Kettle River news

Quilting at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church is 9 a.m. to noon every Wednesday.

The next Ma & Pa Kettle meeting will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 26 at the Kettle River Senior Center.

Ma & Pa Kettle Bingo is Sunday, March 19 at the Kettle River Senior Center. Mark your calendar.

The first Finnish luncheon for the season is Wednesday, April 19 at the Kettle River Senior Center, so mark your calendar for that too. Bring a friend.

I visited the city of New Bern, North Carolina in 1958. Going into town one day, I had my first experience with a language barrier. I stopped to get a sweet roll. However, I could not get the clerk to understand what I wanted. I asked for a Danish, and she had no idea what I wanted. I tried several different words but, again, she had no idea of what I was asking for.

I later learned that I should have asked for a sticky bun. I also wanted some pop. Again, the wrong word. Then she asked if I wanted a soda. Where I came from, a soda was like a rootbeer float with ice cream. So, I finally said I would have a soda. She brought me a glass of pop. I asked for an ice cube and the person looked at me as if I was crazy. They had no idea what an ice cube was. There, you had to ask for a chunk of ice. When I asked for iced tea at a drive-in, the car next to us asked what part of the North I was from. I never did find out how to ask for iced tea.

Also while there, John and I went to visit his sister, a few miles away. She asked me if we would watch her three children while she went to the store. While she was gone, the phone rang, so I answered it. When she came back, I told her one of her neighbors had called but didn’t leave her name. She asked, “Did she have an accent?”

Now, being from the North, to me everyone in the South had an accent. I answered, ”Yes” and she laughed and said it was her neighbor. “She is from Georgia, and they have such an accent you can barely understand them.”

I nearly fell down laughing.