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So it seems like it's between this and the WTF museology (which will probably be a couple posts, as Random Collections Factoids could be a cool post in and of itself) for the meme. The neat thing was that I found out that my Aunt Bird is actually very good with remembering things, and so I ended up having a lot more family history facts than I thought I would.
When I refer to my family as ‘invisible immigrants’, I’m relating to a very specific line and members in my family. They are my Nan (grandmother), my mother, my Aunt Bird, and my Uncle Mike, plus my cousins and I who are the second-generation immigrants. This is not my complete lineage, which would include both the histories of my biological father (whom I don’t remember) and my stepfather (who is my “Dad”), but this is the “known quantity” in my background and the one that I’ve been raised to identify with.
Also, to speak of the elephant in the room ahead of time: What makes us invisible, both in the sense of passing for USians and receiving the associated privileges and in the sense that my family’s immigration story is getting erased even from our own history is the fact that we 1) are white, 2) come from a “first world” country (England), and 3) speak English as our native language, and while Nan had a British accent (I’m told, she sounded like Nan to me) my mother, aunt, and uncle did not. *
( You really wouldn't guess that my family had this history. )
One last thing, to close on something of a funny culture-shock moment. I told my mother about my potentially becoming a dual citizen. Her response: “You don’t drink enough to be English!” My Aunt Bird agreed, though she did say that perhaps my tea consumption was high enough. Apparently, when she and my aunt were in England last year, some bloke offered to buy her a drink. My mom asked for a Diet Coke only to be told my by Great-grandma Miriam that it was not only rude to refuse someone’s offer to buy a drink, but it has to be a ‘real’ drink. So some etiquette there, courtesy of my English relatives.
Notes
[*] The picky linguistic anthropologist in me wants to say that everyone has an accent. My mother has a Midwestern American accent (she picks accents up quickly), and my Aunt and Uncle sound like U.S. Southerners.
When I refer to my family as ‘invisible immigrants’, I’m relating to a very specific line and members in my family. They are my Nan (grandmother), my mother, my Aunt Bird, and my Uncle Mike, plus my cousins and I who are the second-generation immigrants. This is not my complete lineage, which would include both the histories of my biological father (whom I don’t remember) and my stepfather (who is my “Dad”), but this is the “known quantity” in my background and the one that I’ve been raised to identify with.
Also, to speak of the elephant in the room ahead of time: What makes us invisible, both in the sense of passing for USians and receiving the associated privileges and in the sense that my family’s immigration story is getting erased even from our own history is the fact that we 1) are white, 2) come from a “first world” country (England), and 3) speak English as our native language, and while Nan had a British accent (I’m told, she sounded like Nan to me) my mother, aunt, and uncle did not. *
( You really wouldn't guess that my family had this history. )
One last thing, to close on something of a funny culture-shock moment. I told my mother about my potentially becoming a dual citizen. Her response: “You don’t drink enough to be English!” My Aunt Bird agreed, though she did say that perhaps my tea consumption was high enough. Apparently, when she and my aunt were in England last year, some bloke offered to buy her a drink. My mom asked for a Diet Coke only to be told my by Great-grandma Miriam that it was not only rude to refuse someone’s offer to buy a drink, but it has to be a ‘real’ drink. So some etiquette there, courtesy of my English relatives.
Notes
[*] The picky linguistic anthropologist in me wants to say that everyone has an accent. My mother has a Midwestern American accent (she picks accents up quickly), and my Aunt and Uncle sound like U.S. Southerners.
