I grew up in Siam, and it was my home for sixteen years. Mom home schooled us, but after a furlough year in California, in public school, we went to India to a boarding school. WE learned Indian manners Dad taught us proper manners so that when we went
to America, we would not shame the family. Mom taught us Thai manners, which we observed with all the servants, who were more like aunts and uncles. Our Grandma was ashamed of us any way. She seemed to think she was an aristocrat and above everyone else. We
kept doing the Siamese gestures of courtesy, and that was offensive to her. I married and moved to Massachusetts. The New Englanders thought they were superior to Californians, and I had to learn to do and think as they did. Then we moved to Appalachia where
the accent and customs were all together different. Next came New Jersey, (sophisticated Princeton) Kentucky, (coal mines and poverty,) then Ohio. Now, at 90, I am busy learning the rules of living in a Mennonite community’s loving nursing home. I think I could
be at home in almost any country, but if I had a choice, I’d go back to Thailand and live two cultures at the same time.