The Persistence of Cultural Patterns
Rod Dreher, writing about the persistence of the cultural patterns stamped on our country by the region of Britain from which various regions of North America were settled, led me to recall a story from a couple of decades ago.
I was at a party in Milford, CT. Almost everyone at the party was Jamaican. I was standing in the living room, and looked over at a black guy, the only other person standing in the room. He laughed and said, "You're a Yankee too, huh?"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"We don't sit down at parties."
So, yes, the descendant of 19th-century Irish immigrants and the descendant of 19th-century Southern slaves had both, after a few generations, become "Yankees."
I was at a party in Milford, CT. Almost everyone at the party was Jamaican. I was standing in the living room, and looked over at a black guy, the only other person standing in the room. He laughed and said, "You're a Yankee too, huh?"
"How do you know?" I asked.
"We don't sit down at parties."
So, yes, the descendant of 19th-century Irish immigrants and the descendant of 19th-century Southern slaves had both, after a few generations, become "Yankees."
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