LETTER FROM AMERICA #20

NOVEMBER 30^th

At the moment there is an orgy of decoration going on! You may remember that early in October last year Joanie had that awful fall and ended up with a broken knee and a wrist in plaster; as a result last year’s decorations were somewhat minimal. But this year she is making up for lost time! The porch lights were switched on Thanksgiving evening and now there are decorations strewn all over the living room carpet. The rule this year appears to be that it if it’s not moving then decorate it!! Tinker was having his usual afternoon nap and almost got festooned with a string of lights, well no, that’s a joke actually, but the way things are you never know! Seriously though, Joanie just loves her decorations and will more than make up for last years shortfall.

DECEMBER 4^TH

Jimmy arrived with his pickup this morning and took us to the tree farm. Evidently to produce a six foot tree involves a twelve year cycle from planting to harvesting; the recent wet summer has caused a considerable amount of root rot thus affecting the final product, however the lady with whom I spoke did not seem too worried. Our tree was loaded onto the truck, and (surprise surprise) Joanie immediately started with the decorations the instant it was placed on it’s stand once bought indoors!

DECEMBER 5^TH

The tree decoration was completed this morning, and very nice it looks too. Just to add to the atmosphere it is snowing as I write this. However it is not forecast to last very long and next week is forecast to be sunny and dry.

DECEMBER12^TH

Joanie had to go to the hospital yesterday for some tests which she passed OK. The reason I raise this matter is so as to say a little about American hospitals. Lehigh Valley Hospital, on the outskirts of Allentown and about 45 minutes drive, is the main general hospital for North East Pennsylvania. The complex is vast, it must be around five or six times the size of the Conquest. There are many buildings, some going up ten floors and it has the capacity to handle every conceivable case or emergency; most road accident victims are firstly taken to the local hospital here in Pottsville and, when stabilised, flown by helicopter to Lehigh for further treatment.

Upon arrival at the main entrance you find a valet parking service, this is completely free. You simply wait a few moments until one of the Staff comes over with your ticket and he then parks your car in a specially designated secure area. There is every conceivable facility within the hospital, a very large cafeteria serving anything from burgers to chop suey, a very comprehensive gift shop and a general store. Of course the medical facilities are second to none, and if you are only in for some tests, you are hooked up to one of those bleeping monitors. All the bed bays have televisions and there is a very high nurse/patient ratio.

Upon leaving the hospital you hand the parking ticket to a staff member who walks to the parking area and brings your car back to the main entrance. After having been accustomed to those horrendous parking charges at the Conquest, this is indeed a luxury!

We are experiencing the first really cold snap of the winter with temperatures down in single figures(F not C) in some places. Earlier this week a very large storm crossed the country from Northern California to Maine. We were lucky with only minimal snowfall, but the past two days the wind of around 30 mph has been a real killer. But today the wind has gone and we have wall to wall sunshine but still with sub zero temperatures.

Well that’s if for this time

BFN

Henry

7th November

We were invited to a kids birthday party this afternoon. Derrick, next door, was two and another boy was ten. So the Mums decided to have a joint party in a local clubroom. This led to my first encounter with something called a “Pinyada” which is yet another American custom which I had not previously witnessed. The Pinyada is a cardboard box model of some character or other, (in this case it was Spongebob) they are sold in the supermarkets and are then filled with sweets and suspended from either the ceiling or a tree depending on the time of year. Each guest strikes it in turn with a stout stick until it breaks and all the sweets fall out onto the ground. There is then a mad scramble to pick up as many sweets as possible. Evidently this replaces our custom of having “Goodie Bags” to take home after the party.

　

26th November

Today has been Thanksgiving. It has been a very good day, we watched Macy’s parade on TV in New York in the morning. I think this is about far as can be gone for sheer American showmanship. The parade lasted for two and a half hours and the main feature was, as always, the enormous balloons of various characters, Kermit, Snoopy, Mickey Mouse and a host of other favourites and in addition it featured excerpts from the many shows currently running on Broadway. This parade has been held, with the exception of the war years, for eighty four years. It ended with the arrival of Santa on his sledge. There were also several college marching bands which came from all over the country, from Florida to California and including one from here in Pennsylvania. For lunch we went to Jimmy’s (he’s the one living closeby). It was a smaller than usual gathering, just close family, not because Jimmy is anti social in any way but his table is not sufficiently large to accommodate the extended family. We had the traditional meal of turkey, mashed potato, cranberry, corn and oysters (these Joanie always prepares herself). I drove over with her sitting next to me holding the precious dish in her lap! Tomorrow is “Black Friday” (I told you about this last year) I think it is all getting rather silly, some stores are starting the pre-Christmas sales at 3am! Even the local Salvation Army charity shop is opening at 8 instead of the usual time of 10! Anyway, that’s it for another year, now we have Christmas in less than a month which will be held at Linda’s. The house is of sufficient size for the extended family so I should think there will be about twenty five. Of course on Christmas Eve everyone comes here to Pottsville (another family tradition) for the exchange of gifts. Joanie prepares a lovely table of snacks for the occasion. The next event will be the collection of the Tree which is scheduled early next month when Jimmy comes over with his pickup and takes us to the farm to choose one.

28th November

Well Thanksgiving is over for another year, and I feel that I never want to see turkey ever again! The early morning shopping was something of a success, some people had been queuing since the previous afternoon Today two things took place, this afternoon we went over to help with the decoration of the church. This is something that Joanie loves doing (the porch is all up and illuminated already). I have to admit it was a lot of fun and halfway through we had a break for pizza. Last year we simply could not walk down the garden to the garage due to all the ice and did not make it to the Christmas Eve service. We are hoping this will not happen this year. This evening was the switching on of the lights in Garfield Square. Guess what came before this? Yes the fire trucks with all lights and sirens blazing. Right at the end of the parade was Pottsville’s very own vintage fire truck which, in addition to carrying the winter carnival queen and princesses also carried old Santa himself. Yes, over here the Christmas holiday season is now well under way.

Next summer it is my intention to get the firetrucks on video so you will be able to see for yourselves!

Until next time

BFN
H

pic#1 Vintage fire truck with Santa

pic#2 crib by war memorial

LETTER FROM AMERICA #18

NOVEMBER 15^TH 2009

I have had an idea!! Yes really!! From now on I shall write up a particular event while the facts are still clear in my mind, and when I have, say, about 6/700 words it will get posted as a complete “Letter from America”. This will prevent my sending a short extra one covering all the things that I had forgotten to include in the first instance

29^th October

Halloween turned out to be quite a surprise, instead of waiting until the 31^st, the City decided that the official trick or treat was to take place on the previous Wednesday (28^th) between the hours of 6 and 8 pm.. There were “official” events downtown, but by 6.30 the pavement outside was full of kids in fancy dress (and adults as well) and we had run out of candy by 7.30. The kids all seemed to have gone to a great deal of trouble over the costumes and all in all it was a great deal of fun for everybody. This turned out to be a good choice of date, on Saturday it rained!

8^th November

Today (Sun) has been the best I have ever known for a November day, the temperature went up to 73f with not a cloud to be seen anywhere. Even higher temperatures have been promised for tomorrow. By Wednesday it should be back to the normal for this time of year, low fifties. We went to the local farmers’ market where the produce and some foods are much cheaper than in the supermarkets. You can get so many things there other than farm produce. There are stalls selling computers at a very low price, eg 1MB RAM, 40 GB hard drive for $130 (78 GBP), clothing, toys, furniture as well as two all-day auctions at which you can get some really good bargains.

12^th November

New State legislation has just been passed, this makes it an offence to text (yes, text!) while driving!! It is still legal to use the cell phone, but I suppose that, what with the fact that the majority of cars have automatic transmission, it is not quite so risky as in Britain!

15^th November

The weather is still holding up, today (Sun) it has almost got up to 70 and at 9am I was sitting out on the patio in shorts and t-shirt!!

The latest matter to erupt is the decision to have a show trial in New York of the 9/11 suspects. Speaking personally, I think this is a very bad decision indeed. This will provide a platform for the airing of fanatical beliefs and leave the City open for more attacks. The President’s popularity is on the wane, I think people expected too much too soon but it must be remembered that Obama inherited this mess from the Bush Administration. I have to admit that despite my support last year, I do feel somewhat disappointed with the progress so far. Incidentally, I was looking through a book I have about the British Monarchy (oddly enough bought over here) when the following timeline entry caught my eye:- “1838-1842 First British intervention in Afghanistan ends in disaster” Seems like nobody knows when to quit!

Thursday week will be Thanksgiving once more, it really does make one wonder where the year has gone. This year we shall be going to Jimmy’s as he will be working over Christmas (he works in the electricity supply business) and to Linda’s for Christmas instead of the other way round as it has been for the past three years.

I don’t think I have mentioned how small businesses exist in the middle of what are primarily residential areas. This, as far as I can see, is the norm in small-town America. For instance two doors down is Charlies Pizza take-away. The plot size is the same as ours and, because it is on a corner, what would have been the garden is the car park. Charlie also sells milk, crisps etc. and is very useful if we run out of anything or fancy a pizza or sub. Two blocks up the hill is a branch of Brok-Sel which is a chain of local “come in handy” stores. It is around the same size as a small Tesco with a carpark to match. Our major stores are either Wal-Mart, four miles to the north or Giant at Cressona, four miles to the south. The local mall, Fairlane, is slowly dying on it’s feet. One large department store closed it’s doors last year and has left a very large unit empty and last week we learned that Borders, the bookstore I love so much, will be closing the branch early in the New Year. They have got a petition going to try to reverse this decision but I doubt it will do any good. The nearest branch will be in Reading, about thirty miles away.

Until next time,

BFN
H

LETTER FROM AMERICA #17

I expect you are all surprised to be getting another letter so soon after the last one. Well, I realised that I had forgotten one or two things that I should really have included, so here they are.

Here is a photo of the US coins, from left to right they are “Quarter” (25 cents), “Dime” (10 cents), “Nickel” (5 cents) and “Penny” (1 cent) The difference between dimes and nickels I still find confusing, on the other hand, having dollar bills means that you do not accumulate masses of heavy coins, so no holes in pockets over here and these coins are very lightweight.

I forgot to mention the automatic garage doors everyone has, it is a neat system. When we leave home, a push on the button located just inside the garage door causes it to open. There is a radio transmitter kept on the sun visor which closes the door after we have left. Upon returning, the reverse sequence of events enables the car to be garaged without anyone having to go out in the rain/snow etc. I really love this!! The door, by the way, is horizontally sectioned and runs on tracks beneath the garage ceiling.

Life goes on here, Tuesday, November 3^rd, is polling day when a plethora of officials are due to be elected. This includes Judges, Sheriffs, Mayors and goodness knows who else. As I do not have the vote, I don’t get very involved but must say I shall be glad to see the end of the election commercials on TV.

Talking of TV commercials, on some channels there are a surprising amount of advertisements for prescription medications, totally unlike those in the UK which are limited to non-prescription items (of course we have those here too!). Generally they are of the type designed to frighten, you know “take our pills or else you will suffer a fatal heart attack”, that sort of thing. Actually it strikes me that Americans are far more concerned about their health than we Brits. The number of specialist health centres, even in a place like Pottsville, is truly amazing!



Autumn is almost over on our mountain. Have you noticed that the first day after the clocks go back is almost always sunny? Ironic eh?

Anyway, I think I am up to speed on what I wanted to tell you, so until next time,

BFN

Henry Dallimore

LETTER FROM AMERICA #16

This time I shall go into small details of life here in America, you know likes and dislikes. First some dislikes-

Supermarket trolleys, here these only have castors on the front and this makes them very difficult to handle in confined spaces. Some of the smaller stores have narrow aisles but all use the same size trolleys as Wal-Mart which are larger than those found in the UK.

Bacon, the only cut available is streaky, there is no middle or back and I always loved a nice meaty rasher. No-one can tell me why this is so.

Sliced bread, the slices are about 1/3 smaller than Kingsmill so always have to use two slices for a sandwich ie no folding over.

Curry restaurants, the nearest is about 45 min. drive away, there is no Indian food in the stores except Naan Bread, I don’t understand why.

TV commercials, there is no equivalent to the BBC and the number of available channels is awesome. But some programmes have five minutes between commercial breaks of around three minutes and these are designed to keep you on that channel. For instance, take an instalment of, say, “M.A.S.H”. There is a commercial break about two minutes before the end, then you see the ending immediately followed by the opening titles for the following programme, at the end of these is yet another commercial break!

I have already covered driving and driving tests in earlier letters, I am now completely used to having traffic lights over the centre of the junction, right turns on red and four-way stop signs. But the signposting is abysmal. Occasionally you may come across a sign which informs that you are headed towards an Interstate (Motorway), but this is just about all you will see in a town; sometimes in the country you find direction boards but not nearly as many as in the UK.

So there are a few of my pet dislikes, but they are more than offset by the likes -

Cost of petrol about 1.60 pounds per gallon thus enabling the use of our 3.4 litre V6 Chevy Impala (automatic of course)

Enormous car parks at all the shopping malls.

The friendliness of the people, although to be fair I am speaking of small town America, I haven’t got to any major cities so far but we are thinking of a trip to NYC before Christmas.

Service is generally of a higher standard than that in the UK. They are always saying “have a nice day” and I am still unclear as to what response should be made!

Queues at checkouts are considerably shorter, Wal-Mart has the empty bags on a carousel which the cashier fills as they are checked out, this speeds up the process enormously

In general cars, clothes and most foods are cheaper here, but it does rather depend on the exchange rate.

I think I have covered enough of the minutae of American life. Next week is Halloween. The porch has been decorated for this for a few weeks now (Joanie loves her decorations!) The candy has been purchased and we now await the influx of heavily disguised individuals (children and adults) although, having said that, I imagine its going to be the kids on our block which amount to five. Then next month is Thanksgiving, the following month is Christmas and another year consigned to the dustbin of history!

The scandal up the road in Luzern County grows ever deeper, the original corrupt judges have not yet come to trial but many other officials have been charged by the FBI.

Weather has been very up and down, last week we had snow, yesterday it was 72f and today it is 45f and raining. Still as it’s an El Nino year we must expect these variations!

Until next time,

BFN

Henry Dallimore

　

LETTER FROM AMERICA #15

Sorry not to have produced this newsletter any earlier. But you know what summer is! I have two main topics in this edition - picnics and driving tests. But before I get into those, a quick weather update. Summer finally arrived here in NE Pennsylvania on August 10^th this being the first time the temperature got into the nineties since April. Mind you, as far as I am concerned it has been lovely all the time as anything above 68f is OK with me! Currently we are enjoying what is probably the best week of the summer, no rain and wall to wall sunshine. At least it has been too wet for any wildfires unlike those being suffered in California.

Anyway to the main topics. Picnics in America are unlike any we have in England. Most public parks have picnic pavilions which are fitted out with tables, seats, electricity, barbeques, and sometimes refrigerators too. Our nearest, which is also an amusement park, is Knoebels. We go there twice in July, firstly to the Friends and Family Reunion which Joanie organises and, at the end of the month, the Church Picnic.

Knoebels is an amazing place, it costs nothing to park the car or to use a pavilion (which you book in advance of course) with the attendant facilities, nor is there any entrance charge imposed. All revenue is obtained from the rides, these are mainly of the traditional sort, timber rollercoasters, merry go rounds etc etc and from the many restaurants and speciality food kiosks dotted about the site. The car park is vast and has it’s own transport system for the customers. The cost of the rides is certainly not excessive, the average cost is about $1.50 I think - definitely less than Chessington or Oulton Towers! It is without doubt a cheap day out even allowing for the petrol cost of a 11/2 hour drive. All in all, we had two great days there.

Now to my next topic - obtaining a Pennsylvania Drivers License. I am bringing this subject up because this morning I finally passed the test and got one of my very own - after two previous attempts I have to say! The system here is totally different. Firstly you have to obtain a Learner’s Permit, but before this is issued there is a multiple choice theory test to be passed. Now when I went, I didn’t realise this and consequently failed it. So I read the manual thoroughly, went back the following day and passed. Next was the hurdle of the driving test proper. At that time, the Local Centre was not conducting tests, so I had to book at another centre and settled on one at Allentown, about an hour’s drive away. That was when I started to realise just how different things are here. The first thing is that you sit in the car, with the seatbelt on, while the examiner checks that you are competent in the use of the car’s ancillary controls. OK, simple so far, but when I was told to turn on the headlights, because they come on as soon as the Impala is put into drive, I honestly didn’t know how to do it!! - the examiner showed me so that was not a good start by any means. So, having had my confidence shaken, I was told to drive to a coned off bay and parallel park. This I made a total hash of; now one thing about these tests is, if you fail the parallel parking, the test is over. So I never got out onto the road. The next time I booked at Shamokin, about 45 minutes away. This was, in my opinion, the worse possible place for driving tests as the office was located in a shopping plaza. You know what such places are like, especially when all the Mums collect the Kids and do last minute shopping. Anyway, I got the headlights on OK and did the parallel parking, The examiner then directed me to the exit road to the plaza; now this was in effect a short stretch of divided highway, he had bought me out of the parking lanes to the end of this road, but, due to the slope and my total unfamiliarity with the area, I could not see the other part of the road and accordingly went straight ahead - on the wrong side of the road!! This was another fault marking the premature end of test number two. Not a good day by any account and it was pouring down all the time.

So this morning I went to the local centre at Schuylkill Haven and actually managed to turn on all the Impala’s lights, parallel park without demolishing the bay and successfully negotiate the actual driving bit. But I have to say that the test was not, in my opinion, a test at all. All it involved was driving around two blocks of almost deserted residential roads, there was no driving on the nearby Route 61, a fast divided highway or in nearby Schuylkill Haven proper with it’s many city traffic hazards. And this is the last test a sixteen year old has to take, I can understand why the accident rate is so high over here. There is no advanced test such as is available in Britain. Still I got my license now and I feel good about it as I have been using my UK licence (out of date by three months) to drive. At least it doesn’t cost anything extra for the driving tests. When I collected the Learner’s Permit I paid a once only charge of $33 (twenty pounds) This covered the issue of the permit and as many tests as it takes to pass, the permit is valid for one year, and may be extended if necessary, and the number of test attempts is unlimited. I now have a temporary photo card license, valid for two weeks during which time the equivalent of the DVLA at Harrisburg (State Capital) will send me the permanent card.

Maybe you are wondering why this has taken so long, after all I have been here for almost eighteen months, well until you get your “Green Card” you cannot apply for any licence. My Green Card only arrived in mid-June, six months late, and that was after I had written to our Congressman over the excessive delay.

So you see the differences between two ordinary things here and in Britain. I never imagined it to be so.

Until next time

BFN
H

LETTER FROM AMERICA #14

The weather has been pretty awful again, today it has just stopped raining, everybody is moaning about it but it doesn’t bother me, I’m used to it! It seems that the jetstream is stalled right over us and as a result we have had rain for over a month now.

It was my birthday, May 28th, Joanie had got me a cake and then took me up to a Glen Miller concert at Hazelton, about 30 miles away to the north east. The concert was great, before the main event the local high school jazz band performed with a most polished and professional performance. The Glen Miller band is a direct descendant of the original, the last time I saw them was some years ago at White Rock. Then Glen’s younger brother, Herb, was leading it. When the show ended at around 10.30 and we returned to the car park, it was pouring down. Now neither of us had been to Hazelton before with the result that, after driving round and round the town, we finally rejoined Interstate 81 about ten miles beyond where we had turned off earlier! We eventually arrived home shortly before midnight.

Following the Veterans Day parade, the City has installed floodlights at the war memorial in Garfield Square. This makes the Square look very pleasant after nightfall, actually this memorial is for the Civil War, the one for the later conflicts is located right on the edge of the City limits.

Talking of nightfall, the long dusky evenings do not happen here and that is one thing that I miss. We are at the same latitude as the Mediterranean so sunset now is just before 8.30pm (anyone who has been on holiday on the Med will have noticed this) and darkness falls relatively quickly and so is complete by 9pm. Of course in midwinter we do not have the very early sunsets as in the UK.

Anyway, I seem to be rambling on a bit this time. Not very much had been happening in this neck of the woods. The only real bit of excitement has been the arrival of my Greencard. Now I am no longer an immigrant but a lawful permanent resident. Most importantly I can now leave and reenter the country at will.

Despite the weather the cookout season has started. Everybody seems to be either having or planning one. We are going to one at Linda’s on Sunday, I think it is too early in the season for the pool to have warmed up so won’t bother with the goggles and flippers this time.

The schools have a very long summer break over here. They close in early June and go back early September, but of course there are no long Christmas and Easter holidays, just a few days some of which are used to make up lost time during any adverse winter weather. During the summer there are summer camps and schools and the local communities organize various activities for the students. But this awful weather has put a damper on them all so far.

Sorry not to have anything really interesting to report this time, but for your entertainment (as I hear you are having good weather there) here is a photo of Sharp Mountain which I have just taken. This is about the lowest the clouds get!!

Until next time.

BFN

H

LETTER FROM AMERICA #13

Thought I might as well send some photos of today’s Memorial Day parade here in Downtown Pottsville. It was more or less the same as the two previous years with the Veterans of course, the college bands, the Winter Beauty Queen and we mustn’t forget the fire trucks must we!

It was a perfect day, not humid and around 83F with brilliant sunshine, there were a lot more people then previous years and after the parade there was the memorial part of the ceremonies where the names of Pottsville residents who died in all wars was read out. This included casualties of the Civil War, 150 years ago right up to Iraq and Afghanistan. Last night there was a most impressive Memorial concert from Washington, yes here they recognise the Veterans to a far greater extent then in the UK.

Anyway, it’s back to normal tomorrow, I’m not to clear as to when the next holiday weekend will be, but it can’t be too long as there are far more of them over here

Until next time,

BFN
Henry Dallimore

LETTER FROM AMERICA #12

Just a short one this time, I wanted to send you this photo of a school ‘bus showing the hinged “STOP” sign. It was parked opposite this morning as Memorial Weekend is coming up, and, just like last year, four of the big ‘buses arrived at the cemetery with around two hundred school kids who replaced all the flags left last year on the graves of the Veterans. I went over and spoke to the Veterans who were supervising, I reflected that I was just a youngster to them despite getting to 73 next week, but they were interested in my tales of living in London during the blitz, especially an ex-USAAF gunner who said he had often wondered what it was like to be on the ground!

Well that’s all for now, hope you all have a good holiday weekend without too much of the wet stuff, we are forecast to have temperatures in the eighties but with a chance of late afternoon thunderstorms.

BFN
H

LETTER FROM AMERICA #11

Well at last the wind chimes are chiming away and the colorful windsocks flying in the wind on the porch. Of course they were in the largest box in the cellar at the bottom of a pile of similarly sized boxes containing the Halloween and Christmas decorations, yet another example of the Law of Common Perversity!

In this letter I’m going to discuss some rather mundane subjects such as rubbish collection and school ‘buses. Here the binmen are not nearly so fussy over what they have to collect. Each Monday evening I put the week’s trash out kerbside, we do not have any seagulls or similar creatures to investigate the contents of the bags. And they can be any sort as well as black, anything gets collected even to the extent that the Christmas trees went with that week’s collection. There is no sorting at source here, rather disappointing I think, all the week’s newspapers go in the bags along with glass and tin cans. I gather that this is done at the tip. Still it is a reliable, efficient service which the City offers It’s taxpayers.

I expect everyone is familiar with the big yellow school buses which operate here, they have been seen in films and comic books. But there are some aspects of which I was not aware. When the ‘bus stops to either collect or set down the hazard lights are on and a “STOP” sign hinged out from the offside (left of course). So long as this is displayed all traffic in both directions is obliged to stop; in addition an horizontal post swings out in front and along the axis of the ‘bus. This is about three feet in length and the idea is to prevent anyone crossing in front where, due to the bonnet length, they could be hidden from the view of the driver. The ‘bus drops the kids off at fixed points where there is a school crossing patrol to ensure safety and where parents can park up and collect their offspring. The crossing patrols have short handled hexagonal “STOP” signs unlike UK “Lollipops”. So there is a little more to the ubiquitous yellow ‘buses than first meets the eye.

Next weekend is the first holiday weekend here - Memorial Day during which the veterans are honored. There is a parade down the road at Garfield Square of practically any organization in the City, as well as the old soldiers there are school marching bands, boy and girl scouts, cadets and of course pretty much all the local fire trucks (well, it wouldn’t be the same without them would it?). It is a family tradition that we go to Bobby’s on the Saturday for a cookout. The weather forecast is good with temperatures upper 70’s/lower 80’s (average temperature for late May is 74). So, unless we catch a rogue thunderstorm, it should be a good day out. Bobby lives around an hour away to the west and has a lovely bungalow set in what I would call a mini-ranch.

Apart from that nothing much happening, we have had to abandon the trip to NYC and my old school annual dinner due to expense which came, as usual, in threes - car, water heater and washing machine! Still there is always next year.

Talking about language differences, I was going to go shopping the other day and Joanie told me to add “Soap Dish” to the list. I replied that we had about four up in the bathroom. After a somewhat lengthy discussion it transpired that what was wanted was washing up liquid! Yes it is true to say that England and America are friends divided by a common language!

Until next time,

BFN
H

　

LETTER FROM AMERICA #10

There are one or two things that I don’t think have I mentioned which may surprise you.

Funerals are treated with far greater respect that in Britain. When you arrive at the church, a member of the Funeral Director’s staff (called Morticians here) places a magmount flag on your car. This means that the car is not contravening any parking regulations whilst you are in the church, and when the party leaves, the resulting convoy has priority at all junctions, including red lights so long as the hazard flashers are on. Round here the usual procedure is for a service in the city church followed by a drive outside city limits to the appropriate cemetery where a short farewell service is held. It is not customary to stand at the graveside whilst the new occupant is lowered in. The coffin is left in the cemetery chapel to be interred later while the mourners go off for a meal together.

On Sundays certain streets in the City have temporary one-way regulations so as to facilitate parking for churchgoers. There are about three very large churches here and you have to be alert if out and about on Sunday mornings. As you can imagine, as America’s founding was based, among other things, on freedom of worship, there is a very high church/population ratio. Churches are exempt from property taxes; recently the Catholic Diocese closed quite a number of churches in order to save money, now the local authorities are demanding property taxes on the buildings as they are no longer exempt! That caused quite a major upset which hasn’t yet been resolved!

Another big difference is in the appointing of public officers, except here they are not appointed but voted for. Take for instance the post of coroner, in the UK the post is advertised, interviews held and the successful candidate appointed. Over here the coroner is appointed by a ballot of the citizens as are other posts such as chief of police, fire chief, judge, sheriff, mayor etc etc. The polling day for this mass of dignitaries is due around the middle of this month.

I still think Obama is doing a good job, but as I have already said I am the only member of the family who thinks so - so I keep stum!!

This time last week the temperature was 93F, today it is 54 and has been raining almost non stop for two days. Still we need it as we are about four inches short so far this year, not quite as May should be, but we hope for better times. Anyway, the flags are flying out front, the carpet is back down in the porch, the cushions are on the seats and the wind chimes are merrily chiming away (that is they will be as soon as one of us can remember in which box in the basement they were put last autumn!)

By the way, I have just remembered another little oddity here in Pennsylvania. On the open road if a vehicle is traveling at less than 40mph they are obliged to turn on the hazard flashers. This is not a federal law, just peculiar to Pa. Usually you would see this on a truck on an uphill grade.

Until next time

BFN
H

LETTER FROM AMERICA #9

Well Easter has come and gone. Over here it is not a long weekend, in fact as there is no holiday on Good Friday and Easter Monday does not exist, it was just another weekend. We had lunch on the Sunday at Jimmy’s with just the close family. There were twelve instead of the usual twenty five.

Weather? Well at the moment it is three paces forward and two back; yesterday was really lovely - we got to 76F, today (Sunday) it has dropped to 69F and tomorrow is forecast to be a wet and windy day with a maximum of 43F! But the it starts to get warmer and by next weekend it will be back up in the seventies. I was looking at the spring photographs from last year, things are happening about a week later this year. I suppose that’s because we had a below average winter. But it is starting now, most of the tree blossom came out yesterday and the grass has started growing again.

There are some signs that, just maybe, the recession is starting to ease, in fact several companies are actually showing profits and the exchange rate is now putting a few extra dollars into my pockets! The President is maintaining his popularity especially on the international front with his approaches to Iran, Cuba and Venezuela. Personally I think it is a much better approach than that of the previous Administration.

I caught the South east BBC News on line last night, I see the French are up to their old tricks again - nothing new there then!!

A word about the garden wildlife. We have a chipmunk in residence again, a rabbit who periodically comes by to eat Joanie’s flowers, a groundhog close by and who knows we may even have a black bear come down from the mountain to see what we are up to like last year (I think I told you about that incident) and of course the usual assortment of birds and squirrels. We have a sparrow building a nest under the awning over the downstairs bathroom window, I hope to get some pictures providing the fly screen does not get in the way. All the windows have these mesh screens except where we put air conditioning units (bedroom and my office). I have limited knowledge of insect life but some of the examples I have seen are nothing like anything in Britain. There are fireflies in the summer which provide a good spectacle and there is a continuous chirruping after dark from the many crickets, mostly across the road in the cemetery.

So we are looking forward to summer and hope it will be a good one. We are lucky here in not suffering the extremes of Nature - no tornados, hurricanes, earthquakes or brush fires as normally we have sufficient rain to prevent these. Having said that, we are below normal rainfall this year by about an inch or so.

Life in Pottsville goes on, nothing terribly exciting seems to happen here, but you may remember in my last letter I mentioned that two judges in Luzern County had been found guilty of corruption. Well now the FBI has uncovered corruption in the Education Department with the selling of teaching posts! Makes you wonder what else is going to crawl out of the woodwork!

Until next time.

BFN
H

LETTER FROM AMERICA # 8

I got the car stickers the wrong way round. I only discovered this when Joanie's arrived.

The small sticker on the licence plate is the registration annual fee reciept. This makes sense as the plate belongs to the owner not the car and if you buy another vehicle, the plate and licence fee go on it. The cost of this is $38.

So it makes sense that the safety check sticker (ie MOT) stays with the car not the owner.

Hope this makes sense.

BFN

Henry

LETTER FROM AMERICA #7

It’s hard to believe that it was exactly a year ago yesterday that I arrived here and I still haven’t got my Green Card yet. According to the rules the use of my UK driver’s licence is only allowed for up to a year, but I cannot apply for a Pennsylvania licence without the Green Card. I then shall have to get a learner’s permit and take a test designed for 16 year olds - I hope I pass it!!

This snippet of news brings me nicely to the main topic of this letter, owning a car in the USA. As I have said, the minimum age for car driving is 16, somewhat lower than the UK, I understand that the minimum age is being raised to 18.

The main thing is the total difference in political attitude towards the motorist. In the UK the politicians have always taken the attitude that any motorist is using his car to take the family out on a picnic or some other leisure pursuit and have taxed him accordingly.

Over here the attitude is the complete opposite. Cars are cheaper as is petrol. There is no road tax as such, each vehicle has an annual registration charge which costs only a few dollars. This is shown by a small sticker on the windscreen and there is an annual safety inspection which can cost anything and that is shown by a small sticker on the licence plate. Incidentally, Pennsylvania is one of the states not to have front licence plates and it makes those cars which have a space for one at the front look rather strange.

The options for licence plates are vast, there are literally hundreds of options in this state alone. Veterans of any conflict can have them, as can universities, fire companies, animal protection and in fact Bobby, who served in Iraq, recently bought a new pickup and his plate shows “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. Then of course there are the disabled plates which we have on the Impala (Joanies). We do not get 2 hours free parking at meters but there are designated spaces at all the mall parking lots.

Here, the licence number belongs to the individual and not the car

The business of personalized plates is incredibly cheap - $20 plus $18 for the actual plate. You can have anything you want, providing it is not offensive of course, up to seven characters. For instance I could have ME HENRY or BE NICE but not **** OFF if you get my drift. You can also have anything you want on the front, one day I expect I shall get round to fixing my former cherished number to the Impala. I have already written on how rules are arranged to help traffic flow, 4-way junctions, turning right at red lights etc (must remember not to try that when we come over!!)

Anyway to other matters, the weather is warming up and is now mostly in the 50’s but there are still piles of ice to be melted in the mall parking lots. The main news item is about bonuses of many millions being paid to employees of AIG, who has received billions from the Federal Government. Congress is passing legislation to tax these people at 95%, and the President is not exactly best pleased. There has been a major scandal in Luzerne County. Two judges have been sent to jail for corruption and the FBI is investigating several other county employees. Makes such a change to encounter a bit of good old fashioned graft and corruption!! The other big story is about Bernie Madoff who has pleaded guilty to swindling investors out of billions but he won’t say where all the money is hidden. At the moment he is in jail pending sentencing.

Apart from that, life goes on, President Obama is maintaining his popularity, we are all looking forward to the summer and I am hoping the exchange rate will improve in the very near future.

Until next time

BFN

Henry Dallimore

LETTER FROM AMERICA #6

Well I had intended to cover winter weather here in Pennsylvania in this letter, but it seems as if you have got a real dose of it yourselves!

When I was growing up we usually had a least two periods of heavy snow each winter, but in recent years these have become far more infrequent so when they do occur obviously the effect is felt more.

Here, in a climate which is quite accustomed to such events it takes a very severe snowfall to stop the country functioning and even if the schools do get closed due to the weather, the lost days are always made up at the expense of the holidays. The snow clearing operations are controlled by the City and are mostly carried out by private individuals who have fitted snow ploughs to their pickup trucks. This proves to be very effective indeed to the extent that even the private alley serving the garages at the bottom of our gardens gets ploughed every time. As for the through routes, these are mainly the responsibility of Penndot (Pennsylvania Department of Transport) who have a large fleet of ploughs and gritting vehicles and, so far this winter, have succeeded in keeping the main routes clear.

Evidently this is a somewhat chilly winter this year, the average temperature is 36F, but it hasn’t been anyway near that for some time; but the forecasters are saying that by the weekend it will be 44F - a veritable heat wave!!

We has a snowfall weekend before last and on the Sunday morning the road outside had been cleared by 8am and our garage access by about noon. The temperature outside is now 34F as I write, the roads have all dried out but the piles of ice everywhere have to be seen to be believed; I think it will take many weeks of warmer weather to get rid of them all, some have been there since before thanksgiving!

There is an old custom here - Groundhog day - on Feburary 2nd when, if the groundhog can see his shadow at sunrise winter will continue for a further six weeks. Unfortunately he could, but who believes such folklore anyway? Still you never know do you?

Anyway, I hope you have all managed to dig yourselves out in time for the next meeting, and leave you with greetings from a snowy Schuylkill County to a more snowy East Sussex.

Until next time,

BFN
Henry Dallimore

LETTER FROM AMERICA #5

Today, as I start to write this, has been spent in watching the inauguration of the new President. I have to say that I was most impressed with the day’s programme together with the organization behind it. Despite a windchill of 15F there were about 1.75 million people in Washington for the occasion. What struck me most was the lack of acrimony between Bush and Obama, there have been numerous reports about the cooperation over the transition of power and when Ex-president Bush boarded the helicopter after the swearing in, here were hugs between both families. I feel that the Founding Fathers would be proud to see how their original idea has survived so well. Now all we can do is wait and see if the new way comes to fruition or not. I must admit to having changed my ideas about America, I had always believed that it was all a thin veneer of glitz and glamour with nothing underneath. But now I can realise the depth of emotion and feeling just below the surface. Despite missing home, I am glad to be here.

In his letter I would like to say a little about the differences between living here and in England.

The other Sunday morning there was the sound of several two stroke petrol engines all phutting merrily away, it was not lawn mowers but snow blowers. We had about five or six inches of the stuff. Here the pavement (sidewalk) belongs to the property owner who is responsible for it’s upkeep including the clearance of any accumulated snow. You can get fined for non compliance! We are perhaps fortunate in this regard as our property is a three storied town house with only a twenty five foot frontage so there is not a great deal of shovelling required. But we have good neighbours who very often will have done it for us before we get out ourselves.

I expect everyone is aware that American houses have mailboxes at the end of the drive. This can be a nuisance if, like at Linda’s, your drive is on a steep slope and about fifty feet from the house. Again we are lucky as we have no front garden or drive so the mailbox is on the wall of the porch right next to the front door. In case you were wondering what the red flag on a mailbox is for, over here the mailman collects your outgoing mail and the flag when raised will tell him that there is mail for him to collect. With our box being where it is and of a different design, we simply tuck our letters under the flap to await collection.

We have a regular newspaper delivery, the delivery boy simply throws it onto the porch from the pavement, I have to say his aim is very good as every morning it is lying close to the door, it comes tightly rolled up with an elastic band. For those with mailboxes like Linda’s, there is a special compartment for newspapers built in. Even so, it isn’t much fun on a freezing morning having to put on a coat and collect the paper before breakfast.

Apart from driving on the right, America has some rules completely different from the UK. At a red light you can turn right unless prohibited by a warning sign, of course traffic on the green has priority. In the towns there are what is called four (or three) way junctions where priority is allocated to whoever arrives at the line first, in the event of simultaneous arrival, the vehicle on the right has priority. This has the effect of reducing lines at junctions quite considerably. When I first drove here, my main problem was in almost missing traffic lights which are mostly suspended over the centre of the junction and not on the side of the road. The validity of my UK driving licence will be up in March, and I shall have to take a test so as to obtain a Pennsylvania licence, I do hope I pass this ok as it is directed mainly at sixteen year olds (that is the minimum age here!). I have got the medical certificate filled by our doctor (everyone has to do this regardless of age) and will fix my written test soon.

I haven’t got my Green Card yet, so I can’t leave the country - that is to say I could but couldn’t get back in. The green card alters my status of Immigrant to LPR (Lawful Permanent Resident), but they are evidently running some six months behind schedule so I don’t expect it until the summer sometime.

Until next time,

BFN

Henry

LETTER FROM AMERICA #4

Well Christmas has gone and so has the snow, at least for the time being. We didn’t have a white Christmas, sort of an off-white I suppose only insofar as it didn’t actually snow over the holiday but there was plenty left over from earlier in the week. All the Family came over on Christmas Eve for the exchanging of presents and we were at Jimmy’s for dinner the following day.

As is common with the media worldwide, all the news has been bad (don’t they just love reporting bad news!) despite some stores opening at 4am with amazing “door buster” offers earlier in December, sales are reported down 5% compared to last year. My main problem is the weakness of the Pound against the Dollar - since September this is costing me $250 a month! Could somebody please ask that nice Mr. Brown to do something about it!

Christmas in America is very like in the UK except there is no Boxing Day, but as Christmas day was on a Thursday, most people didn’t bother going in on Friday.

Yesterday was a real treat for me, Linda’s Hubby, George, is from England and we stayed the weekend with them. George (who is a trained chef) cooked a traditional English roast beef dinner with roast potatoes followed by Christmas pudding. You may have guessed that roast potatoes and Christmas pudding are unknown around here!

Going back to the election, I don’t think I told you that one of our best respected Senators (yes there are really some who are in this category!) was killed about a fortnight before polling day in a road accident. So what happened? Was this part of the election postponed? Nope, the good citizens of Schuylkill County elect a dead man to the State Senate!! Well I suppose perhaps nobody would have noticed anyway! The re-election is scheduled for March.

It is January 2^nd as I write this part, New Year’s Eve was extremely cold, windchill made it feel like zero Fahrenheit so we weren’t out on the porch for very long. Just long enough for a quick blast on my hunting horn and back into the warm. There was nobody about to hear me anyway!

I learned an interesting piece of trivia, the County Name - Schuylkill - is Dutch not Native American as I first thought. It mans “hidden river” as it is evidently difficult to find where it flows into the Delaware. I am reading about the history of this area, the Dutch were the first Europeans to arrive, there were no Native Americans living here - it was just a hunting area.

The New Year started with a bit of excitement. An apartment block over the back caught fire and was completely gutted. All the occupants got out safely before the fire took hold thank goodness. It was a change to see our firefighters putting out a blaze just for once, they were superb - heroes all.

So that’s it for another year, I wish all my readers all the very best for 2009, in many ways it couldn’t possibly any worse than 2008 - or could it??

Until next time

BFN

Henry

LETTER FROM AMERICA #3a

ADDENDUM TO #3

I completely forgot to mention in letter #3 that the Christmas decorations and tree were switched on Saturday last.

The town square (Garfield Square - named after the president not the cat!) is a lovely sight at night now and the centre has a crib display and a row of choirboy models who, amusingly enough, are standing right behind one of the canons which form part of the war memorial. A message perhaps? Of course the fire department trucks were also present. Americans just love their fire trucks and not without good reason I might add.

They are larger than ours and beautifully turned out. They turn out for any public occasion and sometimes parade around the City with sirens blazing. Last summer no fewer than 25 came by the house! Of course they put out fires as well! I am still trying to find the American equivalent to “Hugh, Pugh, Barney McGrew, Cuthbert, Dibble and Grubb” (The Trumpton fire crew for those not familiar) but I guess things are perhaps taken more seriously here.

Peace and love

Henry

LETTER FROM AMERICA #3

Well November has been and gone, we have had the elections and Thanksgiving. The result of the election was as I had predicted last year, and so far I am impressed with the manner that Obama is setting things up. I also notice a strained expression on his face that wasn’t there during the campaign - why anyone wants the job escapes me!

Thanksgiving was a re-run of two years ago but unfortunately our Sister-in-law, Jeanne, went down with a bout of forty eight hour ‘flu which is doing the rounds at the moment, and couldn’t be with us. Later in the week the rest of the family also got it including the Texas branch who are flying back tomorrow (Wednesday). A new slogan -”Visit the beautiful state of Pennsylvania and get your free ‘flu!” seems appropriate!

Petrol prices are now well down around $1.95, so nothing to complain about there - a definite “benefit” of being in recession!! I mentioned in my earlier Thanksgiving report “Black Friday” the start of the Christmas shopping season. This year some shops opened as early as four am with lots of bargains available until one pm. Evidently all the trolleys were in use at our local Wal-Mart and the queues were thirty long at the checkouts. (We were asleep while this was going on of course).

Winter is now fully entrenched of course, we have had a few snowy days but nothing to cause serious disruption, today it is quite pleasant at around the mid to upper forties.

Joanie has recovered sufficiently from her fall to get the porch decorated - we now have a waving Santa and snowman lit up at night together with sundry streamers, lights etc. etc. I think the tree will arrive next week sometime and we will get the utter chaos of the living room sorted.

Well, that’s about it for this month. I wish all my Readers everywhere the merriest of merry Christmases and hope that 2009 will be a success for each and everyone of you.

Until next time,

Peace and love,

Henry

LETTER FROM AMERICA #2

Well was I right or was I right? Almost two years ago I felt that Obama would win the election. We can only hope that for once things will work out for the best. I am so glad that it is all over and done with, some really crazy things happened during the campaign. For instance someone, and I do not know who, said that if Obama was elected, within six months he would be put to the test over some world threatening event. Would you believe that the opposition started saying if you don’t want this event to happen, then vote for McCain!!

Anyway, enough about the election. The price of gas has come down to less than a year ago and is around one pound sixty now, so there is no more moaning about that. We have been enjoying something of an Indian summer just recently with daytime temperatures in the mid-sixties. Of course the next event is Thanksgiving on the 27^th of this month and before you know it, we shall be doing exactly the same thing at Christmas!

The Halloween decorations have come down everywhere, except at our bank, yes even the banks put up decorations! I am reliably informed that the Christmas decorations will be going up just as soon as thanksgiving is over!

Autumn is really dragging it’s feet this year, three weeks ago I did my photo collection, today I have been out and about with the camera as about 85% of the leaves are still in place and the colours are truly amazing. However I have now run out of ideas for original photos and have put the project to bed.

The day after Thanksgiving is called “Black Friday”, not because all the shops run into problems. Quite the opposite, it is the day when the Christmas shopping season starts and the shops all move into the black (or so they hope). I don’t know how things will work out as Joanie had a fall three weeks ago and now has one knee braced and one arm in plaster. So exactly how all this shopping is to be done is yet to be revealed!

Joanie,s eldest son, Jimmy, collided with a deer on his way to work last week and the repair total is around $7,000. I find a sense of irony in this as he is the hunter of the family and spends weekends shooting them!! Actually, as you can imagine, hunting is big business here with many stores dedicated purely to the needs of this so-called sport. It is licenced and closely controlled, the argument being that it helps wildlife survive by limiting their numbers; I thought Mother nature had been doing just that for thousands of years! Still if sitting up a tree with a loaded rifle is your bag……………………………….....

Until next month,

‘bye for now

Henry Dallimore