The United Kingdom has always fascinated me and I think it goes back to the time that my family lived in Winnipeg while my father did the bookkeeping for Irish Potato Chips. (Now who remembers that company?) I was in Grade One when we left Winkler and moved to a new development in St. James, a place with new, mostly empty houses. Within a few months people moved in from England. Ted and Vivian Jarvis were recent immigrants to Canada and they brought with them Janice and Karen, two young girls close to my age. Our families became good friends and I grew up learning about 'bubble and squeak' (boiled cabbage mixed in with mashed potatoes), 'Yorkshire pudding' (love that stuff), and the need to wear my 'wellies' when it rained. My best friends had British accents and I probably tried to emulate them. I loved being at their house because it was noisy, had animals (Prince, the collie, and Tiger, the cat) and it was different from the way things were at my house. Our families shared a lot of laughter and good times together but sadly when they moved to Victoria some years later, we only wrote letters and visited occasionally. Our last visit with them was in 1997 and time has taken its toll on the senior members of the families. I have lost touch with the girls but I am forever grateful that they piqued my curiosity for all things English.
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