This isnae a blog post aboot a moose, but it wis inspired by Burns Nicht. Actually, I wonder if there's a Scots word for "blog"? Not according to Wikipedia, but the article on Scots, written in Scots does make me smile. Anyway, I'm haverin' so I'll quit ma bletherin' and get back tae it.
Back in the day when I still lived in Scotland, I used to (perhaps unkindly) take great amusement from Americans who would visit Scotland to connect with their roots. You know the type, "My great-great-great grandfather was born in a tiny mud-hut north of Arbroath and then moved to Boston, so I've come back to find my roots, family and declare myself Chieftain of the clan". And then they'd ask for a Scotch on the rocks, and I'd smile my smug smile, thinking "aye, right".
So, has spending a year or so in the US softened my attitude? Sort of. It was Burns Nicht on Friday so we went to our local Scottish themed pub, the Royal Mile, to take part in their celebration. I'd received a better haggis offer, but that was in up-state NY, so not so easy to get to. Anyway, the Royal Mile is a wee pub in the bustling metropolis of Wheaton, which is where we live. The bar has a certain dinginess to it that wouldn't be out of place in Scotland, but they ruin the experience by being too clean, having table service and friendly, cheery staff.
I'd never actually been to an organised Burns night event before, as I've never needed an excuse to chug whisky and munch haggis, but we thought it would be an interesting experience. It was actually pretty good fun, with pipes and the address to the haggis, and random punters coming up to recite a poem, sing a song, etc. I may even have got caught up in the spirit(s) (Laphroaig & Caol Ila, to be precise) and done a couple of songs myself. Much tartan was on display and there was a surprising range of ages present (I expected it to be an older crowd, hanging on to memories of the motherland), although I was the only Scot in the village, as it were.
So it got me thinking about why USians (North Americans in general, I suppose) like to cling on to heritage of their colonising ancestors. One often meets Canadians / Americans who identify themselves as Irish, Scottish, Italian, Dutch, German or even French. Although, oddly enough, I've yet to meet an American who claims English ancestry, although statistically, there should be more of them! I ask myself why people need to claim some heritage other than "American". I suppose the first reason is that immigration wasn't a single event but happens continuously, and I've met more than a couple of Scots who have taken citizenship and popped their sprogs in this land. A lot of the people who sound USian may only have been here for a couple of generations.
I guess another reason why many Americans cling to an older heritage is because their country isn't actually that old: I've drank in pubs back home which have been around longer than the US. As a European, I have a sort of vague, lazy sense of cultural identity. I know my country has been around for quite a while and that I'm unambiguously Scottish, so I don't need to spend much time wondering about my family tree or identifying with my people. Given that the US hasn't had enough time to generate much history, there's not a single national identity that USians have - if anything, it seems more regional. Folks in the deep south are pretty different from those here on the east coast, and I've been assured that people out west are more likely to be laid-back, pot-smoking hippies.
Of course, I'm generalising - I do meet many people who are settled enough just to be American or Canadian, but a significant number still look to the past to identify who they are. Interestingly enough, I've met more Canadians who speak Gaelic than I've met Scots with the same skill; Nova Scotian single malts do, however, still need some work.
To those north Americans claiming to be Scottish - do I still silently mock them? Not so much: everyone has to come from somewhere and, while they have funny ideas about how one should drink whisky, I've no qualms with folks identifying with my country. Especially if they want to visit and give our tourism a boost. Or even just furnish me with an excuse to wear my kilt. My main complaint is that the attempts at haggis in this country are woefully inadequate, but I'll save that rant for next time.
