[Magdalen] Wafting Odors.

[Lynn Ronkainen]

And generations of kids and families missed something for that "unique" American sociological difference. It is changing now but still in a different direction. 
Lynn

Sent from my iPhone

On Oct 25, 2015, at 8:24 PM, ME Michaud <michaudme at gmail.com> wrote:

No, it's cultural.

I still remember the first time I saw a northern European guy with a baby.
I was working in Harvard Square at the time and was waiting for the walk
light with a young fair-haired man with a fair-haired baby in a back
carrier. Because the baby was a cutie, I glanced around, the better to
appreciate his mother. No adult woman nearby; they were alone on the street
together.

I'd never seen this before. Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek, Asian men,
African and African-American men were commonly seen out&about with their
children and grandchildren alone, of course. In France I was often
impressed by the fact that any man would pick up & comfort a crying
child. But I'd never seen a fair-haired man outdoors alone with a baby
before.

This may be exacerbated by our large Irish-American population, which seems
to separate male and female roles with strict observance. Perhaps Germans
are the same. I do tend to think of it as a northern European thing.

Times have changed lots since then, of course.

I read an interview with Hannan Ashwari's husband, who stopped the
interview to make breakfast for his children. The lame American interviewer
said, "In America, we'd call that being a "house husband."
"Here," he replied, "we'd call it being a father."
-M

On Sunday, October 25, 2015, Marion Thompson <marionwhitevale at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Perhaps in another life they would have been two of the great chefs.  I
> don't recall my country-raised father ever cooking anything.  Ever.  Nor my
> city-raised brother,  come to that, other than pasta au naturele (it's a
> MacRae thing).
> 
>