US Perceptions of the UK and vice versa

[SweetWitch]

I lived in Boston(US) for a couple of years in the eighties and that was pretty conservative. Most Bostonians I dealt with had impeccable and rather formal manners. Then I went to NY and Chicago and found that there is not just one America.

Don't judge us on Chicago, either. The real people of this country don't live in large cities. We are from the small towns, the farms, the rural areas that support all those in cities. The culture is vastly different.

 

[beachbum1958]

OK. But I think it depends upon your age and location as much as anything else.
HP? No dear, Handley Page (formerly makers of damned fine airplanes).

Madam, I salute the pair of you.
Where can I get some gen on PTS, please.

Login issue, reposting,

Lori

 

[Lori_the_Hoosier]

OK. But I think it depends upon your age and location as much as anything else.
HP? No dear, Handley Page (formerly makers of damned fine airplanes).


Madam, I salute the pair of you.
Where can I get some gen on PTS, please..

Little bit of a faff, there, as Will would say; sometimes I have to use his desktop, and I log in as me, and Lit can't tell us apart, so defaults to his login; I've complained about that but so far all I've had is 'meh...'

There are any number of internet pages and scholarly articles, including Wikipedia, where PTSD and its various therapies are described and discussed, so many, in fact that I hesitate to recommend any single one; Will is with a therapist who specializes in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, to which he's responding well; his previous therapist tried EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) which only served to exacerbate his feelings of guilt and frustration over those cases he couldn't do anything about, and did nothing to quell the terrifying waking nightmares and lucid dreaming; I couldn't spend night after night sedating him, it was making him a zombie, and increasing tolerance to the sedative, Midazolam, meant I had to switch to Propofol, which made him really sick, so we had to find a different approach, one that could potentially effect a cure, or at least a measure of normality for him.

CBT was offered, and so far it's shown good and positive returns on the efforts he's made. CBT is a talking therapy, it allows the patient to reveal and discuss their anxieties in a muted, controlled, non-threatening environment. I have the National Hospital for Neurology and my colleagues at Bethlem Royal Hospital to thank for their help and insight, and their 'softly-softly' approach. 'Mind', the mental health charity were also especially helpful and forthcoming with advice on coping and treatment options.

Over the years, Will has been subjected to some very stressful and life-threatening situations - during the course of his work with MSF, HALO, and the Red Cross he's been held hostage, imprisoned, shot and beaten, and being seconded to the sandbox was really the final straw; I'm surprised he held it together as long as he did, but there was something inside him that kept him keeping on. Eventually it had to give way, and so he's where he is, but don't feel sorry for him; he doesn't, he's just finally coming to accept he's not invulnerable, invincible or indestructible.

However, in common with a lot of men of his particular background, he still believes he only has two possible states; rude good health, or dead; as he's not dead, he must be in rude good health, and I'm sometimes tempted to give him a shot in the middle of the night so he doesn't get up at his usual ungodly hour and go off tramping in the woods with those ruffian gun-dogs of his instead of resting, relaxing, and maybe doing some writing, or trying to get that rust-heap Lister-Jaguar of his back in running order.

 

[La damnee elle la licorne]

 

[ishtat]

Don't judge us on Chicago, either. The real people of this country don't live in large cities. We are from the small towns, the farms, the rural areas that support all those in cities. The culture is vastly different.

Quite true. The journeys were frequently more enlightening than the destinations. Small town America is a different world.

One of the interesting things about many cities, whether American or not, is that they are frequently a collection of towns and villages more than a city with a single character and face to the world. London and New York are good examples.

 

[JKendallDane]

Don't judge us on Chicago, either. The real people of this country don't live in large cities. We are from the small towns, the farms, the rural areas that support all those in cities. The culture is vastly different.

How very true. And the differences may only be minutes away from each other too. Metropolitan Cleveland, Ohio, and the bustling burbs around it is a prime example. In just a matter on less than 20 or 30 minutes, you can go from the center of a huge American city that still has much of the old world diversity embedded there to Amish country and the culture and attitudes that exist there. LA is the same. You go from a big box of 3+ million people with the accompanying insanity of traffic and skyscrapers and everything being a rush, to little hometown places like Apple Valley in a relatively very few miles.

Likewise, the year and a half I lived in "cow country" on the Canadian border in way upstate New York was nothing at all resembling what most people think of when they hear "New York" because NYC is New York to most of the world. Some of the friendliest people I've ever met anywhere were New Yorkers...just not NYC New Yorkers.

I've seen the same thing on my trips to Europe. The first time was when I was in Zurich with all its hustle-bustle big city reputation but stayed at a youth hostel in a little town nearby called Rapperswil that was 180° reversed as far as being an easy going, small town atmosphere. On my last trip, I was in Amsterdam for three days but was staying with friends in a little town between Amsterdam and Den Haag. Diametric opposites of huge world-class city vs intimate community.

To me, that's the only way to see any country...hit both the metro areas and the small towns that surround most of them.

.

 

[SweetWitch]

Quite true. The journeys were frequently more enlightening than the destinations. Small town America is a different world.

One of the interesting things about many cities, whether American or not, is that they are frequently a collection of towns and villages more than a city with a single character and face to the world. London and New York are good examples.

The small towns have the friendliest people, the best food and the cleanest air. Why anyone would come to this huge land just to visit a city is beyond me. The countryside is where it's at.

 

[JKendallDane]

The small towns have the friendliest people, the best food and the cleanest air. Why anyone would come to this huge land just to visit a city is beyond me. The countryside is where it's at.

No kidding!

Over the years, I've been to twenty of the twenty-five largest cities in the United States (and lived in #15 for four years) and to six of the ten largest in Europe. If I had a way to pull it off and could handle the winters again, I would be back in my little rural southeast Ohio wide-spot-in-the-road hometown in a heartbeat.

We all laugh at reruns of Andy Griffith in Mayberry and Oliver and Lisa living in Hooterville on Green Acres, but dammit...there is just something about those kinds of places.

.

 

[SEVERUSMAX]

I'd love to visit England, Scotland, etc. Ireland, too.

Incidentally, I met a guy with the name Rhys today and shocked him by pronouncing his name right.

Hey, J, good to see you around....

 

[Handley_Page]

I'd love to visit England, Scotland, etc. Ireland, too.

Incidentally, I met a guy with the name Rhys today and shocked him by pronouncing his name right.

Hey, J, good to see you around....

Well, thast's tour that'll take a good time . . .

 

[SweetWitch]

No kidding!

Over the years, I've been to twenty of the twenty-five largest cities in the United States (and lived in #15 for four years) and to six of the ten largest in Europe. If I had a way to pull it off and could handle the winters again, I would be back in my little rural southeast Ohio wide-spot-in-the-road hometown in a heartbeat.

We all laugh at reruns of Andy Griffith in Mayberry and Oliver and Lisa living in Hooterville on Green Acres, but dammit...there is just something about those kinds of places.

.

My grandfather lived his whole life either on a farm outside a town of less than 300 people, or in the town after he retired and never understood how "Green Acres" was funny. He thought the dumbing down of farmers and small town folk was an insult. Of course, my grandmother was a school teacher and he was self-educated to a college level, as were many of his generation, so he took it as an insult.

I loved going to my grandparents' farm. It was set in the bluffs, forested, with streams and ponds and lovely little dells, and on rainy days there were rooms full of books--from classics to silliness--and all the time to in the world to read them.

An intellectual discussion with either of them was passionate and fun. I miss those days.

 

[DeYaKen]

Roads narrower than US sidewalks?
I've just spent four days driving on such roads in the Dartmoor area. To give our US authors an idea of what they are like, I can relate the details of one journey.
I was stuck behind a tractor. The road had a hedge on each side and the wheels of the tractor were brushing against both hedges at the same time. This was not a farm track but a proper metalled road. There were passing places to allow traffic to move in both directions.

 

[Messier82]

I regularly drive on similar roads in Yorkshire - in a 32 ton truck!
The narrowness is bearable, but often the overhanging trees are lower than the top of my 15 foot tall vehicle

 

[sinagainChris12]

My grandfather lived his whole life either on a farm outside a town of less than 300 people, or in the town after he retired and never understood how "Green Acres" was funny. He thought the dumbing down of farmers and small town folk was an insult. Of course, my grandmother was a school teacher and he was self-educated to a college level, as were many of his generation, so he took it as an insult.

I loved going to my grandparents' farm. It was set in the bluffs, forested, with streams and ponds and lovely little dells, and on rainy days there were rooms full of books--from classics to silliness--and all the time to in the world to read them.

An intellectual discussion with either of them was passionate and fun. I miss those days.

Sounds a lot like my childhood. I grew up in rural Illinois raised by the children of farmers on both sides. The family farm is still in the hands of family. I spent as much time as I could there, or at my Grandmother's house in a town of less than 200. Super friendly people, excellent homemade food for every meal, and great conversation. The air used to be super clean, but now with all of the chemicals in it from the crops...not so much any more.

Now I live in a much more urban area outside Boston and while you have to chip away at some of the outer "shells" of some people around here, I've found pretty much everyone I've come in contact with to be very genuine and kind. .

And I, too, hate it when Illinois is judged solely by Chicago!!!!

 

[SweetWitch]

Sounds a lot like my childhood. I grew up in rural Illinois raised by the children of farmers on both sides. The family farm is still in the hands of family. I spent as much time as I could there, or at my Grandmother's house in a town of less than 200. Super friendly people, excellent homemade food for every meal, and great conversation. The air used to be super clean, but now with all of the chemicals in it from the crops...not so much any more.

Now I live in a much more urban area outside Boston and while you have to chip away at some of the outer "shells" of some people around here, I've found pretty much everyone I've come in contact with to be very genuine and kind. .

And I, too, hate it when Illinois is judged solely by Chicago!!!!

I was going to PM you and ask you what part of Illinois you were from, but you don't have your private message turned on.

 

[sinagainChris12]

I was going to PM you and ask you what part of Illinois you were from, but you don't have your private message turned on.

I think I figured out how to turn it on. Let me know if it works.