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Travels With Charlie by John Steinbeck

Travels with Charlie is the story of John Steinbeck, and his french poodle Charlie, traveling across America in a "camper" in search of "America".  Some things never change!  Well, he even says it himself, if another person took the same journey he or she would have a different view of America all together.  Having said that, he tries to find some generalities, like Americaness. From whichever country you immigrated from, as soon as you step foot inside America you are an American, this includes America's offshore islands.

O, so many people have tried to find America, when really they are just trying to name or define what is rattling around in their own heads.  It's true, you can find America in a grocery store if you wanted to, or by looking at a certain kind of tree.

Not being an American and not enjoying cavity searches, I have not tried finding America.  It wouldn't make as much sense.  However, I guess you could say I tried finding Canada, by driving across it, but all I found were rickets and scurvy, (it was a long drive, and I had to make many stops, and I ran fresh out of limes.)

Trying to find Canada sounds silly.  It's easy to find, tucked away down there at the bottom of the map.  Similarly you don't often hear of Germans or Russians in search of their mother or fatherlands.  The Russians be like, "It is here!  Here is Russia!"  And he points at the grass and starts chomping away at the ol grass on the ground.

Why can't Americans find America?  YOU'RE SITTING ON IT DUMMIES!  HAHAA!

Well, I liked this book a lot.  It was written and published in 1962, which is right after they started letting black children go to school with white children in the Southern states.  You would have thought the Race Problem would have ended by now, but with the most recent uprisings in the black communities, reading Travels With Charlie could have been about last year.

And now with Trump on the rise who knows what's coming next.  Canada was happy to accept all those draft dodgers.  Our doors are always open, especially if you like full cavity searches ;)

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