2024 Note: Just feels the right time to re-publish this one…..

July 1, 2018

It’s a pretty busy week for me.

You see, today is Canada Day, and I live in Canada.  And since five years or so ago, I have been and will be a Canadian.

But I’m also still American. Born that way and will probably stay that way for the rest of my life.

And of course, Wednesday is Independence Day. The Fourth of July.

Two big holidays in one week. Whatever shall I wear? Well, red and white, for sure. And I’m sure I can figure out a way to sprinkle some blue in there too.

I moved up here more almost 33 years ago, straight from New York City, to a place with less than half a million people. 

It took some getting used to, but I did.

Went to school, married, had a son, got great jobs in media, government and education. Travel to the US many times a year, mostly to see friends and family, but, so far, not back to live again.

I remember when I first came to Canada, in the spring of 1985.  My friend Ken took me to Banff, still one of my very favourite places and one of the most beautiful on the continent, I think.

Wandering through the townsite, I saw a t-shirt in one of the very many gift shops that line Banff Avenue.

It was navy blue, with red and white letters emblazoned across the chest:

Americanadian

it said.  I didn’t buy it, but I also never forgot it.

And all these years, I’d pretty much thought of myself as an Americanadian—which, to me, was someone who was more American than Canadian, but someone who most definitely had connections—roots, or maybe feet–on both sides of the border, in both countries.

Technically, until I became a dual citizen, I couldn’t really make that claim.

Why did it take me almost 30 years?  I guess for the first ten or so, I really didn’t think it was necessary or useful in any way, and besides I was a citizen of the US and that was a privilege I didn’t take lightly. And I guess I assumed that I would eventually go back.

Then I spent 15 years working for the US Government in Canada, for the State Department in a relatively visible position.  Taking out citizenship then might have been tacky, and perhaps a little unwise, as it had the potential to spoil future employment possibilities. I hadn’t really thought about it then, but it certainly would have provided fodder for the American detractors, although there are far fewer here in Alberta than possibly anywhere else outside the US. Or maybe I’m making myself out to be more important than I ever was.

But then I left that job, and crossed the line where I had spent more of my life up “North of 50” (yes, I know it’s the 49^th, but the blog’s title covers that too) than I had on the other side.

And I knew from my work that this was a doable thing; as a spokesperson, I learned the statement by heart: “While the US Government does not officially recognize dual citizenship, it acknowledges there are circumstances where a person might have a claim to citizenship in another country (through birth or marriage or whatever).  Since there is nothing in the Canadian citizenship oath about renunciation of loyalty and citizenship with other countries, being a dual Canadian and American is acceptable.”  (but technically not officially recognized, so there.)

From there, it was quick and pretty easy, and before I knew it, I was both American and Canadian. Here’s a little story about my citizenship ceremony; sadly the slideshow doesn’t seem to be there anymore.

A lot of people will say that there’s very little different between the two countries—we speak the same languages (with different accents), we (generally) eat the same food (regional specialities aside), we watch the same sports (with some variations) and entertainment on tv, we travel to a lot of the same places (well, then there’s Cuba, but that’s a story for another day).

So fundamentally, yes, we are a lot alike. Fundamentally.

I started to write some deeper feelings about this, but I think I’d rather this be a more celebratory post for both of my countries than one that makes me sadder than opening Facebook or turning on the TV already does. Some day maybe we’ll all talk about that.

2024 note: Interestingly, I wrote this post in between US elections, yet the memory of 2016 still hung, very heavily, over me. Now here we are, just a day or so away from another election which has me feeling as challenged by the activity going on at home as I have ever been. Here’s hoping things go the way they should (no soapbox in this space, but I think you know where I am), and that everyone stays safe and calm. That’s all I’ll say about that.

All I’ll say is that I’ve shifted that title, and now I’m CanadAmerican. Chalk it up to time served, and whatever else you like.

In the meantime, here’s what happened to me yesterday morning.

My car is in the shop (I can’t even begin to tell you what kind of year it’s been with my car; suffice to say there’s enough for a whole post, so we’ll save that for another time.) So I picked up a loaner after work and while I was waiting for a hail storm to pass (just what I need, damage to the loaner), one of the salespeople helped me sync my iPhone for the car radio and also my music, and it started to play as I pulled away from the mechanic bays at the dealership.

Now, my music is set to play alphabetically by song, and as a result, it is a total mashup of artists, genres, styles—everything from punk and classical to international (ever heard German hiphop, or Chinese pop?) and top 40.

First up is always the Jackson Five’s ABC, which never gets old.  And from there it goes into the Five Man Electrical Band singing Absolutely Right, followed by Dvorak (Adagio from the New World Symphony)–there’s a mood shift for ya– Santana (Africa Bamba—who put that in there? Not me)…and so on.

Honestly, I wasn’t paying too much attention to it, except to turn the volume down so I could concentrate on steering this brand new hundred thousand dollar loaner straight on the highway, totally paranoid that every single vehicle on the road with me was out to get me. No pressure. I think they wanted me to buy one, hence the fancy model. Haha nope.

So, yesterday morning, I forced myself to take the car out on errands, and the music kicked in, still on the A titles, and what should come up?

Ray Charles, singing America the Beautiful. Kind of emotional; it reminded me of when we used to sing “American” songs in Mrs. Havens’ music class in elementary school (this one, My Country Tis of Thee, You’re a Grand Old Flag, Red River Valley, even Old Dan Tucker and Clementine, and something about eating a possum, which were songs that reflected life in another time in America.)

And after that:

America Town, by Five for Fighting: tried to find the meaning to this song, but no luck (although I did find out that Five for Fighting is actually one person, who loves hockey which is where his “name” comes from).  I will say it doesn’t paint a pretty picture…just the first two stanzas:

I know I should be happy in your land
It’s not all that wild to me
Not that I want to be any other where
I know it’s hell out there

Here in the borders of America town
All of the dollies are spinning round and round
Hail to the chief
Lets just drag them all down
There’s got to be a hero somewhere….

American City Suite, by Cashman & West: Do you remember this one from 1972?? It’s a three- parter (although a reference says four parts…I always thought there were three), starts out really cheery, talking about how great it is to be in this particular city (which it turns out is NY), then turns to a reflection of the dark side of city life, and then, in the last part, the city dies. Another distressing one.

American Idiot, by Green Day.  I don’t think I need to say too much about this one, except to say that it’s angry at America, and Americans.  Really pissed off. But that’s Green Day.

American Pie, by Don McLean: one of my favourite all time albums, American Pie.  I remember sitting at Lisa H’s house listening to the record, which she had gotten for, let’s see, it must have been her 13^th birthday, over and over, putting the needle into the groove to start the eight minute-plus song.  Another sad one, about Buddy Holly’s death and how the world was going to shit.  I just found a You Tube link with more than 81 million views of this song—just the song and the lyrics. So I guess I’m not the only who stops and pauses when it comes on. I still love it, more than 45 years later…and did you know that Roberta Flack’s Killing Me Softly…is about American Pie??)

American Woman, by the Guess Who (this is the full version): well this is, ironically, from a Canadian band about bad Bad BAD American women. Waaay before Lenny Kravitz.

2024 note: Burton Cummings did it last night at Grey Eagle; it didn’t have the spark, but it was still cool to hear it from the original.

Wowee.

(And then, perhaps most fittingly to close out the theme and move along alphabetically, a Mexican song called Amigo Amigo, I think from the Happy Texas soundtrack. If you haven’t seen the movie, you should.)

When I got home, I scrolled down to see what songs there were that started with “Canada”.

There were none.

So in place of taking you on a nostalgic audio adventure about Canada, I’ll give you two of my favourite pieces on Canada (haha pocket weights), and wish you all a Happy Canada Day and a Happy 4^th of July!