3 Unforgettable Things I Learned about Americans

I grew up adjacent to the largest American Air Force base outside of the continental USA. Harmon Field was located in Stephenville, a small Canadian town in Newfoundland. Only a narrow, shallow river separated my parents’ house from the base. I could walk across the river and onto the base anytime, and I often did. My father, brother, and I all worked on the base. Some of the American families lived on our side of the river and were our neighbours. I learned some unforgettable things about Americans at that time.

1. They were extreemly friendly. I remeber being invited to a birthday party in one of the homes. There for the first time I watched a home movie of the family. They were not just photographs, they were real movies! I played baseball with them and they played hockey with us boys. And come Christmas, my mother would order from the American catalogue and one of our American neighbors would have it come duty-free.
2. They were rich. I had to walk to school every day, walk home for lunch, walk back to school, and then back home. On the way, a big, yellow school bus would pass carrying the American kids to their school on the base. They had school busses, a big gymnasium, and even a concert hall. Our town boasted of a playground and a wading pool.
3. They were powerful. Their fleet of mid-air tanker refulers (KC-97) was impressive. There seemed to be hundreds of them. And they also had fighter planes that screamed over the town almost every day. And once a year on Armed Forces Day they invited the whole town to come on base and tour the planes. They even let us get inside them.

Today, as I see the Anti-American attitude of many Canadians, I am saddened to see this anomosity towards our closest and friendliest neighbours. I suppose it is because most Canadians have not had the privilege as I have had of growing up alongside the greatest people in the greatest generation on earth. God bess America.