Anglophile or Anglophobe?

My hubby and I are self-proclaimed Anglophiles {people who love English culture and England in general} and yet we've never been to England. It is a very sad and shameful thing. We are very sure we would love it there - from the cold and rainy north to the palm trees in the south, from the metropolitan London to the country farmlands. In fact, I think I'm going to order this shirt to prove my love of all things under the Union Jack.

When I was growing up we often had visitors from England. My father was employed at Eastman Kodak Company (also known as "Big Yellow"). Between 1940 and 1942, 156 British children were brought to the Rochester area by Kodak to safeguard them from the war in their home country. These “Kodakids,” as they were called, were placed with the families of local Kodak employees or in foster homes for the duration of the war. My father's family hosted two sisters - Joan and Ruby. They left their family and their lives behind and lived with my father's family for 6 years. Can you imagine? Interrupting your childhood and leaving your country, your family, your friends, everything behind and adopting a whole new life? I can't imagine what was harder. Coming to the U.S. or returning to England as a relative stranger to your family and your country.

Anyway, they were lovely people and my love affair with British accents, authors, and culture began there. They gave me their strange money to keep in a jewelry box at home and tried to teach me about exchange rates, they talked about nights out at the pub, they had rosy cheeks and bright eyes, they referred to beers as pints. They introduced me to Jane Austin, Lewis Carroll, Charles Dickens, and the Royal Family. I fell in love with Wimbeldon - and the tradition of white on the courts, the Duke and Dutchess of Kent in the stands, the starched reserved properness of it all.
And when I was older, they introduced me to Benny Hill.
And I found the seedy underside of British life.
And I was well and truly hooked.


The balance to all that proper behavior was this incredibly funny foul man. Can you hear the music playing now?


I've continued to spend my Friday evenings watching the local PBS station's BritCom nights with wonderful and quirky shows from the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Some favorites - check them out.

The Young Ones
[The anarchic flatshare from hell]

Are You Being Served?
[Set in the antiquated Grace Brothers department store, the show followed the antics of its staff]

Coupling
[3 guys, 3 girls, not your average "Friends" episodes]

Black Adder
[Follow the tawdry and yet inexorable progress of the Blackadder dynasty]

As Time Goes By
[a gentle, well-scripted sitcom about the rekindling of long-lost love]


The Vicar of Dibley
[Not your run of the mill grey-haired cleric]

Fawlty Towers
[Farce run amok]

My Hero
[Thermo-man adjusts to life on earth]

God Bless the BBC.