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

"Bzuh?" moments for me

[griffen.livejournal.com]

Numbers 2, 3 and 4 are "bzuh?" for me on your first list, and number 5 is a "bzuh?" for me on your second list.

Truth be told, I'm afraid of livestock (and, to be honest, most animals). The house I grew up in had fruit trees in the back yard, but most of the fruit went uneaten. We didn't trust it.

Re: "Bzuh?" moments for me

[bikergeek.livejournal.com]

The house I grew up in had fruit trees in the back yard, but most of the fruit went uneaten. We didn't trust it.

If you live in a place where there's substantial lead contamination in the soil, you probably shouldn't trust foodstuffs grown in it. Common sources of lead contamination include:

1. Lead paint that's flaked off of older houses over the years and decades. Lead paint was banned in the 1970s some time, so if your house was constructed after then and/or the trees are sufficiently far away from the house you're probably good.
2. Near the road, the soil is often contaminated with lead from the exhaust of cars that used leaded gas in decades past. I don't know exactly when leaded gas was banned; IIRC it was the late 1980s sometime, with the phase-out starting in the early 70s. The extent to which this is a problem is a function of when the road was constructed (later is better) and how heavy the traffic is/was on it during the time when leaded gasoline was in use.

Of course, YMMV; if there's an EPA Superfund site down the road or upriver from you, you might have other, bigger problems.