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in Montreal last month, when she and my Montreal brother went on a boat tour around the island. She stood up to move beside my brother and offer one side of the table they'd snagged, by the edge of the top deck, to the retired couple looking for somewhere to sit -- and then saw, to her horror, that the woman across from her was wearing an NRA ball cap. Way to blend in. (National Rifle Association, for those who don't hang out in the gun dungeon here -- symbolic of all things right wing, and widely recognized as the force, and money, that tipped the scales against Al Gore in 2000.) They owned a ranch in California, and were in Mtl for a day before setting off on a cruise to Greenland.
My Montreal brother is pretty much an exact male replica of moi, politically and personality-wise, and as well he did his MA and PhD in the US. And my mother, while outwardly a typical 1950s wife-and-mother, did, after all, produce us. So, while playing the genial hosts -- expanding on the guide's patter about the local sights, answering questions, explaining things Canadian as they came up -- well, they just kinda did the job. My brother politely commented on how well the visitors' former President had looked on television, and how well his book was doing. Heh heh. The Mr. muttered that said former president wouldn't be getting any of his money for his book.
At one point the man asked whether my father was visiting Montreal as well, and my brother just said no, he wasn't. (My dad died last year.) When my mum went to the john, the man asked whether my dad was still living, and my brother told him. When they were all leaving the boat and saying the nice-to-meet you pleasantries, the man gave my mum a little hug and wished her well.
And my mum said to me afterwards that she guessed that not all members of the NRA just wanted to shoot people. ;) Although she was just as creeped out by their politics as she'd always been. She has the proverbial American cousins, and they're Republicans too, so she knows the breed. Kudos to the couple in question though for actually (and unlike the cousins in question) demonstrating curiosity and interest in something other than themselves, the main ingredient lacking from the USAmerican public psyche and from so many of them individually. That lack of interest is how I generally know I'm among 'em. ;)
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