You Know You Live in a Small(ish) Town When...

[HudsonHawk]

I am significantly Eastern European on my mother's side. Growing up, a certain person on my father's side of the family made a big deal out of whiteness and how my mother's family was from Eastern Europe, blah, blah. In other words, my mother was less white than my father, and oh my goodness, mixing.

I took a DNA test around the first of the year, and as it turns out, I am one of the 4 to 5% of white Americans who have African DNA... And it's on my father's side... And this person shares the bloodline.

I have been laughing ever since.

And the DNA test doesn't prove that your ancestors were from Africa, it simply means that you and some other people in Africa share common ancestral DNA. It's a database comparison. Given that Europeans also colonized much of Africa, this is common and not surprising. It could be that your DNA test simply indicates that you and someone in Africa share a common European ancestor. And it's also as likely that you have an ancestor who was an African slave. The world is indeed a mixed bag.

 

[sheeplady]

And the DNA test doesn't prove that your ancestors were from Africa, it simply means that you and some other people in Africa share common ancestral DNA. It's a database comparison. Given that Europeans also colonized much of Africa, this is common and not surprising. It could be that your DNA test simply indicates that you and someone in Africa share a common European ancestor. And it's also as likely that you have an ancestor who was an African slave. The world is indeed a mixed bag.

Either of those equally warm my heart when it comes to the person in question, considering the percentage and the diversity of African DNA (as in places in Africa). While it is entirely possible to share multiple segments, it really doesn't matter. As I said, they are "one drop people.

I am also several other "ethnicities" they would find distasteful, also clearly NOT just from my mother's side. These ethnicities are all probable given my written genealogy and possible immigration paths and some rather interesting things that are suggested by my family tree.

Oh, the loveliness of this all.

 

[BlueTrain]

Well, everyone bleeds red blood, assuming "blue blood" is just a figure of speech. Yet not all blood is the same. It only matters when you need more blood. But there is a more important question. What family are you part of?

Naming conventions vary throughout the world. In the United States, you generally only carry one family name. Some assume a hyphenated last name upon marriage, but that always seemed a little forced to me. I actually knew someone whose last name was "Smith-Christmas." Latin-American naming conventions are very confusing (to me). Ultimately, your last name represents the family you belong to, if in fact family connections mean anything. Someone said family means that when you go there, they have to let you in. I doubt that's true now and maybe never was.

Adoptions are not that uncommon and I believe that legal adoptions have always been as accepted and loved as natural born children, even cross-racial adoptions. So blood connections are not that necessary. One of my (Roman Catholic) nephews married a Korean who had been adopted and raised by a Jewish father. It took two days to get through all the ceremonies, which fortunately were without rain.

I know people who are immigrants, people whose parents were immigrants, even more whose grandparents were immigrants and even more whose ancestors came here almost 400 years ago. I don't think I know anyone whose ancestors were here earlier than that.

 

[MisterCairo]

I don't think I know anyone whose ancestors were here earlier than that.

I know Canadians whose ancestors came here between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago... ;-)

 

[LizzieMaine]

Indeed. The second largest non-white ethnic groups in Maine are Passamaquoddies and Penoboscots.

 

[Trenchfriend]

When you get into your one favorite supermarket of the three supermarkets, your smalltown got, 19:15 o'clock and it's relatively empty there and the addicting peach-maracuja-yoghurt in the 1 kilogramm-buckets isn't sold out.

 

[MisterCairo]

The local town is considering a backyard camp fire ban - and it is one of the major headlines:

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.co...ducing-clean-burning-rules-for-backyard-fires

 

[2jakes]

Traffic downtown comes to a complete
dead stop. Taking several hours to get
home from work because the city
basketball team won the World Championship.

 

[green papaya]

When the town Sheriff / Deputy stops people to harass / bully citizens just like in the movie FIRST BLOOD they try to run you out of town

one time I stopped at small town gas station and got harassed by the town Sheriff dept just for taking a break and getting something to eat, he pulled up, looked at my vehicle license plate, and gave me this unfriendly look and wanted to know what I was doing, your not from around here, etc

I thought police were not supposed to bother people unless they had a reasonable suspicion? but it was a red neck area and I wasnt one of them.

 

[BlueTrain]

I understand completely what you're saying but sometimes it disturbs me when I realize I am one of them. All I have to do is open my mouth.

 

[3fingers]

The local town is considering a backyard camp fire ban - and it is one of the major headlines:

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.co...ducing-clean-burning-rules-for-backyard-fires

This has been an ongoing battle in a nearby community. The banners didn't get everything they wanted, but I thought the compromise was more than reasonable. Apparently it was not because standing in the backyard with a Bic lighter burning will generate an immediate complaint to the city and you will be forced to put it out.

 

[EngProf]

When the town Sheriff / Deputy stops people to harass / bully citizens just like in the movie FIRST BLOOD they try to run you out of town

one time I stopped at small town gas station and got harassed by the town Sheriff dept just for taking a break and getting something to eat, he pulled up, looked at my vehicle license plate, and gave me this unfriendly look and wanted to know what I was doing, your not from around here, etc

I thought police were not supposed to bother people unless they had a reasonable suspicion? but it was a red neck area and I wasnt one of them.

I'm curious where this "red neck area" was...

 

[Fading Fast]

When the town Sheriff / Deputy stops people to harass / bully citizens just like in the movie FIRST BLOOD they try to run you out of town

one time I stopped at small town gas station and got harassed by the town Sheriff dept just for taking a break and getting something to eat, he pulled up, looked at my vehicle license plate, and gave me this unfriendly look and wanted to know what I was doing, your not from around here, etc

I thought police were not supposed to bother people unless they had a reasonable suspicion? but it was a red neck area and I wasnt one of them.

A much less aggressive but still wrong version of this is the "speed trap for out-of-towners" setup that I was caught in once up in a small town in Maine. I was going along on a clearly marked 50mph road at 50mph when the road curved a bit (heavy foliage around) and the next thing I knew, a police car with flashers was going and I'm pulled over.

I was polite, he was all business and basically said I was clocked at 51mhp in a 25mph zone and he ticketed me for excessive speeding. Of course, I could fight it in court if I wanted to come back up from NY in several weeks he told me. Afterwards, I went back over the road and saw (you had to look for it) a crooked 25mph speed sign bent into the foliage right where the road curved.

 

[belfastboy]

My wife and I were bicycling through a small town in eastern Washington state....another deadly goat head thorn claimed my tire and as I was fixing the flat the local sheriff drove by, stopped, rolled down his window, I rose and stiffened, he smiled and asked if everything was okay and if there was anything he could do to help me. I declined and he continued on his way. After the fix we continued our journey and a few miles down the road he passed us coming the other way and bid us adieu with a smile and a wave.

 

[MisterCairo]

My wife and I were bicycling through a small town in eastern Washington state....another deadly goat head thorn claimed my tire and as I was fixing the flat the local sheriff drove by, stopped, rolled down his window, I rose and stiffened, he smiled and asked if everything was okay and if there was anything he could do to help me. I declined and he continued on his way. After the fix we continued our journey and a few miles down the road he passed us coming the other way and bid us adieu with a smile and a wave.

Fascist...

 

[belfastboy]

Fascist...

And I swear we were NOT in Mayberry!

 

[MisterCairo]

Drive-thru, anyone?

http://www.stratfordbeaconherald.com/2017/10/16/three-people-sent-to-hospital-with-minor-injuries

 

[LizzieMaine]

We had one of those a few years back, when some desperate soul drove her monster truck right thru the front window at Dunkies. She wanted her Coolata, dammit, and she wasn't gonna wait in line.

 

[sheeplady]

They closed down main street to take a building down. Everybody leaves your workplace 3 blocks down to watch it... along with half the town.

The ice cream truck could have made a killing.

 

[MisterCairo]

We had one of those a few years back, when some desperate soul drove her monster truck right thru the front window at Dunkies. She wanted her Coolata, dammit, and she wasn't gonna wait in line.

This was Stratford, Ontario's eleventh such "drive thru" event.

This year...