ORGIES AND TRUMP
Your favorite
world travelers haven’t been getting much further than Nantwich, Chesire in the
United Kingdom lately and that’s quite okay. Family is involved of course and
that makes it really easy to return here again and again. Yeah, I know, it’s a
big world out there, and there is a lot to see, but Nantwich has become a
second home and Janet has been kind enough to share her family with me.
Janet
visits this little town, south of Liverpool and Manchester and a few miles east
of Wales, about twice a year. Her daughter lives here now with her husband and young
children. I don’t make it here quite as much, but I have become quite familiar
with the town. I have been here enough that people are beginning to recognize
me from the last visit.
The
in-laws are wonderful and we adults go out often for a drink at the pubs.
NANTWICH
I’ve
been here often enough to know lots of things about Nantwich. I know the town
had been a center for salt cultivation dating from Roman times. I know that the
people who live here are called “Dabbers” which may or may not have something
to do with the tanning industry that once flourished here; it all depends on
who you ask. I know a WWII American airman is revered here for putting the town
before his own safety when he veered his troubled aircraft away from Nantwich and
crashed in a nearby field and that there is a memorial to his brave sacrifice.I know
there are several festivals and events in Nantwich that are well attended.
There’s the Nantwich Cheese Awards, and The Worm Charming Championships
(actually held just outside Nantwich in Willaston). There’s the Nantwich Jazz
and Blues Festival and the Nantwich Food Festival. I know that the best fish
and chips takeaway is found at Coral Reef on Pillory Street.
THE HEART OF ENGLAND
Now, I
am here like Janet to visit the kids. I love this precious family time in this
lovely little town, but I have to admit I also look forward to going out to the
pubs; although not necessarily for the beer, (I can’t keep up.) Pubs, short for
public houses are the focal point of social life in England. Men, women, children and dogs all gather at
these drinking establishments for beer, cider, wine, sodas and food, games like
darts and dominoes and pool. They gather at the pubs to watch games on the
television. They pop in for a quick pint in the afternoon, or for an evening of
8 or 9. They go to free houses and tied houses. The free house pubs choose what
beers they want to sell and the tied houses serve beer from a particular
brewery. I’ve been to Nantwich so many times now that I’m a regular in a few of
the pubs and this humble “Yank” is no longer a novelty. I’m just another
patron.
In
fact, just the other night at the Nantwich Club, located in the center of town right
by the 14th Century St. Mary’s church looming beautifully in the
evening air, I was approached by an older woman who recognized me from the New
Year’s celebration a couple of years ago as “the Yank”. She was waiting for a
place at the dominoes table and she shook her shoulders as she sidled up to me and
reminded me that on that night they got to “really rock and rolling.” I feigned embarrassment and said, “Ah, jees….,”
which she took to mean orgies. The
rest of our time there she kept fawning over me. I may be a regular, but I
still can’t speak the language properly. (I gotta work on my accent.)
Indeed, many things are lost in translation, even though we are all speaking English, and over the years I’ve learned some “American” words that are commonplace are absolutely rude over here. The other day one of the kids was trying to climb on the front window sill of the house and I said his mom would get pissed if she caught him.... Janet said getting pissed means she's drinking. Well...I don't know if she needed a naughty boy as an excuse to start drinking, and I won’t go into the English interpretation of some other words, but you don’t really talk about “fanny” packs or “growlers” or “trumps” in polite company.
Well, if you must know, “TRUMP” is the English word for
fart.
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| St. Mary's Church, Nantwich |
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