Our Village

There are various aspects of our village that make me feel like we live in an old fashioned place.  It looks old fashioned.  Many of the buildings pre-date World War I and II, and the roads were carved in long after the town was formed.  Here are a few things I have noticed.

Formalities.  This is funny, but I quite like being called Mrs. Coupland.  This happens more than you would imagine.  In the US, first names are pretty common, but it seems like most people who phone and various people I meet (e.g., Rainbows leader, assistants at St. Peter's, teachers, bank tellers) call me Mrs. Coupland.  I am in turn then saying hello to Mrs. X and Y in the front office, Mr. Penn the headmaster and so on.  I like the formality of it.  I feel like I stand a little straighter and am somehow more polite.  I am also offered cups of tea wherever I go-- visiting the school, stepping into a neighbor's house, drawing class, photography class...  There are also formalities of talking about the weather-- while it was pouring rain today, I past a man in the lower village, holding his paper saying "Lovely weather, isn't it?"

Everyday Life in the Village.  Walking down Village Road, there is a lot to see.  It's like a storybook. In the mornings, on the way to St. Peter's Primary, we always see people go into the Village Shop to buy their newspapers, and the butchers are out putting produce into baskets.  Later in the day, I wave to the hairdresser and the butchers, buy the newspaper at the Village Shop, occasionally see Sally's mum working in the convenience store while buying milk and eggs, mail letters in the bright red post box.  After school, the kids always stop at the wall by the red phone booth to sit or jump down.  They like running across the road to "the sweeties shop" where they can literally pick out penny sweets in a basket.  Apparently, we have been seen a lot in the village, because various people I meet will say, "oh yes, I've seen you walk through the lower village."  It feels very quaint and busy in the village.  If you ever feel lonely or tired, it's nice to just stop out onto Village Road and experience life happening.

Words.  The word "shop" rather than "store" and "village" rather than town seem very old fashioned and rather quaint to me.  I find myself also saying "thank you" 4x more than I would in the US.  Some interesting word comparisons (old-fashioned vs. modern):

Shop - Store
Sweets - Candy
Village - Town
Mr. or Mrs. - First name
Secretary - Administrative Assistant
Holiday - Vacation
Pardon? - What?
Oh dear - Uh oh

AllLookTheSame.com.  John and I were once very entertained by a website of that name which basically proves that Asian people "all look the same".  Similarly, a lot of the people in our town "all look the same".  To be fair, we are in a fairly middle-upper class village, not a big city like London, and our children attend a Church of England school.  Most people we see daily are caucasian, light skinned, many with lighter hair (which causes all sorts of confusion for me).  By contrast, I look different.  When I speak, I sound different.  Include the kids, and we are a stand-out trio.  This has really helped me in meeting people and being remembered.  I actually quite like that.  It also poses interested challenges for my memory.  The first few days of school, several very nice mums at drop off would ask, "How is Anna settling in?" and I'd think, do I know you?  I really have to concentrate to remember.

Size.  I am certain that things in the US have gotten bigger and bigger over the past few decades--houses, cars, food portions, refrigerators, appliances, toys, quantities of toys, expectations, people.  Here, the footprint of the average person is probably relatively small by comparison.  Smaller spaces and cars, definitely.  Buying food in the store, produce for one tends to come in much smaller packaging.  I often wonder if I should buy two packages of asparagus, but most people just buy one.   Skinny containers of juice are very popular because they fit in the fridge well as opposed to the huge ones.  Having excess is not a value.  People don't really strive for leftovers; in fact, most restaurants don't offer a doggie bag, like is very typical in the States.  Here, you just eat what is in front of you, and it is appropriately portioned.  Because houses are generally smaller (there are, of course, some exceptions here in Heswall), people own less and show that we really need less.  The exceptions to size are the beer pint, crisps and biscuits.