Maxine ClarkCreative Writing Seminar

Visual Narrative Essay

A Little Pith and Vinegar for the Melting Pot

Like most British kids, my only knowledge of America was drawn from movies and television programs. We had three channels to choose from: BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.

Rainy Sundays often found us watching dusty old Westerns. Seeing all of that sand, the canyons and earthtones made my tongue dry up like clay.

My imagination went wild at the prospect of a new life in America. What I didn’t take into account was all that we would leave behind.

Cousins

My paternal grandparents didn’t take the news well. I was particularly sad to leave them because they lavished gifts on us, like this fan and castanets from one of their trips to Spain.

Grandparents

My father insisted that we not smile in our passport pictures. I couldn’t help it! He had to keep feeding more and more money into the coin slot. He was not pleased.

I was primed for a perfectly despondent shot.

When I said goodbye to my hamster Christmas, she bit my fingertip. I couldn’t believe my own hamster had rejected me.

I left my toy dog Cokey in our old house for the new people and immediately regretted it.

The day was off to a bad start.

Cokey Christmas

My brother and I were invited up into the cockpit and given honorary British Airways Junior Jet Club passbooks to enter our future British Airways trips. Of which there would be none.

My gear on the flight

On the drive from the airport, I continued to retch while taking in the sights of Route One out the side window. Past the Hilltop with its plastic cows grazing the side of the highway . . .

Within mere hours of arrival, I realized we could very well starve to death. We were offered Dr. Pepper or Ginger Ale to drink but they were “too spicy” for our bland palates.

+

Palate Attack!

= Weird and Gross

Letting go was hard and I missed England for a long time. I felt like I was always drawing comparisons between English and American culture and choosing sides.

On September 23, 1994 in Concord, NH I was sworn in as an American citizen, when in actuality, becoming an American has been a gradual process occuring over the course of my life here.

My husband and I were married in the Rose Garden at Lynch Park in Beverly on a beautiful June day in 1999. We’ve been to England together. Twice.

We’ve also been to Disney World. Four times.

We bought our home in the same neighborhood my family moved to back in 1978.

My old house at 19 Deerhurst, Stanshawe Estate in Yate

Our comparatively palatial estate in Beverly

Our daughter was born in December 2003, and at eight years old, she is now attending the same school I did when I was her age.

I finally feel like this is where I belong.