Wednesday, May 1, 2019

the English man

There's man who comes in the library, and when I see him I always think he's English - I expect to hear the English accent when he speaks.  Everything about him - to me - says "English". But when he comes up to the desk, he has no English accent. He's American.

One day while waiting on him, we chatted a little. He told me he was English. They'd moved to Canada when he was young, and I forget how he ended up here. Funny! I did not tell him I thought he was English. But he came in today, and I was reminded of this episode.




3 comments:

  1. How strange! I wonder what it is about him that made you sure he was English?

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    1. Clare, probably some ill-formed idea I have of what an Englishman looks like, except I happened to be right this time! I'm sure if I saw you somewhere I wouldn't imagine that you were English. :D He's average height (not tall), rather slim, late sixties or maybe in his seventies. He is not handsome, but pleasant-faced. That's probably it - Englishness is synonymous with politeness, at least with the older generation. (but now I'm sounding like nobody else I ever meet with is polite!) I don't what to tell you. :D One of those things.

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  2. Good story :-) Chalk it up to intuition!

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