Up & Coming Weekly

April 22, 2014

Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.

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APRIL 23-29, 2014 UCW 5 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM The world is a much smaller place than it used to be. Not literally, of course, but it does seem that distances have shrunk dramatically. I remember letters arriving from our cousins in Austria, written in tiny letters on both sides of onionskin paper to keep mailing costs down. It took days, occasionally weeks, for those letters to cross the Atlantic and more time for ours to reach them in return. Now we just email, and if we really need to communicate we call each other. I have their home and cell numbers and they have ours. We had a little confusion over the terms "mobile" (ours) and "handies" (theirs) but we figured that out eventually. We share photos on the Internet, watch the same CNN shows, and have the same access to all the Web now offers us, and billions of people all over the world are having the same collective experiences with their families and friends. We may be getting closer and with more in common than ever before, but each nation and culture retain unique qualities, a fact confirmed to me over and over in recent years as I have traveled four of our globe's seven continents. We do not all eat the same foods, wear the same styles, enjoy the same jokes or see the world in the same ways. All of us have our own preferences —o thers might call them peculiarities, which we may not realize we love until we do not have them anymore. That is why this compilation of the 27 Things You'll Miss About America When You're Abroad by Kate Auletta of the Huffington Post made me laugh out loud. So true! So true! People from somewhere else may think we are crazy, but — hey! —we are Americans! Here you go with a slightly edited list. 1. "Fried stuff. Oh, sweet delicious fried stuff." This features a picture of a woman yearning for a piece of fried chicken. I related. 2. "Ice." We, especially we Southerners, like ice. Maybe it is because we live in a hot climate, but I would not think of drinking much of anything without ice. Can you even imagine iced tea without ice? But try ordering iced tea anywhere but America, and there is no telling what you may get. 3. "Complete strangers — check out ladies, pharmacists, gas station attendants — asking how you are." We Americans are friendly people. 4. "Good old American patriotism." I wonder how many times I have said the Pledge of Allegiance over my lifetime….? 5. "The way the phone rings on the other end. Seriously, make a phone call in the UK. It just does not sound normal." Everyone else probably thinks the same about our rings. 6. "Our particular brand of nerdiness. Fanny packs! Mid-calf socks!" Actually, if you go to a tourist spot anywhere in the world, say the Eiffel Tower, you can get a "fanny pack" fix from all the other visiting Americans. 9. "Drive-thrus…ATMs, liquor stores, Vegas-style wedding chapels, the works." Kinston, N.C., where my grandparents lived, had a drive through drug store where the clerks met you at the exit and passed your bag of toothpaste, shampoo, etc. through the car window. My sister and I loved it! 12. "Peanut butter and jelly. Not a big thing abroad." 14. "Free bathrooms. It is our right." 16. "AC/heat everywhere ALL THE TIME." 19. "Complimentary bread baskets." We are not accustomed to seeing these goodies on our bills. 21. "Heinz (aka sugary) ketchup. It's an art form, really." 22. "Wearing sweats in public." This is also true for yoga pants. 23. "Automatic cars." Many of us have never seen a stick shift much less tried to operate one. 24. "Solo cups. These aren't even that cool." 25. "Free refills." Especially free refills with ice. 26. "Potato chips." 27. "Diet Coke." This list made me remember a long ago family trip when the Precious Jewels were elementary school ages. We visited an emerging Central American nation — lush, lovely and very hot. One day we happened upon a group of children playing in puddles along a roadside. Each one was — as we say in the South — naked as a jaybird. One of the Precious Jewels was astounded by this and said so, which Mom viewed as a "teachable moment." I told him that more people around the world live like these children than live the way we do in Fayetteville, N.C. He turned to me in amazement and exclaimed, "You're kidding!" It really is true. No matter where we may go and how much we enjoy it, there is no place like home. Are You Homesick Yet? by MARGARET DICKSON MARGARET DICKSON, Contributing Writer, COMMENTS? Editor@upandcom- ingweekly.com.. 910.484.6200. THIS WEEK WITH MARGARET Contest&RequestLine: 910-764-1073 www.christian107.com KeepingtheMainThing...theMainThing. visitusonline FocusontheFamily 20Countdown Magazine Adventures in Odyssey Serving Fayetteville Over 50 Years! 484-0261 1304 Morganton Rd. Mon-Sat: 6am-10pm Sun: 7am-2:30 pm Daily Specials • Breakfast • Lunch • Dinner Fresh Seafood • Hand Cut Steaks • Homemade Desserts • Italian & Greek • Children's Menu Banquet rooms available up to 100 guests Sometimes Americans take things for granted.

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