Bits and pieces

[tasyfa]

Hanging out in Chapters last night was fun, btw. We ended up in the middle of children's books in the line - the 5-8 yo section - and proceeded to read to each other and play with the Gund display. There was a really pretty stuffed beaver that turned out to be a hand puppet and we completely cracked up like the twelve-year-olds we are. :D And there

Comments

[oh_johnny_]

Growing up, I didn't even think of us as separate countries. We were North America, man. Friends; brothers even.Really? Since adolescence I've been very aware of the US as Other. And concerned about their influence in a negative way - and especially the encroachment of their businesses on ours - since before Mulroney began selling us down the river

[tasyfa]

No, the Otherness didn't really make an impression until probably 12 or so, about the same time as when I discovered there was such a thing as racism. I was always very inclusive (and sheltered!) as a child and it simply didn't occur to me that not everyone was, or in some cases should be, included. And I came into adolescence with Mulroney and Reagan, who were (among other things :P) very buddy-buddy, of course. Truthfully, also, I was about as politically unaware as a person gets for a long time. I can't afford to be so anymore

[tasyfa]

I should also point out, my dad is *very* pro-American, so that certainly had an influence. Though, considering the number of avenues in which I've gone out of my way to NOT be like my father, you'd think I'd have despised the US on principle then. *laughs*