Moving to Canada Was Like Moving To A Different Country
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
Canada
December 21, 2015 7:02am CST
I know that sound redundant but it is true.
Back in the 1980's a moving van arrived at my home in Kansas, packed all our possessions and we were on an adventure to Canada. The man of the house had been recruited for a job and we had our legal papers in hand and headed north.
I had vacationed many times in Canada and knew it was very similar to the US. I knew it was a beautiful country with good schools, friendly people, good government.
Hubby had arrived months before us and had a home waiting for us.
Of course the children in the neighborhood were knocking on the door asking about my children. Its easy for kids to fit in. Within the first few days the neighbors became fast friends.
The police stopped at the house wondering why we had Kansas license plate on the cars and when I showed him our papers he told me the time line of getting Canadian plates for our cars...its wasn't a big deal, just one of those things that make me smile thinking about when we moved to Canada.
The BIGGIE was my first trip to the grocery store.
Canada hadn't heard of Mousse for your hair yet. I laughed out loud when I got that crazy look from one of the employees when they thought I was talking about the animal Moose...
The best part for me was when I got to the milk section of the store and there were plastic bags with three smaller plastic bags full of milk inside. I looked for an employee and found a teenager who was helpful.
I asked about the milk . He pointed to the bags of milk and started to leave. I asked him how I would get the milk from a plastic bag into a glass? He responded you just cut the corner of the bag off. By now he was interested...
I picked up a bag and said, if I cut the corner of this bag, the milk is going to go all over the floor! How to do you get the milk out without spilling it? The light bulb went off over his head.
You must be new to Canada he said and I nodded, he reached up the the top of the milk display and handed me a plastic container that you put the bag into and then cut the corner off.
We both laughed...
Do you get milk in plastic bags?
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26 people like this
28 responses
@LadyDuck (471421)
• Switzerland
21 Dec 15
No, we do not get milk plastic bags, but I believe that you can imagine how difficult it was for me going to the grocery store in France, after we moved there from Italy. Different language, different products, different habits... the first few months were not easy.
6 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
22 Dec 15
Its something I never thought of before, Canada is English and French, both languages are on all items.
2 people like this
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
21 Dec 15
When I moved to Greece from England the grocery store was my first surprise. It had not occurred to me that I would not be able to read labels here at least not for some time. I had problems with anything that was inside cardboard, jars were fine, I could see the contents. I bought hair straightener cream when I wanted something to curl my hair. Actually that worked in spite of it being designed for the opposite effect.
4 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
21 Dec 15
That is pretty funny and we hope to spend some time in Greece in the future. We will have to ask his aunt to write down in Greek the names of some American Food we will be looking for in the store. I would have never even thought of that as a potential problem. So thanks for that share.
1 person likes this
@rebelann (112875)
• El Paso, Texas
26 Dec 15
Do they also speak French in some parts @PainsOnSlate ?
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
27 Dec 15
@rebelann in some areas but not where I live.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
25 Dec 15
No because the language was the same, it was an easy transition. We love it here.
1 person likes this
@41CombedaleRoad (5952)
• Greece
22 Dec 15
I feel nostalgia for the bottles on the doorsteps with a a few inches of 'top of the milk', a lovely cream that went so well on porridge for the one who got there first!
3 people like this
@jaboUK (64354)
• United Kingdom
22 Dec 15
@41CombedaleRoad Oh yes - that delicious cream on the top!
2 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
22 Dec 15
@jaboUK Our milk was delivered in the city. When we moved to the country we bought milk from a local dairy farmer, It was raw, my mother would skim the cream off and I have no idea what she did with it but we drank the skimmed milk. When that farmer retired and sold his cows we started buying it in the grocery store.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (340210)
• Rockingham, Australia
22 Dec 15
It's amazing how different things can be. We were speaking to a South African who came to Australia to live. She went to get groceries and at the checkout the lady 'how're you going'. Our friend was flustered and said they had a little cart to take their goods home in (they hadn't bought a car at that stage). The woman stared at her. 'How are you going' in Oz just means 'how are you'. The two later became good friends and often laughed about the incident.
2 people like this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
22 Dec 15
Every country has their ways, don't they? Canada and the US were very similar and now, 35 years later this is home and there are no surprises anymore. We still spend time in the US and have family there so we are happy to belong to both.
1 person likes this
@glenniah (1197)
• Mandurah, Australia
21 Dec 15
You reminded me of a incident when I was in Miami. The shop assistant was Mexican I think and didn't understand my accent. I think she thought I was either stupid or being rude. Fortunately I was with an American lady and she said, 'don't worry, it's ok she is Australian. I have to say that was my one and only funny experience, all the other times it was wonderful. And know we don't have milk in bags, heheh
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
How cool that someone would jump to help you out of an uncomfortable moment. Cool story.
1 person likes this
@glenniah (1197)
• Mandurah, Australia
23 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate
One thing I loved when we lived in London was having the post put through the slot in the front door and milk, eggs and even chicken delivered to our door
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
@glenniah I've never had groceries delivered. It would be lovely!
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
21 Dec 15
Certainly a learning experience. I could see how both of those conversations went down. The mousse and the milk debacle.
1 person likes this
@Shellyann36 (11384)
• United States
29 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate That kind of reminds me of the movie "The Family". Robert De Niro is in the Italian mob and flips so he is in witness protection. His very Italian family gets moved to Normandy, France. His wife goes to the corner grocer and tries to find pasta. The clerks and the other shoppers were rather glib with her. She makes her purchases and then discreetly blows the back side of the store up.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
it was an interesting first visit to the store in Canada...
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
22 Dec 15
No and I have bought milk in Quebec and in the maritime provinces and it is just as we have in the US. That sounds so odd to me. However in Belgium I went looking for milk and it is on the shelf not refrigerated, now that freaked me out.
1 person likes this
@BelleStarr (61102)
• United States
23 Dec 15
I know but the milk is heat treated so it stays fresh on the shelf, too weird but true. @PainsOnSlate
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
Yikes, not refrigerated is scary. I don't remember ever seeing the bags when I vacationed with my parents in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick either.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (50988)
• Canada
22 Dec 15
Oh yeah, welcome to Canada, the true North strong and free! We do pour our milk directly from the bags, unless you buy a carton. I'm surprised about the mousse though, I was buying coloured mouse in 1986 and 1987 because I refused to dye my hair at such a young age. In late 1987 I gave up and started dying it-oh if I only knew then what I know now. Did you have any issues learning our metric system at all here, I would have thought that the speed limits and measurements would have been a challenge.
1 person likes this
@Juliaacv (50988)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate You know what, because we live so close to the border, we usually watch American news and as a result I am better with temperatures said their way then our way. But for knowing what a certain number of centimetres of snow looks like, that I can do.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
@Juliaacv I can't do that (measure in centimeters), When we first got here the US station we got was Buffalo so that was good, then when we got satellite, Boston is where the US stations come from - I'd rather have Buffalo.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
Metric was a problem. I had no idea what temperature we were experiencing, and speed limits were hard until we bought a car in Canada. Our American cars didn't mention metric back then, now they do.
1 person likes this
@TheHorse (218921)
• Walnut Creek, California
23 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate I'm old enough to remember the "milkman" from my very early childhood days. But now I get my half gallons in plastic jugs at Trader Joe's.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
@TheHorse I grew up in Upstate New York and I remember the milk man delivering the milk in the late 40's and 50's. I remember the Freihofer Bread delivery. My next door neighbor was an old Italian guy that had the prettiest roses on the street, after the horse went by he would be out there scooping up the fertilizer for his roses.
Our article on the Charles Freihofer Baking Company celebrating 100 years in the Capital Region brought a flurry of emails and phone calls in the days after the story appeared on March 10.
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
Yes you can still get it in bags, but we prefer the plastic jugs. More recycle but better for us. When The kids were home we could go through that much milk but not now. Smaller is better.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
21 Dec 15
I would have been asking too. I have never even seen milk in a plastic bag.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
It was an interesting thing for the first time. I was glad the kid that helped me had a sense of humor.
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29820)
• Momence, Illinois
23 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate No doubt, I would have asked the same questions.
1 person likes this
@fedupjane (191)
• United States
23 Dec 15
They tried the milk in plastic bags in the public schools back in the 90's. That was a huge mistake. They didn't last long at all.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
I've never heard of it being in schools. It was not my favorite way to get milk.
@fedupjane (191)
• United States
23 Dec 15
@PainsOnSlate It was a very short lived experiment.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
23 Dec 15
It was a long time ago so you can get milk anyway you want it now. I hope all their stories are good ones.
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
27 Dec 15
I'm sure they did but we are still here and now just one of them,,,
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
26 Dec 15
We don't get it now either, when we first came here it was the the most economical way to buy milk.
@GreatMartin (23672)
• Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
25 Dec 15
I felt that way moving from New York city to Memphis, Tennessee--I swear I was in another country!!
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
25 Dec 15
I know the feeling. I felt the same too when I moved from upstate NY to Kansas....
@Drosophila (16571)
• Ireland
26 Dec 15
Lol.. how long have you been in Canada? Since the 80s? Does that make you canadian.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
26 Dec 15
We came here in 1985. When Our two older kids were in College they wanted to become citizens, one for politics the other for military, by then Canada allowed duel citizenship so be became Canadians and kept our citizenship with the US, we all have duel Citizenship.
@garymarsh6 (23404)
• United Kingdom
28 Dec 15
How funny. Sorry I know I should not have laughed but I guess it was quite an education when you first moved there. A voyage of discovery. Despite us speaking the same language there are many nuances between our nations. This is why it is a great site to talk and learn about each others daily lives. I found this very interesting.
1 person likes this
@PainsOnSlate (21852)
• Canada
28 Dec 15
You can laugh because I always laugh when I remember those first days in Canada. The US and Canada are very similar with some really strange differences.
