Ireland & USA: Little Differences #1
TENNIS BALLS
I walk and cycle all over Kansas City and pass several tennis balls on the street every day. Most of them are newish. Some, brand new.
I walked and cycled even more all over Dublin yet you could count on one hand the number of times I have found tennis balls in Ireland. And they were never newish.
A few years ago I used to go to a park regularly here in Kansas City’s Midtown. Usually I would intend, but forget, to bring a tennis ball, yet I’d continue for I’d know I’d always find one there. Always. Not sometimes, not mostly, but always. And I did. And no, the park wasn’t anywhere near a tennis court.
Today I passed a few on different streets, and I left them where they lay for I knew they were probably owned by the kids in the house they were nearest, or across the street, or down the street, or somewhere close by. And I already have forty-seven balls at home.
Read UPDATE: 2 years later from the streets of Dublin
I think of throwing things away as throwing money away, and in Kansas City much more people have money to throw away - or their parents’ money - and the money bounces all furry and luminous as the people go off looking for some more money to throw away.
Other Less Celebrated Differences Between Ireland & the US:
• Talking Temperatures
• Valentine’s Day
• Going Out The In Door
• Fun
Eolaí gan Fhéile:
How very true this is. It depends so much on how you were raised. I grew up in a lower income family with four kids we kept everything till it couldn’t be used again.