Does "heritage" matter?

Heritage doesn't really matter to me (I'm no American).

I do know a lot about my family's history - but just out of curiosity ... and because I use it as an example.

I can't be neither proud nor ashamed about it - I've nothing contributed to that heritage.
But it's really quite nice (and easier) to look at history (and write about it) when you have "own examples".

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@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

I submit that American Mongrel is a Heritage.
It comes with its own mythology (which we all learned in school)

I must have taken the day off (I did that a lot) when thay taught those myths; what were thay ??

ebrown p wrote:

and a very distinct set of customs and values.

WHAT customs r those ??

David

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@djjd62,

What is a moomin ?

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@boomerang,

My "heritage" is all over the map. genealogy was my other grandad's passion.

I have an ancestor signed on the Declaration, and have Native American roots as well. members of the families fought on both sides of the civil war. a couple to distinction.

I also have immigrant elders from during the last century. Irish and German.

a real melting pot of stories.

(no English blood to speak of)

all it does is give me perspective...

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MY thoughts r always INDIVIDUALISTIC.

When making a decision, I never contemplate my ancestors.

David

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All four of my grandparents were born in the same European country, as where their parents. I couldn't swear to that any further back.
All my grandparents arrived here through Ellis Island back in the 1920's.

This was a very important fact for my parents, who, when asked "what they were" would respond with that country, as if they too were born there. I believe they felt they were American only in the fact that they were citizens of that country, but did not feel they "were American"

Strangely enough, when I asked about family history, no one seemed to know anything, and was even told once "We don't talk about things like that"

To this day, I'm deeply offended when I hear the word Pollock, as being one was always the subject of jokes on being stupid, or unclean.

So anyway, I was raised trying to be convinced to be proud of being from a people that all I knew about them was from jokes, that they mostly had unpronounceable names, and odd old world practices as far as food, religion, etc.

It wasn't until well into my adult years when I met well educated people born there that I could begin to reconcile where my ancestors were from.

In other words, I feel like an American. If I had to dig deeper, as far as when I'm asked where I'm from, I would say I was born in the NE, but moved away when I was 20, moved around and decided to make Texas my home.

So, I'm American in general
Texan in particular, and by choice.

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I read edgarblythe's comment that he thought his wife was a pollock, and immediately felt kinda cannibalistic. I had pollock for dinner last week--it's pretty common in New England.

Quote:

pol·lock /ˈpɒlək/ Show Spelled[pol-uhk] Show IPA
–noun, plural -locks, ( especially collectively ) -lock. Chiefly British .
1. Also called saithe. a North Atlantic food fish, Pollachius virens, of the cod family.
2. pollack.

Go, edgar, crossing interspecies boundaries like that! That has to be the record in diverse heritages. Which makes your kids mermaids and mermen? Half human and half fish. Wow.

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@chai2,

During recent decades, more ofen the term Polish has been used,
but I remember an earlier time in NY, when a perfectly respectful,
polite identification was Pollacks. It only meant people of Poland.

David

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@chai2,

Quote:

To this day, I'm deeply offended when I hear the word Pollock, as being one was always the subject of jokes on being stupid, or unclean.

Does it bug you when it's misspelled, Chai?

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

ebrown p wrote:
I submit that American Mongrel is a Heritage.
It comes with its own mythology (which we all learned in school)
I must have taken the day off (I did that a lot).

You never showed up for spellin' neither Wink

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@MontereyJack,

MontereyJack wrote:

I read edgarblythe's comment that he thought his wife was a pollock, and immediately felt kinda cannibalistic. I had pollock for dinner last week--it's pretty common in New England.

Quote:

pol·lock /ˈpɒlək/ Show Spelled[pol-uhk] Show IPA
–noun, plural -locks, ( especially collectively ) -lock. Chiefly British .
1. Also called saithe. a North Atlantic food fish, Pollachius virens, of the cod family.
2. pollack.

Go, edgar, crossing interspecies boundaries like that! That has to be the record in diverse heritages. Which makes your kids mermaids and mermen? Half human and half fish. Wow.

In some parts of the country, such as south Texas, where I spent more than half of my teen years, Pollock is used to refer to the Poles who settled in great numbers in Texas. Example taken just now from a Google search:

Is Pollock offensie to you(polish only)? - Yahoo! AnswersFeb 13, 2009 ... It may seem okay to you, but its just that Pollock isnt even a polish ... I just laugh. like any ethnic slur Smile

I can be called cracker or ...
answers.yahoo.com › Travel › Europe (Continental) › Poland - Cached - Similar

I used it jokingly, forgetting that others may not be aware it is common to say that in some areas.

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Heritage matters, you just tend not to give it much thought (or credit).
It matters a lot.

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@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Quote:
To this day, I'm deeply offended when I hear the word Pollock, as being one was always the subject of jokes on being stupid, or unclean.

Does it bug you when it's misspelled, Chai?

Maybe that's how they pronounce and spell it where she's from. I learned Polack, but we were never allowed to use those words and nobody we knew used them either so I'm not really sure how it's spelled. But two people here have spelled it that way. Like MJ, I, too, immediately thought "fish" - lol. It's what they use in California rolls, sometimes.

For Vancouverites, the derogatory words were Paki and Chink, primarily. Again, we weren't allowed to use those, as they really were derogatory. I grew up with a lot of Chinese and East Indian friends and would never think of them in those terms.

Old people, now, who slow you down on the road, we called "gits"... and if you were on the prairies, the word was "hats", usually because the little old men would be wearing some kind of farm hat that you could barely see over the steering wheel.

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@OmSigDAVID,

OmSigDAVID wrote:

What is a moomin ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moomin

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@edgarblythe,

edgarblythe wrote:

My wife is not certain what she is, but I suspect she's a Pollock.

It's "Polack."

1 Reply

@ebrown p,

ebrown p wrote:

I submit that American Mongrel is a Heritage. It comes with its own mythology (which we all learned in school) and a very distinct set of customs and values. And our American Mongrel heritage informs the ways we live and think.

Sure, but my individual "heritage" is not something I give any thought to. I don't feel the need to fly any flags from countries my ancestors might have lived in or celebrate holidays that they celebrated and I never did. If I grew up celebrating a certain non-American holiday, then I might have fond memories of it and perhaps continue to celebrate it, but just because some ancestor did something or lived some way, that's not something I actively consider even though those customs might have influenced the way I was raised and my belief systems. If someone suggested that I'm "supposed" to behave someway because I'm from a certain background or criticized me for not upholding my "heritage", I would find that silly.

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This is all very interesting, thanks everyone.

I think my disconnect with "heritage" is that I define it more strictly with more of a cultural imperative/ritual aspect than some others do. KInd of like what engineer just said -- I don't feel like I have to do something just becasue my ancestors did it and I don't use the fact that they did it as an identifier of myself.

Even things that are uniquely American -- Thanksgiving, Independece Day -- I don't feel a cultural imperative to participate any more than I do to celebrate St. Patrick's Day or Walpurgis Night.

Maybe I would if I lived somewhere else.... maybe American celebrations would have more cultural relevance. Or maybe if my family were recent immigrants.....

1 Reply

@boomerang,

boomerang wrote:

I think my disconnect with "heritage" is that I define it more strictly with more of a cultural imperative/ritual aspect than some others do. KInd of like what engineer just said -- I don't feel like I have to do something just becasue my ancestors did it and I don't use the fact that they did it as an identifier of myself.

Isn't such more "tradition" than 'heritage'?

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@Eorl,

ebrown p wrote:

I submit that American Mongrel is a Heritage.
It comes with its own mythology (which we all learned in school)

OmSigDAVID wrote:

I must have taken the day off (I did that a lot).

Eorl wrote:

You never showed up for spellin' neither

I spelled paradigmatically for almost all of my life,
without considering the matter. I was actively practicing law.
I coud not use fonetic spelling in that environment.
I never thawt about it.
Now: I feel guilty in perpetrating the perpetuation of the error of non-fonetic, conventional spelling.

In fora of the Internet, its different: I have more freedom.
I m trying to lead by example.

David

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@OmSigDAVID,

you jump off the bridge dave.

we'll just stand here and watch...

1 Reply

Does "heritage" matter?

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