This morning my mailman greeted me with, “Ahh, the gospel singer.” Apparently he’d been at the concert earlier this month and recognized me. I am reminded once again that Oxford is a small town. Thankfully, I grew up in a small town and liked it, so these reminders feel cheering rather than stifling.
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Nathaniel and I have had a great couple of days. I’m getting over my missing-Sydney blues, now that we’re halfway through the month, Nathaniel has been in a great mood and just itching to giggle, and we’ve spent lots of time outside. This morning I walked a few miles around the nearby farm (feeding horses over the fence while Nathaniel intoned “Neiiiiiiigh. Neiiiiiigh. Neiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh.”) and over to the university parks. Once I let Nathaniel out to roam, he dutifully gathered cones from the sequoia trees, but then he wouldn’t budge, insisting on staying to watch a volleyball game that was going on in the middle of the parks. This “volleyball game” consisted of a badminton net and a cluster of East Asian students who had clearly never played the game before. From the girls’ sudden dodges whenever the ball came near, I wondered if they’d ever played a ball game before. But, more importantly, they were having a lot of fun.
What surprised me was that they seemed very interested in Nathaniel. Boys and girls waved hellos and turned to watch him as he climbed up on a bench to watch their game. One of the boys even brought him a volleyball. Cheers erupted when Nathaniel took off with the ball, kicking it like a soccer ball, away from the boy. I was a bit worried that someone would get nailed by a volleyball because of Nathaniel’s distractions, but we were in luck and all went well until it was time to leave.
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I stopped three times today to offer help to map-wielding groups who looked lost. The first group consisted of four Britons, one of whom had attended Oxford 50 years ago. He seemed to take offers of help from an American at his alma mater in stride, and he admitted that a few things had changed enough to throw him off course. He and his wife had even lived for some years in upstate New York, so we were all pleased by the connections.
Another group I met later in the day consisted of a mother and daughter from, I’d guess, the eastern US. They responded eagerly to my “Can I help?” but then looked both amused and surprised when I dropped the English inflection answered the rest of their questions in normal American English.
When Sydney and I visited England four years ago we were often offered directions by people on the street, so now that I’m here I hope to repay the kindness. Plus, as a woman with a stroller and what are pretty obviously the results of a grocery run, I am frequently approached as if I’m a local. I’ve now lived in three different university towns, and I am going to guess I have more in my future, so I think I’m practicing for a lifelong gig!
Alan Schmierer