A Truly Canadian Moment

My husband just spent a month in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

My mother has friends in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

To any Canadian, the course of action is evident: mother calls friends, friends ask husband of mother's daughter to come for dinner. D'uh!

To an American, the invitation to dinner from the wife's mother's friends is a little unusual.



My husband called me just before heading over there to ask "WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING THIS FOR?" To which I responded, well, you married a Canadian. This is what Canadians do. They host dinners for friends of cousins' brothers-in-law who happen to be in town. Or cousins of friends' sisters-in-law. Or... draw out any six-degrees-of-separation kind of relationship you want.

But in bringing up this situation to other Americans I realised how completely foreign this concept is here. My parents-in-law were aghast: He's doing WHAT? WHY ARE YOU MAKING HIM HAVE DINNER WITH COMPLETE STRANGERS? WHAT WILL HE TALK ABOUT? POOOOR HIM!

As if I made him do this.

But this was the prevailing sentiment: shock, amazement, awe.

I told the story to my New Friend By Virtue Of Being From The Same Country As I (see my previous post) and she laughed, yes, yes, this is how it goes with Canadians. Though she was from Toronto "If I went to Ottawa tomorrow I'd have a choice of four or more places to stay". "You could stay with my family!" I exclaimed. "Exactly... that's what Canada is like," she said.

I didn't mention that the invitation would be revoked if she turned out to be a Toronto Maple Leafs fan. That suspends all obligations to hospitality in Senators country.