The "Incredibly Impossible to Derail This Thread" thread | Page 1108 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

Thanks @Von Bontee it worked! I’m happy to report that my memory is still somewhat intact. I recalled that you had weaved a thread of Americana throughout your videos (in a completely natural and unobtrusive way) and I want to do the same. I think it is awesome that we have all collectively over the last 200+ years built a country of family traditions that we all recognize and share from sea to shining sea. Sorry for being so cliche, but I felt that reference is appropriate here. I appreciate the inspiration and now back to the conversion/normalization tasks.

I’ve thought of a few family traditions that I believe are unique to California (and maybe the US). One of those traditions is the first trip to Disneyland. The first time I visited there was for my 2 year old birthday a few months after the park opened. We went back every year until my grandmother left LA after my grandfather passed away. Since then it has become a family tradition to celebrate every new child’s birthday in Disneyland at least once. The age isn’t always the same, but certainly by 5 years old. Don’t get me wrong, Disneyland is not for the faint-hearted. It can be a total mess of humanity. But you have been there enough the wave of nostalgia as you enter the park and walk down Main Street is overwhelming. When you add the thrill of accompanying a new member of the family who is seeing it the first time, the bad parts just melt away. Last time we were there on Main Street my little niece Jane squealed and we looked up to see Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Pluto marching toward us accompanied by a little boy (I think it was a Make a Wish event). Things like that add to our oral traditions each year. We have certain activities we always do and places we eat or go. For instance there is a certain curb that we like to sit on to watch the daily parade of Disney floats. We have sat there for every birthday since 1975 (over 40 years). Sometimes we need to aggressively reserve that space for 2 hours prior to the parade, but it is important that the birthday boy or girl sits in the prime spot with their legs dangling over the curb. My tradition of the last 20 years is to hang out with the birthday kid in front of the castle by the moat right around sunset, while all the other family members are in line for rides. I hope to convey what I am feeling at that moment, remembering family past. Depending on the kid that could mean feeding the ducks, playing pirates on the ramparts, or holding their balloon while they eat an ice cream. One time my granddaughter’s mouse ears fell in the moat and she cried her eyes out. An employee actually helped us fish them out and she still has them in her room today. Our newest family member is almost 3 and plans are in the making!

@50yearslate – yup always the same spot but only if we are celebrating a kid’s birthday. The current “child bearing age” generation is not very prolific (at least in our family). The last birthday we celebrated was over 6 years ago. We go down there every two years or so and like you said, when the parade is going it’s a good time to do other things.

We found the spot we like quite by accident. It was a hot summer day and my mom was exhausted and my daughter was heat stroked. They parked it under a tree and we agreed to meet up for the parade. When we got back she was sitting on the curb with the stroller next to her. The spot is at the initial turn on to main street, so the parade has to slow down a little there. This was when they had the first Electrical Parade and the part I remember is the little lady bug cars. One of them pulled right up to my daughter, then backed away, then pulled up again. He did this until my daughters giggle turned into full throated laughter. That’s why we always go to the trouble of getting that spot. Here is the strategy; two hours prior to the start one person sits at the spot and lays out coats and bags on both sides. This is usually respected for the first hour or so and people walk around you. Around one hour a half out people start to fill in around the stuff you have laid out, which forces people to step over your blockade items. By the last hour people will just start pushing your stuff aside, so you need at least 3 people to defend the space, one on each end and the initial person in the middle. Family members need to be in place by the last half hour before they rope off the streets, because by now there are 5 rows of people standing behind your position and access will be blocked. I know this must sound insane and I wouldn’t do it for any other reason than upholding our family traditions. 

No one knows you’re a penguin posting on the internet

My family doesn’t have much tradition because we’re so nuclear we span several states and never see each other But the other day I was talking to my aunt on the phone and discovered that my mum used to make some of the fantastic food I remember from family christmas dinners, so that’s a good memory.

But in terms of culture I’m reminded of our shared English-language heritage by the famous trap-bath split. This is a division in the pronunciation of the vowel a for specific words that started happening in the late 18th century in southern England. A Northerner will pronounce trap and bath the same way with a flat short a. A Southerner will pronounce bath with a elongated a like ah. This split made its way around the world and can be dated to emigration and colonisation. It mostly doesn’t affect the US/Canada because they were settled too early for the split but it’s very real in Australia and New Zealand. In fact here, you can almost tell what state or capital city a person is from by the way they adhere to the trap-bath split.

Go and watch something English on youtube and see if you can pick the Northerners and Southerners, it’s fun. I like watching Andertons guitar demos, and Lee Anderton (the owner) is definitely a Southerner, and Rabea (one of the demonstrators and a brilliant musician in his own right) is clearly a Northerner. Danish Pete is from Denmark and his a’s do not count for the purposes of this discussion so ignore him, even though he is funny and also brilliant.