American Culture: Shotgun Houses

 

Does the name “shotgun house” scare you? Fear not, because a shotgun house is a typical small Southern style home of New Orleans, and it’s charming and cute. Even though tiny homes are a big trend now, shotgun houses could be considered the original tiny home because they were very popular in the late 1800s.

Shotgun houses are tiny but long, with one room leading into the next without hallways. This style of home is affordable and particularly well-suited for hot climates because all of the doors line up and, when open, a refreshing breeze flows through the entire house. 

Why is it called a shotgun house? Perhaps it’s because of the architectural design, where rooms are connected without hallways so a bullet fired from the front door could pass through the house without hitting anything and exit through the back door. Other evidence suggests that this name actually derives from the word “shogon.” In West Africa, “shogon” means “God’s House.”

John Hancock’s Signature

If you were given a pen and asked to put your John Hancock on a piece of paper, would you know what to do? If English isn’t your mother tongue, this could be a very perplexing request, but in the USA it’s quite normal. 

Who is John Hancock and what is a John Hancock?

First, a John Hancock is an informal reference to your signature. If I wanted your autograph, for example, or if I wanted you to sign a contract, I could ask for your John Hancock as an informal way to request your signature. 

John Hancock, the man, was a leader in the American Revolution and a politician. He was the first person to sign our Declaration of Independence in 1776, which stated that the 13 American colonies (our first states) were free from British authority.  

His signature is historically famous. Due to its boldness, large size and stylish script, John Hancock’s name is the most prominent because, according to legend, he wanted the king to be able to read it without his glasses. 

Dear John letters

There is a famous quote that says, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder," which means that separation intensifies love. Unfortunately this isn’t true for everyone because of the Dear John letter. 

A Dear John letter is a letter (or maybe an email nowadays) from a woman to a man (or vice versa), breaking off (terminating) a romantic relationship. Dear John letters are typically sent to servicemen or soldiers overseas by a wife or girlfriend, usually because they have found someone else. Rather cruel, isn’t it?

A romantic letter might contain affectionate language, such as Dearest John, Darling, or Dear Johnny, but if a serviceman received a letter beginning with an abrupt Dear John, the receiver would instantly know its purpose. Bad news.

Why John? It’s not sure how the name John was used. It was a popular name during World War ll (when Dear John letters started becoming a fact of life). Another reason may be that John is a name commonly used  when referring to any unidentified man (like John Doe).

These days you don't have to be in the service to receive a Dear John letter. Perhaps nowadays people end relationships with texts, which are just as heartless. Do you do something similar in your country to end a personal relationship? I hope you practice something more compassionate than sending a Dear John (or Dear Jane) letter.

American culture: dog bakeries

When you’re a sucker for something, you’re particularly attracted to or you like a specified thing. It’s informal English, for example:

• Marco is a sucker for barbecued ribs.
• Matteo is a sucker for Ray-Ban sunglasses.
• I don't know why Debbie never takes a vacation. She’s a sucker for punishment, I guess.

For me, I’m a sucker for bakeries. I love the smell of freshly baked bread or simply looking in pastry shop windows. Most of all, I love eating pastries.

Americans often look for opportunities: If they like something, they feel others might like it too, including their pets. With this attitude, the dog bakery was born.

Do dogs have a weakness for bakeries? They must, because canine pastry shops have sprung up (grown) in cities all across the US. They have very funny names too, like Doggie Bistro, Petlicious Dog Bakery, The Barkery, and more.

Pet owners care more about the quality of food they feed their animals because often store-bought treats have a high amount of sugar, preservatives, and chemicals. Dog-friendly ingredients are typically natural or organic products, such as peanut butter, oats, whole wheat flour, or carob (no chocolate for dogs), so this is the main reason for the popular dog bakery trend.

In addition, there are some very attractive choices to treat your pet. Think doggie donuts, birthday bones, doggie cannoli, or puppy peanut butter cups. Who can resist?

February is Black History Month

The year 1976 marked the United States Bicentennial, the country’s 200th birthday. It was a time when citizens celebrated the creation of the United States of America as an independent republic. Nineteen seventy-six was significant in another way: it was when the U.S. began its annual observance of Black History Month.

February is Black History Month, or National African American History Month, when we commemorate the achievements by black Americans and recognize the contributions of African Americans in U.S. history.

The accomplishments of African Americans have been valuable throughout our history
in every aspect and it's an honor to show appreciation for how the American culture has been greatly influenced by African Americans.

You can be a part of Black History Month in many ways:

Read the poem “I, Too, Sing America” by poet Langston Hughes and think about the poem’s vocabulary, rhythm, and meaning.

Bake sweet potato biscuits, a traditional soul food treat, with this delicious recipe.

Read Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

See James Karales’s photographs of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches.

Examine these oral histories from elderly African Americans in Elbert County, Georgia, and Abbeville County., South Carolina on the National Park Service website.

Trace the history of the blues from its beginnings in the fields of the South to its global impact on today’s music. Visit the Kennedy Center to learn about B. B. King and other musicians.

View artist Jacob Lawrence’s Migration Series, which depicts the migration of slaves from the South to the North in search of a better life.

Learn about the history of hip-hop music, a genre that emerged in the Bronx, New York City, in 1970.

Who was the first African American tennis player to win the U.S. Open? Who was the first African American woman elected to U.S. Congress? Find out about many famous firsts in black history on Biography.

American culture: bluegrass music

Bluegrass is a kind of folk music that's related to country music, and it shares the same roots as the traditional music of the Appalachian region of the U.S. This type of music was influenced by Irish and Scottish ballads, and later by the music of African-Americans through the incorporation of blues and jazz elements. The songs often reflect life on the farm or in the hills.

The feature that distinguishes bluegrass from mainstream country music is its “high lonesome sound,” a vocal style that often gives even happy songs a suggestion of bleakness (sadness).

Bluegrass music’s distinctive sound is characterized by other traits as well:

1. Its focus on vocals. High-pitched and close-harmony vocals dominate, with a notable "high lonesome" lead voice as the focal point.

2. Another important feature of this style is the use of acoustic instruments over electric ones, which often include the mandolin, fiddle, guitar, banjo, and bass guitar. In fact, slaves from Africa brought the design idea for the banjo--an instrument now integral to the bluegrass sound.

3. Finger picking of rapid notes and improvisation by the musicians is another recognizeable element of bluegrass where each musician takes a turn in playing the melody, much like in jazz music.

Enough reading, how about listening? For an example of excellent bluegrass, click here and enjoy the music by the Dillards, an American bluegrass band, singing the song “Dooley”. (Dooley is a mountain man who made illegal alcohol.)

American kitsch: vintage motels

Kitsch is defined as art, objects, or design considered to be in bad taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic way. I love the nostalgia and humor of American kitsch and will occasionally share amusing examples of it in this blog. Today's post is dedicated to vintage roadside motels.

Are there vintage motels where you live?

Before corporations dominated the travel industry, there was a time when privately owned motels (first known as motor courts) were the norm. These family owned “mom and pop” lodgings began appearing during the 1930s when more people traveled by car instead of by train or horse. In 1900, there were 8,000 registered automobiles in America. By 1930, that number had dramatically increased to 23 million. People were driving all over the country and they needed places to sleep at night.

First there was roadside camping, then roadside cabins. As competition for tourist dollars increased, the offerings became more sophisticated and comfortable, and so the “motel” was born. With wild and wonderful neon signs, motels sprang up (grew) across the country to entice travelers in for the night with festive names like Siesta Motel, Pink Cloud Motel, Pink Poodle Motel, Sea Shell Motel, Half Moon Motel, and the ever-popular Wigwam Motel.

If you’re lucky enough to come across (find) one of these relics of the golden age of the automobile, immerse yourself in an era of the past, the glory days of the open road, and stay for a night. Because of the interstate highway system that began construction in 1956, the charming motels were often bypassed and, consequently, many of these treasured establishments closed and were overtaken by the corporate chains.

Although the majority of family owned motor courts and motels are long gone, they are not forgotten!

Little Free Library

Do you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood? It’s not what you might be thinking. A Little Free Library isn’t a big building full of books. It is, seriously, a really, really small library that is usually housed in a wooden box that looks like a tiny schoolhouse.

These little libraries are located in the fronts of publicly accessable locations like schools, shops, healthcare facilities, etc., but I most often see Little Free Libraries in the front yards of people’s private homes, facing the street, full of books for anyone to borrow. I always marvel at the commitment of those who decide to make the little library a prominent feature of their home.

The Little Free Library movement started in 2009 when a gentleman from Wisconsin built one as a tribute to his mother, a former school teacher who loved reading. He filled it with books and put it on a post in his front yard. This developed into a mission to promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. Anyone who has the desire can install the library; you can build one yourself or buy one.

I see on the interactive map that there are a few countries in Europe that have two or three little libraries. Italy has 23! Do you have one in your part of the world?

Americana

There are surely many things associated with your country that reflect its culture. They can include certain foods, art, architecture, cultural icons, etc. Since I live in the USA the things that are closely identified with the culture and history of America, specifically the United States, are referred to as Americana.

In the 1970s there was a popular commercial for the Chevrolet automobile with the slogan “Baseball, Hot Dogs, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet.” This advertising campaign turned the Chevrolet into an iconic all-American brand by associating it with other established symbols of Americana: baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie.

Many things are considered to be typical of the American culture, like hamburgers or the art of Norman Rockwell, but some Americana elements evolved from the cultures of immigrants. Rock and Roll is a perfect example because it derived from various influences and numerous cultures: a merging of the African musical tradition with European instrumentation plus Western swing and country music. Despite all of those influences, rock and roll’s origin is a music genre that evolved in the USA.

What is associated with your country, culture, and history?


*Post image is Norman Rockwell's "The Runaway" (1958).

Bacon mania

People are attentive to their diets more than ever these days, trying to eat in healthier or more thoughtful ways and making food choices that reflect nutritious, personal, or religious beliefs. Here in the USA there is one puzzling exception that has a strong presence in the American food scene and it’s called bacon mania.

Mania means to have an excessive enthusiasm or desire for something, and the use of this tasty pork product in an increasing variety of recipess correlates with its growing demand. The more creative you can be with bacon, the more people like it, and food producers have become quite imaginative! There’s bacon gum, bacon-wrapped hot dogs, bacon chocolate bars, bacon cupcakes, and bacon ice cream.

If you’d rather look at bacon instead of eating it, consider a bacon watch for yourself,
bacon air freshener, a bacon wallet , or clean your teeth with some bacon toothpaste.

I personally haven’t fallen for (I’m not captivated by) the current bacon mania trend but I think I’d like to try bacon ice cream.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day is Thursday, November 27 this year. It's an American holiday that I really enjoy celebrating because it doesn’t involve buying presents, sending cards, or decorating anything. It’s as simple as its name: a day to be thankful for our blessings. More than any other holiday, it's a celebration of family, friends, and home and a day for expressing thanks for the good things in your life. It is always celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November.

The history of Thanksgiving begins with the Pilgrims, a religious group who fled oppression in England and sailed to America in 1620. Their first months in America were difficult where about half of them died during their first winter.

When spring came, the Pilgrims began planting crops. A Native American Indian named Squanto befriended them and acted as their interpreter and adviser on planting and fishing. The Pilgrims decided to hold a celebration to give thanks for their harvest, inviting members of a nearby Indian tribe to join them. That Thanksgiving celebration lasted three days. What a party!

Turkey is the star of the show and the Thanksgiving meal almost always includes turkey meat. Other traditional foods are sweet potatoes, cranberries, and pumpkin pie. Stores sell more food at Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year, and many people eat more food on Thanksgiving than at any other time of the year. That’s easy to do because the tradional Thanksgiving meal is heavenly delicious.

1 World Trade Center Opens

The New York city skyline is complete again, thirteen years after the 9/11 terrorist attack, with the new World Trade Center opening for business yesterday, Monday, November 3, 2014. Its first tenants, Conde Nast magazine publishers, began moving into their new offices. With 104 stories, it is now the tallest building in the United States.

In addition to the 104-story tower with its 3-floor observatory, the site contains the 911 Memorial and the 911 Museum, both built to pay tribute to what was lost.

The new World Trade Center (1 WTC) is a rebirth for lower Manhattan, New York City, and the country. It symbolizes the future on a site that is truly inspirational.

Muscle cars

Can you imagine a time when fuel prices were so low that people could drive around simply for recreation without worrying about the cost? Catering to this phenomenon were drive-in movies and drive-in restaurants, and even the famous motorway, Route 66, was constructed to satisfy America’s love of the automobile.

Cars were designed to appeal to customers’ varied tastes and needs (luxury, sporty, family cars, convertibles, etc.) with a frequent desire being the “need for speed”. Among many fast moving autos, the muscle car, a product dominant between the late 60's and the oil crisis in the 70's, was born.

A muscle car is an American-made two-door sports car with a powerful engine, one that’s typically found in a larger, full-size sedan. Intended to be light and cheap, muscle cars lacked the sophisticated appearance of European high-performance cars.

Flashy performance cars you see in movies today don’t fit the original design of the classic muscle car whose purpose was to put the most powerful, gas-hungry motor that would fit, into the lightest car possible. Vroom--vroom.

Open House

If you’re looking to buy or sell a home in the USA, weekends in the real estate business offer a particular opportunity: the open house. This is a free, one-day event held by a real estate agent to show a home that is for sale to any interested buyers. Basically, people can tour a home without an appointment and look around freely. Who doesn't like looking around in other people's homes?

Open houses, normally held on weekends, are a tradition in the real estate business. Real estate agents place newspaper ads and post signs near street corners to attract drive-by traffic. During the scheduled hours of an open house (usually 2-3 hours in the afternoon) the doors are open so just walk in. The owners must be away, leaving the home clean and free of clutter, while the agent greets visitors, offering informal tours and fact sheets about the home.

Times are changing and open houses are less effective than in the past. Nowadays there are many tools available for showing homes online and via other marketing techniques. However, I had a very positive experience at an open house because that is how I found my new home. It was an informal way to look around without any pressure.

Are there open houses in the country where you live?

Book Clubs

Are you a devoted reader who likes talking about books with friends? If so, you may be a perfect candidate for a book club. Book clubs are book discussion groups and they are quite popular in the U.S. Being a member offers the opportunity to share and discuss good books, learn about new books, express your thoughts, and socialize. Book clubs are small, informal reading groups that assemble monthly to discuss opinions, likes, and dislikes about a selected book. The group decides on one book to read for that month, with members bringing their suggestions.

Book clubs aren't for selling or buying books. They are merely for discussion and reading encouragement. My sister is in a book club and my friend is in two book clubs. If you want to start one, here are some points to consider:

1. What kind of book club?
First, decide on the purpose of your group. Highly social? Seriously academic? This helps in knowing whom to invite and what books to read.


2. What kind of books?
Think in terms of genre and level of difficulty.


3. What about members?
Groups of 8 to 16 members are best, enough for a discussion if several are absent, but not too many to make discussions difficult to manage.


4. Meeting — how often and when?
The most important thing is to pick a schedule. Meeting once a month seems to be the most common.


5. Where to meet?
Homes, clubhouses, public libraries, churches, coffee houses, cafes and restaurants all make good meeting places.


6. What about food?
Of course, but nothing fancy.


7. What should we call ourselves?
Give your club an identity. Here are some real book club names: Cool Girls Read; Chapter Chat; Wine, Chocolate, and Books. You can be creative or basic.


Reading opens our world and sharing that world in a book club is a rewarding social activity.

Soul Food

There is a whole new vocabulary for me when it comes to soul food. Maybe because I don't live in the South and I'm not an African American, but soul food is a category all its own. So what is it?

Soul food is traditional African-American cuisine of the southern United States. Considered an ethnic cuisine, many elements of soul food are basic in southern US cooking also.

Though the expression soul food originated in the 1960s with the rise of the civil rights movement (political and social equality for all), the style of cooking began during American slavery. Slave owners fed their captive workers as cheaply as possible so, often with leftover or undesirable foods from their masters, slaves were forced to manage with limited, inadequate ingredients. For the next hundred years after the end of slavery, most African Americans lived in poverty, so recipes continued to make use of cheaper ingredients

I never realized it but I have been eating elements of soul food my whole life, like macaroni and cheese, and fried chicken. The recipes that African Americans had been cooking for generations, the staples of soul food cooking, include beans, greens (green, leafy vegetables), cornmeal (used in cornbread and as a coating for fried fish), and pork.

As I wrote in the beginning, most soul food dishes are a mystery to me so I think I should expand my scope and go to a soul food restaurant in my city (Milwaukee). I read a review of Mr. Perkins' Family Restaurant where one diner describes it as "soul food heaven". Sounds great.

Tailgate parties

Imagine a sporting event, a baseball game or football game. You're sitting in a lawn chair, your barbecue grill is roasting burgers, sausages, chicken, and all the essential elements are present: plenty of food, alcoholic beverages, your friends and family . . . BUT you're in a parking lot surrounded by hundreds of automobiles and the barbecue grill, table, chairs, your friends are clustered behind your car. Sounds strange? Sounds uncomfortable? No! Sounds like a tailgate party.

A tailgate party is a social event. It's held on and around the open tailgate of a vehicle usually before, and sometimes after, a sporting event. A tailgate is the back door of a station wagon, SUV, or truck and a tailgate party refers to an informal meal served from the back of a parked vehicle, typically in the parking lot of a sports stadium. This type of gathering is so popular in the USA that we have a verb for it, to tailgate, and people participate even if their vehicles do not have tailgates.

I went to a tailgate party yesterday before a baseball game. It rained. Even so, it didn't stop the party; people were enthusiastically tailgating in spite of the wet weather . . . and I ate a lot! I recommend starting this trend in your country and try tailgating before your next sporting event. Remember, you don't need the tailgate to have the party.

Team spirit: Green Bay Packers bike brigade

If you live in the state of Wisconsin the football team you support is the Green Bay Packers. Green Bay is a small city in northeastern Wisconsin but its fans are among the most loyal in the NFL (National Football League). The season ticket waiting list has more than 81,000 names and the average wait for tickets is 30 years. That's devotion!

One of the most heartwarming traditions occurs this time every year, during Green Bay Packers training camp, when players "borrow" kids' bikes and ride them from the locker room to the practice field. Sometimes called the Bike Brigade (a brigade is a group of people with a common characteristic or cause) this decades-old tradition was started by legendary coach Vince Lombardi and it has since continued every year.

The ride to the practice field lasts only two minutes but the opportunity for young fans to connect with their favorite players is a thrill!

The world's busiest airport is in Wisconsin

The busiest airport in the world is located in the small city of Oshkosh, Wisconsin (USA) ... for one week every summer.

I live in Milwaukee, 90 minutes from Oshkosh by car, and the skies were very active last week during the annual event: the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure Convention, the world's greatest aviation celebration.

For one week, 10,000-15,000 different types of aircraft fly in to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, landing at what becomes the busiest airport in the world. There you'll see amazing air shows and find aircraft of all shapes and sizes, from WW11 fighter planes to the Concorde, from stealth fighters, to a flying car. Anything new, old, or experimental is there. This year a Swiss pilot thrilled attendees by soaring with a jet pack that he invented. Fantastic!

Usually beginning on the last Monday in July, this seven-day event attracts more than 500,000 aviation enthusiasts (including celebrities) from more than 60 countries. Maybe you could be one of them next year.

Floors of a house in the USA

When I travel in Europe I have to be conscious of the difference between American English and British English when talking about the floors in a house. You can easily find yourself on the wrong floor if you make this mistake. Since I live in the USA, I'll talk about how we count floors here:

1. When you first enter a house, American English calls this ground level the first floor.
2. The level above is the second floor.
3. If there are more floors above, the numbers continue (third floor, fourth floor, etc).

Counting floors is the same for apartment buildings, commercial buildings, hotels, and condominiums. The floors are numbered starting from the ground (first floor) level. The level below the first floor is the basement.

A floor can also be called a story and the image above is a two-story house without a basement.

Have you ever gone to the wrong floor?