RE: brushing shoulders with Holden Caulfield?

The culture I grew up with was the same at home, outdoors, and three blocks
over (actually two ditches over), it was the same in school and late on
Friday night. And when someone from another culture interacted with the
community it was interesting, entertaining, and educational. We had
different cultures that could be shared like going on a trip to Europe but
we had a home (community) to come back to. I guess the difference that we
are talking about is that my private culture was not restricted to indoors
but exists in a larger world. I agree that things influence culture but
without a community they become only things over time. My wife claims that
my mocho becomes thick whenever I am around the plebe but I never notice it
but I do notice her yupper "eh' get thick when she is around her sisters.
My wife has lived with my family for over 11 years now (community) and my
friend was laughing at her the other day because she responds to outlandish
comments with "oh see" or rather "o' si'" which is a very New Mexican
manner.
Daniel

What's so funny about "family dynamic"? Some families encourage their
kids to pursue different options more than others, that's all.

The other question was pretty good, though. I would say our home
environments were all very different, but the environment external to
the home -- church, school, grocery store, etc. -- were all shared.

For example, in the Chinese family that lived down the street, for as
long as I hung out with their kid, I don't remember the father -ever-
being able to speak English very intelligibly at all. The mother could
communicate well in English, but you had to get used to her manner of
speaking. Chinese was the main language spoken in the home, and their
kid (my friend) grew up speaking both Chinese and English. He spoke
English very well, with a slight accent when he was younger.

When it comes down to it, if you change language spoken, food eaten,
decorations in homes, entertainment (they probably watched whatever they
could find in Chinese and their music was Chinese too), books,
newspapers....well, do we really have a shared culture anymore?

My own family was very much like this in a Puerto Rican way, with the
main disadvantage being that I didn't learn to speak Spanish growing up.

What I would argue is that many of us were occupying two cultures. A
public culture that we all shared when we walked out of our doors, and a
private culture that existed only within our homes. This was more
pronounced with some families than with others, of course, and some
homes were just mirrors of the "outside" culture.

Jim
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Received on Wed Oct 29 15:48:18 2003