Cultural Differences

Missouri/Kansas and Arizona/California may both be states in the United States but cultures are so different in many ways.  Having lived in the west and now back in the Midwest, I am really aware of the differences.  An example was last Sunday’s dinner at Bill and Vida’s (my brother and sister-in-law). First of all, I volunteered to take a salad and dessert to go along with the spaghetti and meatballs Vida was fixing for dinner.  My dessert was a Apple Raisin pie that I made fresh that morning, pictured below,  and store bought cranberry walnut cookies.  There was 8 of us there for the 1 o’clock dinner – Bill, Vida, 3 nieces, husbands for 2 of them and myself.  Yes, Sunday meals, if after noon, are “dinner” back here even if it is 1 o’clock….   The thing that really impressed culture difference on me was what happened after we were through eating…  The guys adjourned to the sun porch and the women settled in around the kitchen table. For over an hour, we discussed everything from the fit of jeans to decorating.  As we sat there chatting, it struck me that I have never seen this happen in the west… In the west, after dinner everyone (men and women) adjourn to the same room and the topics are usually very different.  No one was in a hurry to leave to get to someplace else as is usually the case in the west – especially California. Dishes were eventually done, leftovers were divided up and we all headed home leaving Bill and Vida to rest up for next Sunday.