A Navy Plane at Lexington Park Airfield
Not too long ago, I was at an airfield near to Lexington Park. Not that this town is any stranger to planes, as there is a large American Navy base right here in the town. Its presence dominates the place and is the source of the town's continued expansion, in large part.
The airfield is separate from the base, but is still often used by the Navy for take-off and landing practice. This, as I was informed, is exactly what was happening when we arrived. A Navy pilot was busy putting in his or her required hours landing and taking off in a plane. To achieve this, they would not do a complete landing. Instead, they would touch down briefly, throttle back and then accelerate once more and take off. Then round in a small circle and the whole process repeats.
As I watched this charming spectacle and attempted to photograph it I thought how much like life this can be. I then immediately thought how pointless and twee it would be to say something like that - or to contrast the path of that tiny plane with the big one I am to step on to later today. If you wish to make hay with that train of thought in your own mind, feel free.
I will be sad to leave my existence here for the last month. It has been a rare solace and a time for genuine consideration of my life. So often we say “Stop the world, I want to get off!” - and so rarely it does, and yet it has for me. It has stopped so I can see exactly what I need to see, and it has also fed me so much delicious food. Win-win, I'd say. All that, and airoplanes too.
So what have I learned, you may well asked. To that, I'd mostly have to say it was for me and not to broadcast generally. Except, perhaps, to say that you might see the outworking of it in my life over the next few years. In the short term there is one thing that almost everyone will notice, almost immediately. I look forward to the looks on all your faces.
Aside of that, I have made some observations about the USA, or at the very least this little part of it.
The place runs on peanut butter, coffee, applesauce and flavours.
Peanut butter is nearly all the confectionary. Even the cheese crackers have peanut butter in between. A big favourite here is the ”Peanut Butter Cup“. It is simply a good dollop of peanut butter encased in chocolate. That's it. They sell in all sizes, and all the stores are full of them. Seriously, peanut butter rules.
Coffee is everywhere, see below. Apple-sauce is available in various flavours - as is everything. I have been drinking “Diet Cherry 7-Up” as well as “Diet Cherry Dr. Pepper”. “Mountain Dew” is massive over here, and is available in a dizzyingly wide range of flavours, colours and carbonations. The drinks shelf at the supermarket is mind-boggling. How anyone ever chooses anything defeats me. Perhaps they just close their eyes and grab. It would take me a month or more of concerted tasting to form any kind of valid opinion.
Even the fried chicken has flavours and textures. “Barbecue Fried Chicken with Extra Crispy Coating” is one option I simply did not have the time to try. Almost everything has a shake of seasoning on it, and no-one seems the slightest bit bothered about lots of spiciness. Many bland-lovers from the UK would struggle with the large amounts of taste in evidence here.
Every store is a one-stop store.
The pressure to prevent people from using other stores has reached fever pitch. With this in mind, every shop or petrol station has to offer a full range of food, both hot and cold, a sandwich chef, fries, 12 types of hot filter coffee, an espresso bar and a machine which exists only to dispense special sweetened creamy milk. They also stock a wide range of chewing tobacco, cigars, cigarettes and many pills for various purposes. I could go on with the list of what they do stock for quite some time, but I should mention that none of them seem to sell beer, wine or spirits. Maybe some do, but none of the ones I have been in.
They all also stock nachos - any shop worth its salt stocks nachos. Beautiful fresh crispy yet cheese-covered nachos. With a thousand combinations and varieties. It's almost too much to take in. Sheetz turned out to be my favourite, and I now have my own Sheetz stay-warm mug (as soon will Jason, aww...). They seem to have the best mug design for drinking from and keeping the coffee warm - but WAWA seem to have the best overall coffee. That said, I bought more coffee from Sheetz because the mug refills were only 79c - about 40p. Amazing value for a 20oz mug of coffee.
I will miss Sheetz, and I would be keen to set up the UK's first Sheetz franchise in NBTS - on the site of the old petrol station possibly - before someone builds yet more houses that no-one particularly needs.
Cooking is not quite cooking
No-one loves a shortcut more than me. Well, not quite. The whole of the USA loves short-cuts so much that the art of cooking seems to be consigned to the restaurants almost entirely.
Cookies - Use either a mix and add water or simply take them from the can and slice them up. Bake and you're done.
Brownies - See cookies.
Croissants - Either part-baked or from the can.
Coleslaw - Buy the cabbage ready sloced and then mix with the amazing “Slaw” dressing. (Utterly delicious)
The list could go on quite a while. The supermarket sells very few cooking utensils - not even a steak hammer. Either it is more usual to buy cooking equipment from a specialist store or very few people need it. I feel sure that the supermarket would stock cooking equipment if it was widely needed.
I cooked a couple of meals when I was here, and they turned out really well, I am relieved to say. That said, they tasted different because of the different ingredients here. Bonnie did not have a cheese grater, because she just buys grated cheese if she needs grated. Just a difference in mindset. I felt a bit like a “stick in the mud” insisting on doing things the old fashioned way.
It's just really really different
Honestly, it is. The UK and USA are not two countries divided by a common language, we are two very different countries FURTHER divided by a common language.
The way of thinking here is different - the approach to problems is different. The way of building is different - the logic behind it is directed by the different challenges presented by the climate here. The logic I have built up from an existence in the UK does not work here in a much larger part than I could have imagined.
Likewise, I do sincerely believe that someone from the USA would struggle coming to the UK and thinking, as I did, that people were fundamentally the same apart from a few different words and a different accent. Nothing could be further from the truth. We are two peoples with radically different ways of thinking. Our logic has grown up in different climates and what works in the UK often simply does not work in the USA, I strongly suspect that the same is true the other way round.
A good indicator is that it is often cheaper to eat out than to make a fancy meal at home. I'm not sure that is true in the UK....yet?
This is the big question. Are we slowly migrating towards becoming a more USA-style culture?
I think not.
We are the way we are because of how our country is. We live as we do because of a host of reasons to do with nature, culture and economy - even religion, in a way. I can't see us ever changing completely - even if we became a state of the USA. We'd still be British and no-one could stop us.
I have surprised myself by not taking on any Amercianisms whilst here. I think this is because I have mixed exclusively with Amercians. Had I been with Jason, for example, I might have had fun taking off the accents, without fear of condemnation. With Bonnie around, I hardly dared assume an American accent for fear of sounding patronising - and rightly so. I am glad I have been forced to be my english self, and I feel better for it.
One of the smallest of the Petrol Station/Laundramat/Convenience Store/Coffee Shops I encountered. This far out on the coast of Maryland they don't even had a cell phone signal or broadband. Seriously.
So now it is time to return home. I will miss Maryland, and all the wonderful people I have met. I will miss Bonnie most of all, she has been beyond good to me, and I hope she can make it over to the UK sometime soon so I can show her the culture from the other side of the pond. Then she might understand some of the interesting things I have discovered, but from the other angle. I really should put her in touch with Sandy so she can be prepared for the culture shock.
Thanks to all of you who pray from me when I travel. I appreciate it so much - and if you don't pray, at least try to send out some positive thoughts for me. I appreciate it all. Hopefully, I'll be back safe and well in the UK at Friday lunch time. At this point I will go to a place of eating with Jason and consume some English fish and chips, and once again celebrate the English culture that I have missed....well, missed a little.
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