress to repeat her question to me three times. Apparently she just wanted to know if I wanted any pie. She probably thought I was either deaf, or some crazy Yankee.

This is the ultimate movie for Southern eccentrics. 
Sometimes it's not the accent, it's just what they say. Another time my wife and I were in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We were having our complimentary breakfast in the hotel when a southern group came and sat behind us. They were having a conversation, and probably enjoying their grits and cornbread. During their conversation, one of the older gentlemen stated that his neighbor had "a rather curious persimmon tree." Whaat?? Right then I knew I was no longer in Northeast Ohio. First, I don't think we have persimmon trees up here. Secondly, if we did, they sure as hell wouldn't be curious. Who talks like that?

I felt like I was transported back to the time of the Old South. If anybody has seen the movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, it was sorta like that. That movie was set in Savannah, Georgia. To say that movie had colorful and eccentric Southern characters would be an understatement.

With a British accent: "Is that your baby?"
In my cruise I will have to get used to Jamaican, British, and Mexican accents all in the span of one week. I'm looking forward to that. Who doesn't like a good Jamaican accent. If you can sing a Bob Marley or Jimmy Cliff song, you can probably understand Jamaican. British accents sound funny, but theyr'e no problem to understand. Mexican shouldn't be a problem either. I took 2 years of Spanish in school. Donde esta el bano? Tiene catarro? No problem.

I'm sure some communication problem will happen that will make me laugh. Even the cruise ship is staffed with a bunch of Europeans. But laughing is the key. It's a vacation so I'm not going to be uptight. But I will be on the lookout for persimmon trees.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
5 Coolest Christmas Gifts of 2016..... I used to hate shopping for Christmas gifts. The shopping malls that time of year are usually ground zero for misery. Traffic is bad. You spend a helluva lot of time just trying to park. The stores are packed, and if you find something to buy, you get to stand in a long line. But much of that changed for me a few years ago. I do most of my shopping online. You can find most anything online. Shop, do research, even read what other shoppers thought about the product. Amazon is my favorite store. I recently watched a video of the inside of a Amazon fulfillment center. There were robots whizzing around and lots of automation. They say your product is ready for shipping only a matter of minutes after you make the click on your computer. But the biggest question remains of what gift to buy. Nice clothes are a OK gift, but boring. Gift cards are practical, but not much thought goes into it. Personally, I like gag gifts too. What's better than...
Read more
Image
Not In Our House..... Game 7 . It has sort of a doomsday feeling to it. In the NBA playoffs, game 7 means win or go home. But today seemed to have a little more on the line. Game 7 My team, the Cleveland Cavaliers have had a very strange season. They started the season with what on paper looked like a very formidable team. It had All-Stars, future Hall of Famers, former NBA MVP's, and Lebron James. The problem is - games aren't played on paper. They are played by human beings built with flesh, blood, and muscle. Things just didn't mesh at all. Some personalities just don't fit. There were team meetings that caused more harm than good. Then there were the injuries. Not standard injuries. Kevin Love had anxiety. Head Coach Lue couldn't even finish some games and had to take a month off. JR thew soup at an assistant coach. Strange stuff. So at the trade deadline General Manager Koby Altman totally remade the team. Bodies were traded everywhere. But there...
Read more
Image
The Real Value of Shopping Online..... The blog today is a little shorter. Who's got the time this week? That's sort of what this is about today. Time. Nothing like traffic during the holidays. Earlier this week I had to go shopping at a mall for a couple of specific items. I went when afternoon turned into evening. Big mistake. Traffic was horrendous. There was a traffic jam even to get on the freeway. I decided to take the side roads. A slow approach, but I kept moving most of the time. When I got to the mall I had to find a place to park. More fun. Up one row and down the next. I finally found a spot, but of course it was nowhere near an entrance. Train kept a-rollin' - All night long. Once in the actual mall I was greeted by obstacles in the aisles and shoppers of all types. Now for 11 months of the year, nobody really cares to shop at this mall. It's so empty, there's a train ride for kids that never even has to blow it's whistle. But not that...
Read more