Can we talk?

Tunisia

    I once had a friend from Tunisia. My co-workers and I tried asking about the country, but he had little to say. But it got me interested, so I researched it.

    I found out about the invasion of the French and the Italians from across the Mediterranean to avoid the wars and the oppression of the Jews. That's why today, the principal languages are French and Italian, despite the fact it is primarily a Muslim nation. It is mostly working class and poor, but there are many big modern cities and tourist areas. It's a mixture of the exotic and the simple, from beaches to cliffs.

    Not long after, I found myself sitting at the top of the hill at Graves Mountain Lodge, during the apple festival (only 2 weeks in the fall). I looked down at the view below, and it was beautiful. I thought how proud I was to be American. If someone asked me what my country was like while I was living or working somewhere else, I'd have no trouble talking to them for days, let alone a few minutes.

    America has beaches, mountains, valleys, desserts, and plains. It has "no-man" lands of craters and lava and danger. It has evergreen forests, bayous, and swamps and trees that are as big as a house. It has canyons and waterfalls, great rivers, and springs, and water that runs out of rocks on the side of the mountain.
 
  We grow apples that are so sweet and tangy. My personal favorites are the Stayman's that only grow in Albemarle and Madison counties (Skyline Drive area). And peaches and peanuts and corn. I love Garrison Keillor's description of picking corn in the midwest and cooking it immediately, and the exchange of homegrown produce in the Lutheran churches. In the South we have watermelon that Mark Twain claims they eat in heaven. And strawberries. I bought strawberries in the Everglades that were worth the trip! And California and Florida orange juice. Cranberries from New England! That's just the beginning.
   
We have Maine lobster, Maryland crab, Chesapeake oysters, Wisconsin cheese, Virginia ham, and beef in the midwest. And buffalo! We have Southern fried chicken, Yankee pot roast, Boston baked beans, cornbread, jumbalaya, crayfish, dirty rice, stuffed turkey, apple pie, pecan pie, brownies, and hot fudge sundaes. Let's not forget hot dogs, home fries, grits, and Chicago-style pizza. And when it comes to barbecue, there are many styles: Texas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee (red vs white/champagne, and how hot).

  What kind of people are Americans? All colors. And unless your family just immigrated in the last 50-75 years, you probably have some Native American bloodlines. Michener paints the story of Chinese, Mexicans, Germans, Poles, and French pioneering and settling in the West. In similar ways, other groups of families have traveled and settled to build new communities. In Los Angeles, there is a large Egyptian community. New York has everyone! DC has large Arab and Pakistani and Asian populations. The ports in Virginia, Oregon, and Washington state have a strong international influence of commercial sailors. Deerborn has a large Afghani population. There are pockets of Irish, as in Boston and Chicago. The Creoles of Louisiana, the Moravians in Pennsylavania, the Scottish and Scotts-Irish in the Allegheny Mountains. And Blacks from the huge continent of Africa, with all its variety, and from other countries, as well. And people from India, Asia, Samoa, Japan, and the list goes on. Even Hispanics come from many areas, as different from each other as possible: Mexico, Peurto Rico, The Dominican Republic, Columbia, Cuba, Spain, and so on. They are all Americans. Their accents, their faces, their stories, are all different. But we are all Americans.

    We all love football, baseball, TV, stockcar racing, picnics, and our families. Despite our diversity of people, of food, of scenery, and local history, we are one people. And it's exciting.

    Sitting in a rocking chair in the shade, looking over that mountainside, the sun baking all those people buying apples, riding horses, shopping for crafts or preserves, or playing in the creek or rolling downhill in the grass, I felt very patriotic. All this beauty, this splendor, this diversity, this peace. This is what's good about America.
   
      Don't ask me face to face unless you've got a lot of time. There's a lot to tell.