Assimilating

THE GORGEOUS YOUNG LADY working at the library had an attitude from the git go. No way she was going to smile at me,let alone laugh with me. I should have known better than to try to be funny. But I have to try. I love making people laugh. She was born in L.A., a life long American,but her accent was strongly south of the border.She obviously didn't like being asked where she came from, and she didn't like my jokes, though she surely understand why someone might think she was foreign born. Things went downhill from there. I called myself a "straggler"; she asked another librarian where the "stragglers" were located. People standing nearby began to giggle, so ahead I plowed, digging myself in ever deeper. Finally she suggested I seek assistance elsewhere. My apology fell flat, and she never smiled. the guy across the street in my small town is from Guatemala, and he has a strong accent, but his American born children do not. That's the way it usually works, the usually process. People born in American have American accents, usually. The young librarian? Decades of ethnic cocooning, perhaps, in the large Los Angeles latino community. Well, may we all be fortunate enough to experience multiple cultures, and may we always be fortunate enough to feel comfortable, and a part of the country wherein we live.