Five Things About My Culture

[browngirl]

I first saw this in sparkymonster's journal, and most recently in griffen's.

List 5 things which are basic common knowledge in your culture, which people outside are unfamiliar with. This is not about obscurity, but something everyday to you, that others go "bzuh?" at.

Ah, but what is my culture? I'm an immigrant! I've got more than one! And I like to talk, so here are at least two sets:

As I've experienced it, anyway. :)

1. Steak is cooked in sauce in a pan, until fork tender.
2. Everyone used to have livestock, even in the city; goats still roam Kingston, afaik. Middle-and-upper class people do this less these days, but everyone has fruit trees they eat from, etc.
3. The hottest weather is no reason not to have a big bowl of soup.
4. It is an acceptable option for parents to leave their children with trusted friends or relatives for months or years, so that the parents may do a long-term project that might not be a good environment for their kids. (Like going to another country to work but not to settle, for instance.)
5. When writing a letter home, it is very strongly recommended that one include some money. That may be more of an immigrant thing than a Jamaican thing, though.



Well, really, having grown up in NYC. On rereading, most of these aren't true in Boston.

1. Lock your doors.
2. Get out of people's way.
3. Public transit is a way of life.
4. It's not actually that people are all bad. They just could be, so a modicum of wariness is sensible.
5. Jaywalking is a fine art, to be accomplished with one's brain on. If they hit you and you were being an idiot, it's your fault.

I'd say more, but Eva (sitting on my lap) keeps trying to type!

Comments

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

(5.) is definitely an immigrant thing.

yeah, on big-city culture:

(1.) I'm continually shocked by the number of people who post to b0st0n or davis_square about how their apartment got burgled through an unlocked door, open window, etc. Dude. It's the city. It ain't New York, but it ain't Podunk, either.

(2.), In Boston, the rule seems to be to stop just inside doors, at the top of an escalator, etc., to have a half-hour kaffee klatsch, and give dirty looks to people who say "excuse me" and try to get by.

(5.), In Boston the rule is to step off the curb, either mid-block or contrary to the indications of any traffic lights in the immediate vicinity, in front of an automobile that's traveling at the 30mph speed limit, while you're yakking on your cell phone and consuming your morning latté. Do not look up at the sound of screeching tires as the driver attempts to stop. If the driver sounds the horn, give him or her the dirtiest look imaginable, as if to say, "How DARE you drive your DIRTY, FILTHY *hock* *spit* AUTOMOBILE down MY street!"

[libitina]

Being a pedestrian in Boston was pretty freakish for me. You guys have the drivers well trained. I'd just look at the road, and people would stop and wave me across... and then I'd be all, "No, dude, just go on. I'm in no rush at all." And they'd insist on waiting. And this happened several times, so it wasn't just one weirdo.

[thespian.livejournal.com]

I get that a lot, enough that sometimes when I'm not intending to cross yet, I wind up doing it just because they seem so insistant; but they also go ripping through the crosswalks, despite the fact that there's a $100 fine for a car crossing a crosswalk that has a person in it (unlike what many drivers think, it's not ok to drive through the crosswalk while the pedestrian is still in it, even if they're past the part you'd drive on). I swear someday I'm going to sit out by Porter Square with a digital camera and just take identifiable pictures of drivers doing that.