Gettin' All-Primal in the Applachians page 10

[annedawso]

I think that book is "A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering the Appalachian Trail", published in 1998. I haven't read it, but it is on my get-to-it-sometime list. When I am all-Primal and toned and have better cardiovascular endurance, I would like to do that with the kids. I bet it will be a life-changing experience.

So you all are soccer nuts, eh? Is there anybody in all of England who ISN'T?? And maybe you can shed light on something I have been wondering for some time - what is it that drives soccer hooligans (at least the English version)?? We are just as obsessed with American football, but you don't hear about whole sections of downtown being trashed because of the Super Bowl, and we are supposed to be the more violent country versus most of Europe.

Liverpool sounds nice, being along the coast, with universities there, too. But the name is kinda' unfortunate. Do you have any idea where the "liver" in Liverpool originates?? Anglo-Saxon holdover?

I understand about financial depressions - this area started that way and has never improved since. But after 7 years of living here, my daughters know how to value a small gift from someone who has very little, and that is a phenomenal life lesson. I grew up on public welfare, and while I never wanted them to know the raw side of that kind of life, I did want them to somehow get some experience with humility, and this fits the bill nicely.

I'll tell you another story about Third (I have an almost endless supply of them...) since the bus thing was funny - she potty-trained very late, between 7 and 8 years of age due to chronic diarrhea added onto the rest of her challenges. So, we have a pretty rigorous library schedule, as we homeschool and all and I use several libraries to supply our book cravings. Third, of course, comes along. Back then all she knew how to do was find the DVD's and then play with the toys in the Children's Section, but hey - you have to start somewhere. Like any well-planned Children's Section, there is a potty within immediate reach, but not immediate enough for Third... she had a little difficulty learning the signals her body gives her when it is time to eliminate and so always ended up in distress - as in RUNNING for the bathroom. Well, whatever the reason, she always decided to begin undressing as she was underway to the toilet... I had a kid sprinting along the wall, past the elevator, as the potty is located just to the right of the lift, dropping her drawers along the way. Before she even got to the elevator you could see butt crack. As she reached the restroom door, you were treated to a pretty comprehensive view of her choice of underwear for the day and the fact that she wasn't a sufferer of precocious puberty as witnessed by the full-frontal anatomy... Thank the stars she always made it to the john in time before the bladder (and whatever else) cut loose, so I never had spills of that kind to apologize for.

If you want to hear what she replaced that behavior with (once we managed to work it out), just ask...

Your stories are really funny, much better than the ones I read in magazines etc. I've totally forgotten that this is meant to be a primal journal, it is just a nice atmosphere on your Journal if you know what I mean.

Re football hooligans. i can honestly say in the 20 odd years I have been going the match I have never ever seen trouble and never seen anywhere trashed. It does happen I suppose, but not very often. I think when it does it is organized by young gangs of lads who for some silly reason want to fight - tribal reasons I suppose. I am still on a big high as my team Everton won Manchester United on Monday. First game of the season. I was there shouting my head off and getting rid of all my stresses.
Liverpool is an old seaport and I have never thought about the name being strange, suppose it is something I have always grown up with. Think the pool part is cos of the water, no idea about the Liver part!!!
My mum's family are of Irish descent, always a sing song at the end of a night out and my dad is Scottish.
I think from what i can see US politics are fairly right wing, the UK is going more and more right wing.
I personally am fairly left wing, I enjoy having a decent free health service etc and hate the way money is the god of all at the moment without any thought for others. Anyway enough of my rant.
I like Bill Bryson books, you would enjoy it, especially if you recognise some of the area. It sounds a lovely part of the world, very rural and wild. In Liverpool I live in the suburbs but it is still very densely populated.
i was interested to hear you saying you had Amish friends. I watched a good documentary a couple of weeks ago and was amazed at their lifestyle. Most people in the UK don't attend church, though from reading posts on different US forums the church features heavily in your lives. It is all very interesting.

[Bess58]

Hi crabbcakes,

another hot day in Cologne, although not as sweltering as the days before. I was actually able to go out and get some errands done. Tomorrow my daughter is coming to visit me for the day, so I went shopping for non-primal stuff that she likes to eat. She is semi-low carb, so there are things like low carb bread (very popular in Germany at the moment, even Aldi's has it), vegetarian spreads which she likes for their taste although she is not a vegetarian - and she likes her potato chips. She is on her way back from her father's where she spent ten days or so with his family and especially her younger half-siblings.

Geez, how embarassing about the participle. Of course I know that it must be "paid", I must have had what they call a "senior moment".

Your stories about "Third" are hilarious, but I can only imagine that things must have been hard when they happened. Isn't that always the same in life, that some things are only funny when you remember them years later?

Hello, annedawso, it's great that now we also get to read about Liverpool . You're certainly right about the Church playing a great role in the US, I get that impression too. Then again, from what crabbcakes wrote somewhere at the beginning of the thread, I imagine that everything is very different from our Churches (I used to be a protestant). I mean, Unitarian priests who are practising buddhists? What do you say, crabbcakes, is your church more open than traditional protestants or catholics, and is it therefore more popular?

See you all soon, I'm off to finally do my weight lifting which I neglected due to the hot weather (my gym is very purist, so no air conditioning. They just open all the windows which does not help if outside it is just as hot as inside).

[Bess58]

Oh, and on a primal note, I wanted to tell you about the primal ice cream I made today. (I'm a diabetic and keep that in check without meds, just with nutrition, weight training and long walks. So no 20 % for this girl ...) When I neared home after cruising the whole city for some special glue that I need for my homemade greeting cards and paying my flea market fees at a place on the other side of Cologne, I was craving ice cream so much that I tried a recipe that I read on the forums: Just take some coconut milk, throw in a handful of frozen blueberries (it has to be a small fruit, because, for example, frozen strawberries are too big and hard for this method) and mix with a stick blender until you get a soft, semi-frozen mass. I even forgot to add the sweetener (I use xylitol or just saccarine, although the last is not primal), and it was delicious and just hit the spot. (I haven't got an ice cream maker, and you probably know that without it, homemade ice cream usually gets rock hard.)

Maybe I'll have another portion when I get back from the gym - hey, it's primal.

[Crabbcakes]

i was interested to hear you saying you had Amish friends. I watched a good documentary a couple of weeks ago and was amazed at their lifestyle. Most people in the UK don't attend church, though from reading posts on different US forums the church features heavily in your lives.

I'm gonna' cram some writing in here before I need to get up and get everybody going (school started yesterday), and then write more tonight...

re religion/church in the US - short answer: yes, church does feature heavily in the lives of Americans. I know Gravyboat is atheist, and she isn't the only one, but the overwhelming majority of Americans believe in some form of God / Deity (pick your favorite word) and a crazy number still pray, at least occasionally.

I have seen the church scene in Germany, and I think western / northern Europe follows the same pattern: you get to either be a Protestant or a Catholic, or otherwise you are that wierdo who joins a "cult", which is what everybody in my family's villages calls just everything that isn't one of the Big Two. In the case of Germany, that would be Lutheranism and Catholicism, and I imagine England would be Anglican or Catholic. Most nobody goes on a regular basis, even though the government still collects church taxes, and most pay just so they can be buried in a proper church cemetery when the time comes (Germany).

Re Unitarian Universalism - mine isn't a popular church! Most don't know about it at all and need to be explained about it, especially in my corner of the world. It won't be popular for a long time because it is totally flippin' off the deep end as far as liberal goes, and the rest of the US just doesn't roll that way, at least as far as their public statements go (or unless John Q. American steps into a steaming pile with his much stricter original church, gets excommunicated and/or leaves in a huff, and then discovers UUism because they now need a more liberal mindset).

The smorgasbord of churches here is mind-boggling to non-Americans, but we grow up with it. I haven't seen a country so religiously-minded in so many stripes and variations yet. Most non-Americans think this is an Achilles' heel (our religiosity and/or spirituality and/or belief), but it is actually one of our great strengths, and that is usually completely misunderstood by foreigners.

I wish I could write more, but my day needs to start... until tonight!

[annedawso]

Hi Crabbcakes , Bess58 and anyone else,
It was interesting to read about religion in your parts. I was raised a Catholic, in fact my grandma attended mass daily and was the Parish Priests housekeeper. Though I suppose if I had to say, I am an atheist. There again i do believe that the church can be very comforting and good for communities. Also I try to bring my kids up in a Christian way. My motto is always treat others the way you would want to be treated and never deliberately be mean to someone. I was reading 1 in 7 adults in the UK attend church once a month so we defintely aren't a church going nation.
I am off work today so given the house a much need clean. Though was ready to kill my 19 year old son who didn't get up until gone lunch time and then argued with his brothers over which plate of bacon and egg was his, petty I know but I like every one up and dressed and to help around the house.
I have 3 sons age 19, 16 and 9. The 2 youngest are at school and my eldest is studying pharmacy at University. He is clever but for some strange reason he can't manage to peel potoatoes or work a washing machine or have the nouse to hang wet washing on the line. Think it is teenage boy syndrome.
My husband is in the Police and I suppose we are lucky income wise as we have everything we want and go on several holidays a year, admittedly neither of us have got expensive tastes.
Though I had a rough time after the end of my first marriage so I am never too complacent. Who knows what the future holds.
I am off to my Zumba class tonight which I love. We have a new gym opened locally which is really cheap £8 per month has loads of cardio equipment, machine and free weights and includes the prices of all the classes. I was paying £3.50 just to attend one Zumba class before.
Bess, your ice-cream sounds delicious. I have had a tin of coconut cream in the cupboard for ages and will try his.
Right better go and do some jobs.
Anne

[Crabbcakes]

Hey Bess!

I forgot to finish my conversation re the phrases, so here they are:

To an American, "knock me up" means to get pregnant. My Scottish friend told me it means "to wake someone up".

"Keep 'er 'tween the ditches" means literally that - keep your car (but more often a pickup truck, tractor, or semi) on the road, ie do not slide off the roadway and into the ditch. In rural parts all around this country, especially on dirt roads, the county roads department keeps ditches dug on both sides of the road. These ditches guide the rainwater or snow melt so it doesn't pool on the road surface and make rural driving more hazardous than it already is. When someone says it to you, it isn't normally a critique of your driving skills (like they expect you to end up needing a tow truck or anything), it is something like "godspeed" but usually said when the recipient of the phrase is facing some kind of arduous and/or hazardous driving. Well, unless it is said after an entertaining wreck and some good-old-boy mutters something like "he can't ever keep that truck between the dang ditches".

I will try the coconut ice cream as well, but I own a VitaMix, so I can take the biggest, rock-hard berries I want and get instant soft-serve. Sounds yummy!

Diabetic? Ugh - sorry that you have to live with this, but it is very cool that it responds to the Primal so well!! I was going to tell you that a frozen (peeled) banana gives blender ice cream a really creamy constitution, but if you are really low-carbing it, that is probably off the menu.

[Crabbcakes]

Hey anne!

I wanted to do this this morning, but ran out of time. I have the local phone book in front of me, and I'm going to list the churches in them, with their headings. Now, remember, I live in a county with a very small population. Just because I am still internet-shy, I will replace the proper town names with "Village" or "Teeny Town" and the like (totally arbitrarily).

Heading is "Churches"
Christ Community Church
The Family Worship Center
Grace Chapel

Heading is "Churches - Assemblies of God"
Village Assembly of God

Heading is "Churches - Baptist"
Village Baptist Temple
there is also a Fundamental Baptist start-up going on that hasn't made the phone book yet

Heading is "Churches - Bible"
Village Bible Chapel

Heading is "Churches - Catholic"
Village Our Lady of Mercy (plus a catholic convent, which I can't name...)

Heading is "Churches - Christian"
Church of Christ
First Christian Church of Another Village

Heading is "Churches - Church of Christ"
Teeny Town Church of Christ

Heading is "Churches - Church of God"
Village Church of God
Church of God - Teeny Town

Heading is "Churches - Evangelical"
Tiny Town Evangelical Church

Heading is "Churches - Lutheran"
Trinity Lutheran Church (ELCA) (Mr. Crabbcakes is Lutheran, and I know that the ELCA is listed because there are Lutheran churches organized into about three other "conferences" and some don't play well with the others...)

Heading is "Churches - Methodist"
Teenier Town United Methodist Church
Teensy Town UMC
Church of the Cross UMC
First UMC of Village
Tiny Town UMC
Bitsy Town UMC
Another One-Intersection UMC
Yet Another One-Intersection UMC
And a Final One-Intersection UMC

Heading is "Churches - Nazarene"
Church of the Nazarene

Heading is "Churches - Orthodox - Greek, Eastern and Russian"
All Saints Orthodox

Heading is "Churches - Other Christian"
Tiny Town Covenant Church
Wesley Community Chapel

Heading is "Churches - Presbyterian"
Eensy-Weensy Presbyterian
Village United Presbyterian
My Town Presbyterian Church
First Presbyterian Church of the Village
Strange-name United Presbyterian Church
Titled Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Itsy-Bitsy United Presbyterian Church
Microscopic United Presbyterian Church

Heading is "Churches - Seventh-Day Adventist"
Seventh-Day Adventist Church

I also know of a Foursquare Church in the Village. And this doesn't include the Asatru group that actually meets in this township. If you are Jewish, you are screwed here. Just over the county line there is the local ward building of the Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and across the street from them are the Jehovah's Witnesses and just before them both is the Episcopal Church. Just across the county line in the other direction there is an African Methodist Episcopal church. Go just north, and you will find all the branches of the Society of Friends (Quakers) represented. The Amish don't have churches - they meet on a fixed rotation on all members' homesteads. I don't know why the Mennonites aren't in this phone book - they dot the landscape as well. There used to be the tiny, tiny, tiny church here in My Town, pastored by a grandfather of one of the local school kids, but that didn't work out (dunno why). And if you get to the bigger towns and then the cities, your choices increase exponentially.

And, if you aren't dizzy enough - we have "house churches" or sometimes, "home churches" - these folks have eschewed formal church-building attendance, church government, and all that and are doing church homeschool-style with several other families.

So, yup - church is important to us. We love to talk about it, go to it, complain about it, gossip and trash each other over their (obviously dumb) choices of it, listen to lots of religious radio about it (there are a couple of Christian radio stations you can get in this corner of God's green Earth alone), frequent bookstores entirely devoted to it, vote according to belief lines, break the rules of it, form new churches when something ticks us off about the old one, try to ban library books about it (Christians against Pagan lit, mostly), get all bent out of shape when a new (to us) branch of it comes to town, react against it and quit (but love to forevermore squawk about what went wrong...), publish new US English editions of scriptures whenever the mood strikes, invite each other to our brand of it in hopes of converting the "ignorant", leave tracts and Bibles and other Holy Progaganda everywhere, and attempt to evanglize the world to our brand of it before our competitors get there.

You would not BELIEVE the sheer number of Study Bibles published annually here. And if you go to the local regular bookstore - like Barnes and Noble - the religious section is one of the biggest in the store; it is usually given its own wing/alcove. I personally own an entire glass-doored bookshelf devoted to all things church/spirituality (stuff that pertains to my journey and/or interests) - it sits on the landing at the bottom of the stairs. I also have a collection of Christian Rock music (my daughters aren't really allowed to go around the house singing "Janie's Got a Gun" and the like...) which supplies lots of really good beats to words that don't leave dark messages in young brains (Fourth is only 9).

At least in my experience, one of the basic things you find out about new acquaintances around here is 1. what they do for money (at least, what they tell you); 2. marital status, and 3. where they worship. And not always in that order...

This town still celebrates the National Day of Prayer each first Thursday of May with a number of local preachers and just plain folks gathering on the square to pray and speak, one after the other, most of the day, at the band gazebo.

So, anne, how was that for a 45-minute sermon in the middle of the week?! See you soon!

P.S. OOOH! I forgot all about the church camps (my land abuts a church camp) and religious (read: Christian-themed) sports centers (a Christian horse riding- and camping center about 30 min from here), retreats, vacation bible school programs, conferences, and revivals. And for those wishing to lead their own flock, there are the seminaries and bible colleges! Most private colleges were begun by one denomination or other and to this day still bear the stamp of that beginning, if not outright require chapel attendance or somesuch.

[annedawso]

Oh Crabbcakes, that is unbelievable. I have learnt more about religion in the US from you than I have learnt in my whole adult life. There again admittedly my knowledge has been from things such as programmes such Desperate housewives and Friends and now that we have Cable we have been amazed at the religious channels!! That is so interesting, my husband would have no chance in the US. Not only is he an atheist he also totally believes in UFO's and subscribes to UFO magazines etc. I read that in the US more adults believe in angels than in any other country and now I see why. The only time I go to church at Christmas, I feel quite sentimental as I remember when my mum was alive and I like to sing the Christmas Carols. Totally wrong reasons I know but hey ho.
Can't believe there are so many churches, keep reading your list. My kids are gobsmacked as well.
Thanks for taking the time to share all that.
I forced myself to go to Zumba tonight despite having a crappy headache. Feel better for going.
By the way in the UK "Knock me up" can mean getting pregnant or to wake someone up.
There are many regional variations depending on your part of the UK. Some of my friends from different parts of the UK have sayings I have never heard of.
In Liverpool we have quite a guttural accent and have sayings that some of my friends from other parts of the country haven't heard of


Auld-arse- (if someone is being horrible)
Kecks (Trousers)
Divvy (someone being idiotic)
Bevvy (Alcoholic drink)
Ciggy cigarettes
Giz ("Give us")
Boss! ("Very good!")
Skint (No money)
Slummy (loose change)
The Bizzies (The police)
Minty (dirty)

A lot of Liverpool people are from Irish descent which accounts for our strange accent.
Just thought I would bore you with a few local words.

[Crabbcakes]

That is so interesting, my husband would have no chance in the US. Not only is he an atheist he also totally believes in UFO's and subscribes to UFO magazines etc.

Oh, yes, yes, yes, he would. And he would have company to boot. Just Google "Mississippi UFO Conference", "Ozark UFO Conference", "International UFO Conference 2012" (in Arizona), "MUFON PA East Coast Conference"...

Just because this part of the country is almost exclusively Protestant Christian (except for those Asatru that nobody seems able to find whilst engaging in a blot), doesn't mean there isn't a whole world of other choices. The country as a whole has just everything. If atheists think they might be left out, don't worry - there are conferences for atheists/humanists, too.

[Crabbcakes]

Dear Journal -

Well, it is done. Cat breathed his last late this evening. We love you, Cat, and we will see you again.